Stress, Time pressure and Work load

          Stress - any force, that when applied to a system, causes some significant modification of its form, where forces can be physical, psychological or due to social pressures.
          

Causes of stress :  

1. Physical :such as heat, cold, noise, vibration, presence of something damaging to health (e.g. carbon monoxide);
2. psychological factor: such as emotional upset (e.g. due to bereavements, domestic problems, etc.), worries about real or imagined problems (e.g. due to financial problems, ill health, etc.);
3. Reactive :such as events occurring in everyday life (e.g. working under time pressure, encountering unexpected situations, etc.).

Acute stress - intense but of short   duration.

Cronic stress - frequent recurrence or of long duration.

 Possible signs of stress

1. Physiological symptoms - such as sweating, dryness of the mouth, etc.;  
2. Health effects - such as nausea, headaches, sleep problems, diarrhoea, ulcers, etc.; 
3. Behavioural symptoms - such as restlessness, shaking, nervous laughter, taking longer over tasks, changes to appetite, excessive drinking, etc.;  
4. Cognitive effects - such as poor concentration, indecision, forgetfulness, etc.; 
5.  Subjective effects - such as anxiety, irritability, depression, moodiness, aggression, 

Domestic Stress -   can play on one’s mind during the working day, distracting from the working task.

 Inability to concentrate fully may impact on the engineer’s task performance and ability to pay due attention to safety.
 marriage, birth of a child, a son or daughter leaving home, bereavement of a close family
member or friend, marital problems, or divorce.

Work Related Stress

1. because of the task or job they are undertaking at that moment, or 
2. because of the general organisational environment. 

Stress can be felt when carrying out certain tasks that are particularly challenging or difficult. 

Stress can be increased by lack of guidance in this situation, or time pressures to complete the task or job.

Stress can be reduced by careful management, good training, etc. 

Stressors - Social and managerial aspects of work can be stressful.
Stressors. Impact on the individual of peer pressure, organisational culture and management. 

Sources of stress-  shift patterns, lack of control over own workload, company reorganisation and job uncertainty.

Stress Management 

1. Defence strategies involve alleviation of the symptoms (taking medication, alcohol, etc.)  or reducing the anxiety (e.g. denying to yourself that there is a problem (denial),                or   blaming someone else.
2. Coping is the process whereby the individual either adjusts to the perceived demands of the situation or changes the situation itself.

Good stress management techniques

1. Relaxation techniques; 
2. Careful regulation of sleep and diet;
3. A regime of regular physical exercise;
4. Counselling - ranging from talking to a supportive friend or colleague to seeking professional advice.

Workload - The degree of stimulation exerted on an individual caused by a task is generally referred to as workload, and can be separated into physical workload and mental workload.
Arousal refers to readiness of a person for performing work. To achieve an optimum level of task performance, it is necessary to have a certain level of stimulation or arousal. 

This level of stimulation or arousal varies from person to person.

 There are people who are overloaded by having to do more than one task at a time; on the other hand there are people who appear to thrive on stress, being happy to take on more and more work or challenges humans have limited mental capacity to deal with information. 

We are also limited physically, in terms of visual acuity, strength, dexterity and so on. 

Workload reflects the degree to which the demands of the work we have to do eats into our mental and physical capacities. 

Workload is subjective (i.e. experienced differently by different people) and is affected by:
                • The nature of the task,
                • The circumstances under which the task is performed, 
                • The person and his state, 
Overload - Overload occurs at very high levels of workload. 

Performance deteriorates when arousal becomes too high and  forced to shed tasks and focus on key information. 

Error rates may also increase. Overload can occur for a wide range of reasons.
Underload - Underload occurs at low levels of workload (when the engineer becomes under aroused).

 It can be just as problematic to an engineer as overload, as it too causes a deterioration in performance and an increase in errors, such as missed information.
Underload can result from a task an engineer finds boring, very easy, or indeed a lack of tasks.

 The nature of the aircraft maintenance industry means that available work fluctuates, depending on time of day, maintenance schedules,etc
Workload Management