"How To Defeat Worry"

"I want to get married. I want to have a family . . . but I'm scared to death that I'll marry the wrong person."

Greg was a bright, verbal, successful & attractive 37 year-old-man who described himself as a "prisoner of my worries" & fears of making the "ultimate commitment" & getting married.

He'd been a Christian for most of his life & seemed to have a good knowledge of the Bible.

Greg didn't enter into manhood with this emotional paralysis. Both his mom & dad had gone thru several marriages & divorces" & so I was concerned about my ability to maintain a relationship." Greg had become a Christian in his mid 20's & this had increased his appreciation of the value, importance & seriousness of the marriage vows.

Early on, Greg experienced the normal healthy concerns about marriage. But over time, building on the foundation of his parents' marital failures & seeing the failures of some of his friends' marriages, he found himself moving from concern to worry. He started asking himself, "What if?"

• "What if I marry the wrong person?"

• "What if I wake up one morning & find out that I don't really love her, or worse, that she doesn't really love me?"

• "What I get married & we can't have kids?"

• "What if we have kids & I turn out to be a lousy father like my dad was?"

That list of "what ifs?" may sound silly, even ridiculous to you, but they were very real to Greg. Greg isn't that different from many of us. Most of us like to think of ourselves as concerned, compassionate & caring individuals.

Webster defines concern as a "marked interest or regard usually arising thru a personal tie or relationship." So far so good.

Concern is a constructive & healthy emotional activity that consists of 3 phases.

• Concern begins with the awareness of a present or potential need or a problem. When you care about something or someone & you sense the possibility of a threat or problem, it's a healthy human response to be concerned.

• In phase 2 we move from the awareness of a threat or problem to a search for & consideration of possible solutions. What are the resources available? What can be done? What needs to be done? How can I help?

• In the final phase of concern, we try to take some kind of action. In fact that is one of the distinguishing characteristics of concern. We've identified a concern, we've looked at the possible options & now it's time to do something. Concern leads to action.

While healthy concern is good, it's easy for it to turn into unhealthy worry. For most of us, the problem of worry usually begins in the second phase of being concerned.

While we're considering the available solutions to a legitimate concern, we also tend to become more aware of all of the terrible, awful, horrible things that might take place. If we aren't careful, we can start to feel as if all of those terrible awful & horrible things have already happened.

It's easy to lose our problem-solving focus & let our perspective become distorted. When that happens, like Greg, we get stuck in the rut of asking "What if . . ." Our minds operate like the tires of a car stuck in the mud: we let them spin quickly, hoping to free our concerns with some solution only to find we're deeper in the muck.

Our concerns slide into worry & if we allow the activity of worry to dominate our lives long enough, we can end up with a full-blown anxiety disorder.

We look at worry in different ways. Among the words men & women have used to describe worry or anxiety in their lives are tense, apprehensive, shaky, terrified, wound-up, nervous & scared.

Some say they're up-tight or on edge. A few describe their worry as feeling panicky. What do you think of when you hear the words "anxiety" or "worry"? What are some other terms you use to describe this emotional state?

Worry & anxiety are terms that for the most part can be used interchangeably What exactly is anxiety? It's a universal emotion that, like all other emotions, can be experienced in healthy & unhealthy kinds of ways.

"In its mild form, it's experienced at one time or another by everyone; in more extreme form it leads to fears of impending death or catastrophe.

The feeling of anxiety may occur w/out physical symptoms, or it may be accompanied by numerous overwhelming symptoms affecting many organ systems; it may cause no change in behavior or it may lead to immobilization or chronic avoidance.

The unpleasantness & universality of the symptoms are evidenced by the fact that over 80 million prescriptions for anti-anxiety drugs are dispensed in the US each year.

Despite its importance, the nature of anxiety remains elusive. C. Barr Taylor & Bruce Arnow, The Nature & Treatment of Anxiety Disorders, NY: The Free Press, 1988, p. 1)

now that we are past concern & into worry & anxiety - read the remaining portion of this article by clicking here!  when you get there, scroll down for the remainder of the article

Girls 8 to 17 are as concerned about emotional violence, teasing, gossip & name-calling, as they are about physical violence, from street & date violence to car accidents & war, a new Girl Scout Research Institute survey has found.

"A lot of people worry more about what other people will say to them rather than what they'll do to them," confirmed Christina Baldy, 17, of Monroeville, a senior at Gateway High School.

The institute surveyed 2,279 girls, only some of them Girl Scout members, in April, using a self-administered online questionnaire.

Among the survey's findings:

• When asked what worried them the most, the No. 1 concern, noted by 32 % of all girls responding, was being teased or made fun of.

• Younger girls were more worried about emotional danger than older teens, especially being called names or being the target of gossip.

• As they grow older, girls' concern for their physical safety, particularly in the areas of street violence, being forced into unwanted sexual activity or being involved in a car accident, grew.

• While girls of all ages were aware of terrorism & the war in Iraq, only a fraction saw them as big threats to their safety.

"Girls actually stated that they recognized that the war is of concern, that it's definitely something real & serious," said Sharon Woods Hussey, a senior vice president of the national Girl Scouts organization. "[But] it's not something that concerns them in their immediate environment."

A much more immediate concern is being teased, judged, made fun of or even having to speak or participate in class.

Julie Richards, 10, of Penn Hills, said she sometimes about being ridiculed when she's at school or in classroom situations.

How does it make her feel when other girls aren't so nice?

"Kind of sad," said Julie, who is a Girl Scout.

Baldy said she also is sometimes concerned about gossip or what others are saying about her.

"But at the same time I don't let it get to me at all," she said.

Baldy believes some of the anxiety girls have about being judged is tied to the cultural emphasis on how women & girls look.

"A lot of it has to do with magazines & what people see on television," Baldy said.

Erika Dauber, spokesperson for The Ophelia Project, an Erie-based organization that develops programs to reduce peer aggression & bullying, said much of the emotional insecurity has to do with wanting to fit in.

"[Everyone] wants to be affiliated with the popular girl," Dauber said.

When a girl is rejected & not allowed to be part of the popular crowd or is teased about how she looks, it can be emotionally devastating.

"It's cross-cultural because every girl & basically every kid needs to feel safe," Dauber said.

It doesn't surprise her that the middle & junior high girls were more concerned about these emotional assaults than were older girls.

"This is when you have girls that are beginning to go thru puberty, all these changes that happen in adolescence. They're feeling insecure anyway & they have an intense longing to affiliate," Dauber said.

The survey suggests that rural girls are more concerned about emotional safety, while suburban & urban girls worry more about physical safety.

• 28% of the girls surveyed were concerned about being attacked with a weapon
• 26% were worried about being kidnapped 
• 24% feared being forced to do something sexual

Lauren Richards, a 7th-grader from Penn Hills & Julie's sister, said her environment is pretty safe, but she sometimes worries about physical safety.

"When we walk home, we walk alone," said Lauren, 12. She fears that she & her sister might encounter someone along their route who they don't know.

Julie's greatest fear is "getting stolen," she said, "because there's a lot of stuff going on in the world."

Feeling unsafe, physically, emotionally or both, had a negative impact on other aspects of the lives of the girls surveyed.

"They were more likely to get involved in unsafe activities, drug & alcohol use," Hussey said. "They were quick to undertake coping mechanisms that would isolate them," such as using the Internet or watching TV.

Girls also do less well in school when they don't feel emotionally or physically safe, she said.

The study showed that parents or some other trusted adults were very important to the girls' emotional well-being. Girls who identified themselves as feeling generally safe also could name at least 3 adults that they could trust & turn to.

Of those surveyed, however, 25% said they didn't have 3 adults they had a safe & secure relationship with.

One of the situations in which girls expressed concerns about being teased or bullied was in classroom settings. Hussey said that was certainly something the Girl Scouts could address thru programming.

"We're very much interested in research such as this going from research to action to new activities that will address physical & emotional safety," Hussey said.

(Monica Haynes can be reached at mhaynes@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1660.)

Child Safety

Lend emotional support to your child

"Windows of Opportunity"

How do you have serious talks with kids when they're not interested?

If kids really want to be lectured about a sensitive topic, they probably don't need the lecture. Naturally, the topics they don't want to hear about - drugs & alcohol, sex, relationships, body image, behavior problems & health-related issues; are the ones you desperately want to discuss with them.

Complaints, concerns & passive invitations for conversation

Why do kids utter comments in your presence such as:

·        "I'm so fat."

·        "No one likes me."

·        "I'm always in trouble."

·        "Only an idiot would get pregnant."

·        "I think it sucks when my friend gets drunk & ruins the party.

? Is it a coincidence that they make such provocative statements when they know you’re listening? Kids also ask questions that reflect their concerns:

·        "Why do my friends always leave me?"

·        "Aren't you afraid of the war/ terrorism?"

·        "Why do people get divorced?"

·        "How do I know if I'm making the right choices?"

Most likely, they want your ear & your support & are giving you a window of opportunity to respond to their concern.

This window closes in a heartbeat. If a kid doesn’t get an immediate response to her prompts, she assumes that her approach wasn’t appropriate or minimizes the importance of her concern & gives up.

Before you jump thru the window...
What are your goals for discussing issues with your child?

Are you trying?

·       To gather intelligence on him so you can anticipate his next move & hold him more accountable?

·       Create a forum to present her with facts about drugs, sex, etc. & give commands about how to behave?

·        Initiate a supportive discussion in which your child develops the ability to make his own informed decisions?

Looking for windows of opportunity to develop dialogue with children becomes a wasted effort if parents are striving for the first 2 goals above.

For instance, if a parent uses investigation to increase control over her child, then exploring the concerns that her child raises (to gather information & use it against her) will come across as betrayal, leading that child to perceive future conversations as interrogations or traps.

If fact-finding & control are the goals, using other methods of investigation will still create conflict, but will be less damaging than exploring concerns to build a case against a child.

Likewise, parents wanting to educate or direct a child on important issues can accomplish this thru initiation of formal discussions. Typically, if parents attempt this during a window of opportunity, they’re apt to discourage the child from offering these windows in the future.   

Using a child-initiated, wait & respond process to develop dialogue assumes that a child will ultimately make her own choices about major issues. Thus, parents strive to build trust, communicate information in a collaborative manner, convey support for their kid's well-being & gain influence on these decisions, rather than to control them.

After you jump through the window...

What techniques do you use to maximize dialogue? Since influencing a child to express herself is a greater challenge to parents than speaking their own minds, most will focus on prompting their child to express thoughts & feelings, making a concerted effort to listen & avoid talking.

i.e., a parent might ask leading questions such as:

·        What do you think about that?

·        How does that make you feel?

·        What do you think happens to people who do that?"  

Questioning kids to elicit feelings is fine, as long as they don’t perceive the questions as interrogation to serve a hidden agenda. In addition, parents who avoid questions starting with "Why" elicit more dialogue.

Kids become irritated w/these responses, but can’t resist the feeling of superiority that comes w/explaining something to their confused parents & thus speak their mind. An even simpler technique is repeating the child's statement w/a neutral emotional tone; then, leaving the conversation hanging for the child to continue:

Kid: "I'm so fat!"

Parent: "You're so fat. Huh.**"

Kid: "Only idiots get pregnant!"

Parent: "Only idiots get pregnant. Really.**"

Kid: "Why am I always in trouble?"

Parent: "You're always in trouble.**"

**Parent remains quiet & waits for a response.

Concerned about poor job performance

Supervisor's Handbook
By Business Psychology Associates
http://www.bpahealth.com/

Preface

Over 10% of our nation's work force is suffering from severe personal problems, which affect work performance at an estimated cost of 10 billion dollars per year.

Your Employee Assistance Program is structured to provide assistance to any employee with personal problems that affect or may affect job performance. Assistance is also offered to family members since they are factors in an employee's job performance.

You, the supervisor, are essential in the identification & rehabilitation of a troubled employee.

The Role of the Supervisor

As a supervisor, you’re responsible for seeing that the work gets done - that the product goes out & the services offered are provided. Success or failure is based on the effectiveness of supervisors. One of the supervisor's major concerns is an employee's job performance & on-the-job behavior.

The supervisor is in the best position to note behavioral changes that significantly affect an employee's job performance & should take the initiative when there’s a work deficiency.

At the same time, it’s recognized that the supervisor's role is a difficult one. There are demands, expectations & pressures from above & below. Supervisors aren’t expected to be experts at knowing how to identify & treat people with problems.

Experience in business & industry has proven over the last 20 years that Employee Assistance programs, when effectively utilized by supervisors, can have significant impact on improved productivity while decreasing absenteeism, turnover & many of the other issues that often make the supervisor's role a difficult one.

Your Employee Assistance Program serves as one more tool to help you as a supervisor. Your Employee Assistance Program, staffed by professional counselors & advisors, provides fast, free, confidential counseling services to employees & family members.

These services can relate to any of a number of personal problems that could trouble an employee. An employee can either seek those services on his or her own or be referred by you, the supervisor.

When a supervisor notes an individual's job performance deteriorating, there should be no hesitation in making a referral according to policy. Poor job performance shouldn’t be allowed to reach a critical stage before assistance is recommended.

The supervisor must humanely, promptly & firmly initiate the process of treatment & recovery. There are clear warning signals that you can watch for in your employees.

Warning Signals

If any employee or family member of that employee is suffering from serious personal problems, you can bet that sooner or later it’ll have an impact on their ability to function at work.

Some employees can hide problems for a long time, but they’ll still impact their behavior, their attitude & their morale.

Managers & supervisors should be particularly concerned with job performance & specifically with any repeating pattern of job performance deterioration.

Work-Related Relationships in the Community

• Inappropriate behavior at job-related social functions

• Complaints from the community concerning the employee

Symptoms Not Directly Related to Work

• Sloppy appearance

• Inappropriate clothing

• Withdrawn

• Mood swings, high & low

• Suspiciousness

• Extreme sensitivity

• Anxiety & nervousness

• Frequent irritability with others

• Preoccupation with illness or death

• Physically assaultive or threatening

• Unduly talkative

• Making incoherent or irrelevant statements on the job

• Frequent arguments

• Frequent outbursts of crying

• Excessive personal telephone time

Note: All employees, including you, exhibit some of these job performance problems occasionally. It’s a pattern of job performance problems over a period of time that you should note & document for subsequent confrontation with the troubled employee.

What Can You Do?

Supervisory Steps
The nice thing about the supervisor's role in an Employee Assistance program is that he/she is only asked to pay attention to the one issue that’s already the primary responsibility of the supervisor, the employee's performance.

Your Employee Assistance Program has a 24-hour hot line number that can be called for immediate consultation or to arrange an appointment away from the work-site for the employee or family member.

Your employer believes that the employees are the most valuable part of the organization. Management recognizes that many personal problems can be improved & even resolved if identified soon enough. Early identification & referral results in retaining valued employees while improving the productivity of the organization.

The following will help you decide what steps to take in helping your employee return to productivity & help your organization continue working toward identified work goals.

Your Employee Assistance Program

A Summary
Your Employee Assistance Program can be used as a management tool for improving an employee's deteriorating job performance when it’s caused by personal problems. The following services are included in your Employee Assistance Program.

• Consultation - You may confer in person or by telephone when you’re in the process of deciding whether personal problems may be causing job performance deterioration. Call your area EAP office or call the main EAP office - Business Psychology Associates at 1-800-726-0003. This number is answered 24 hours a day.
• Counseling - Short term counseling is provided by professional counselors to aid an employee in recognizing & resolving problems interfering w/job performance.
• Referral - When short term counseling isn’t sufficient for solution of the problem, the Counselor will provide referral services to aid the employee in obtaining appropriate services.
• Follow-up - The Counselor will provide a coordination of services to aid the employee & the supervisors in a follow-up process. The employee will be supported in efforts toward rehabilitation & when appropriate, the supervisor will be kept informed concerning the employee's progress.
• Confidentiality - This program is completely confidential!
• Eligibility - Family members can also be seen.

Problem Areas

• Family Problems
• Relationship Problems
• Depression
• Anxiety
• Health Problems
• Work Related Stress
• Financial Worries
• Alcohol & Drug Abuse
• Legal Problems

Quality Problems
Getting it right first time every time is more difficult in changing & novel situations. Because of the time it takes to put separate quality checks in place to cope w/ new developments approaches adopted may lag behind changing requirements.

The variety sought by customers has to be reconciled w/a reputation for quality. People worry about the risk of compromising quality when tailoring responses. Existing quality procedures may cover standard products & a restricted set of reactions, but not departures from them when ‘bespoking solutions’.

In many situations the cost of applying a bureaucratic approach to quality to a growing number of variations from the norm would be prohibitive. Maintaining ‘traditional’ & ‘stand alone’ quality alongside greater workloads, diversity & pressure to perform becomes ever more problematic.

The proliferation of products, new channels to market, globalization of business & continuing innovation create new risks that require additional responses. The sheer quantity of quality procedures & standards makes it increasingly difficult to keep people up to date w/quality documentation, especially those working in the field & also across a supply chain.

Too often quality stops at the boundary of an organization & doesn’t embrace business partners. It now needs to encompass the activities of people who may directly influence our reputation, service quality & the experience of customers, yet over whom a company has little direct control.

Anticipation & prevention is preferable to reaction to quality problems. Quality is often a self-contained activity rather than integrated into business processes. Quality considerations should be addressed as & when risks arise.

Experience

Tradocs (www.tradocs.net) is a tool to help people send international trade documents across the Internet instantly, securely, easily & at low cost. Users know when a document arrives & when their trade partners receive & open the documents they send.

Existing documents can be re-used to create new ones quickly & with fewer errors.

Benefits

Equipping workgroups with support tools offers various advantages over traditional approaches. Building in quality makes it possible to give more discretion to people while maintaining control. Organizations benefit from a reduced cost of errors & faster adaptation to change.

According to Tony Duggon, the Managing Director of Tradocs: “By getting the right tools for the job in place quality can be much improved. Tradocs significantly increases invoice-purchase order matching thru semi-automating the production of invoices direct from the original purchase order w/out any re-keying. This improves accuracy as well as saving a lot of time”.

When multimedia facilities are used to show & demonstrate specialists may not need to be present. This reduces the cost of delivering new programs & launching new products.

Multimedia capabilities usually enhance the portrayal of corporate credentials & capabilities, while animations can improve comprehension. ICB uses its ‘Navigator’ sales support tool to build product knowledge & communicate w/ customers.

According to Marketing Director Janetta Evans "We now rely on the simple but effective tool as the knowledge base for the whole company. Navigator will become an intrinsic part of how ICB works.”

Use of a tool ensures a consistent approach across all personnel & locations. People can more quickly locate the information they need. By encouraging or forcing particular paths & preventing others, tools can have direct impact on behaviour. The provision of easy routes thru material & incorporation of checks into regular activities improves the image of quality.

As situations & circumstances change tools can be rapidly & comprehensively updated in ways that identify new or altered material. A ‘what’s new’ section in B & Q’s vendors’ manual highlights amendments since the previous release of the tool.

ICB’s Janetta Evans is a satisfied user: “The message, the confidence, the ability to prove what we sell as a deliverable have all been greatly enhanced- this must lead to a great return on investment." For Stuart Wilson the impact of THE MARKiT toolkit “has been impressive.

Lessons

Ease of use is critical to success. Stuart Wilson describes Friends Provident’s requirement: “The toolkit had to be simple to use & capable of processing a large quantity of material in an interactive & user-friendly fashion, whilst also being flexible enough to cater for additional information to be added as required quickly & easily.” Don Fuller, Managing Director of Cotoco, agrees:

“To encourage take up & change behaviour support tools should provide the easiest way to accomplish desired outcomes.”

Cotoco’s experience highlights the importance of integrating quality into support tools & the day-to-day work process, rather than having it as a separate & stand-alone add-on. By automating tasks & building quality gates in, errors can be designed out of business processes & consequently significant savings made.

Don Fuller believes: “Learning thru doing is particularly effective. Building knowledge into tools makes it very easy for people to get complex tasks right first time & every time.” Using them can also be a differentiator. A systematic & customer focused approach enhances a supplier’s reputation & helps to build relationships.

Avoid using tools that de-skill. According to Don Fuller, “Support tools should improve understanding each time they’re used & help people to learn rapidly.” Cisco’s IP Telephony Sales Tool up-skills its users. As they work thru prospect qualification & other aids windows open up to explain why certain courses of action are advocated.

Improved comprehension can be crucial. According to Don Fuller: “If someone is being asked to do something new that they don’t understand the quality of the resulting output is bound to be variable unless you support the individuals concerned to both learn & do the work that needs to be done.”

Eyretel’s tool helped both its own people & customers to better understand its technology & products. Users felt so confident in the presence of customers that the ratio of support to sales staff was cut by 1/3. Win rates increased, orders were brought forward & more professional presentations delivered. Eyretel’s Founder Roger Keenan described the tool as “by far the most professional piece of marketing Eyretel has ever produced.”

Ed Thompson, Research Director of Gartner suggests: “the key to success is to improve a process before automating it”. Don Fuller agrees: “Improvements based upon the insights of top performers are more likely to get outstanding results than automating current practices.”

Next Steps

Quality teams considering whether or not to provide people with job-support tools should seek a demonstration of actual applications to make them aware of what's possible. Workshops can then be held to examine the support requirements of particular workgroups, before scoping of the format & content of an electronic quality toolkit & drawing up an integrated quality management support plan.

Once support requirements have been agreed rapid progress can usually be made. Even complex tools can be developed & tested with in a few weeks of a go ahead. The introduction of a new tool needs to be carefully planned if people are to obtain the maximum of benefit from it. Putting a CD-Rom disc into the post isn’t enough.

Poor management causing under-performance of staff

Personnel Today, 14 Oct 03

Ineffective managers are fuelling high staff turnover & causing widespread employee under-performance, a new survey claims.

The survey by HR consultancy Cubiks shows that 60% of the 450 survey respondents said they’d been forced to leave a company or a role specifically because of the actions of their manager. More than 70% said that poor quality line management had caused them to under-perform on a professional level.

The findings back up Personnel Today's survey UK Line Managers: Are they good enough?, in which it was revealed that 73% of the 675 HR professionals surveyed were concerned about the capabilities of their line managers.

Barry Spence, chief executive of Cubiks, said poor managers can wreak havoc in organizations, causing problems that extend way beyond their own personal sphere of influence.

"This survey demonstrates that when people are asked to assume managerial responsibilities without receiving the appropriate development or training, they can have a major negative impact on individual motivation levels, team morale & ultimately, the bottom line," he said.

When asked to identify the factors that separated the most effective line managers from others, respondents listed honesty, loyalty & the ability to both give & receive personal feedback consistently as the most positive managerial traits.

Nelson Mandela was identified as the best managerial role model from public life for his ability to inspire people to work towards a common goal. Other leading figures named by respondents included Richard Branson, Bill Clinton, Jack Welch, Ghandi & Winston Churchill.

By Quentin Reade

www.cubiks.com

Job Stress can Affect Health & Home Life

Vijai P. Sharma, Ph.D

Educated & well-informed Americans are highly concerned about job stress these days. Many studies have shown that job stress is associated with back pain, coronary heart disease, immune disorders & personal & family problems.

Our understanding of work stress has greatly expanded in the last few years. For example, earlier, if you had asked experts who is likely to suffer from work-stress, they would’ve said, "A person with Type A behavior." If you had asked the same experts to define work stress, they would’ve done so in terms of excessive workload & tough supervisory demands.

Now we know that not only Type A persons need to worry about work stress; but also the non-Type As. Work stress is far more complex than just workload & a "mean boss."

Now, job stress is largely defined as a measure of 3 factors:

1.      The degree of physical & psychological demands

2.     How much control a worker feels he or she has over these demands; (control is measured by the degree to which a worker participates in the decision making regarding the matters that directly involve him or her)

3.      The level of job security & social support.

High job demands & lack of control over such demands, coupled with job insecurity & poor social support bring increased risk of physical & mental disorders & family breakdown. Many physical illnesses usually don't have only physical causes.

Stress plays a large role in them. Scores of studies have shown that a combination of high demands & lack of control, security & support, contributes to absenteeism, mental strain, heart diseases, immune function disorders, muscles & bone problems including repetitive strain injuries.

According to a national survey of 1000 workers, 4 out of 10 American workers are "very" or "extremely" concerned about stress from work demands. In the same survey, 6 out of 10 workers are very or extremely concerned with not getting enough sleep.

About half of the workers have to work overtime with little or no prior notice.

Studies have shown that women experience higher job stress & are more likely than men to bring job stress home. This observation, on the surface, sounds incredulous. After all, in the traditional role, men are the breadwinners & have the responsibility for the economic survival of the family.

It’s also true that you don't ever seem to hear of a woman committing suicide because she was fired from her job. Likewise, you don't hear of a frustrated & enraged woman "going postal," that is, coming after her supervisors & co-workers with an oozie gun.

However, all such arguments don't prove that men experience job stress more than women do. It only shows that that men are more aggressive in expressing their rage & frustration.

In recent years, female executives, entrepreneurs & small-business women have attracted a lot of interest & attention. Many books are written about this group of women, but who is watching the store for millions of women working in mills, offices, factories & other lack luster jobs?

Not much is scientifically known or discussed about them, many of whom are single mothers, harassed by their ex mates & often fighting for child support.

A Canadian study led by Karen Messig at the University of Quebec, Montreal, researched the problems of women who work as factory laborers, janitors, telephone operators, teachers or technicians. Messig found that women's jobs involve small problems that add up to big job stress. She concluded that their job stress is greater than that associated with men's jobs.

By & large, women's jobs are more tightly structured in such matters as taking time off or changing work schedules. So, when are they going to get the time for such matters as doctors' appointments, daycare visits, interviews with baby sitters & school conferences?

They also get less respect at work & have less control over their job demands. Some even face harassment.

Women generally have more responsibilities at home than men do. On average, a working mother does "double shift," one at work & the other at home. So, when women are at their jobs, they’re thinking more about problems at home & when they’re at home, they’re worrying about their jobs.

Friends & relatives don't judge a woman on her job performance but on her performance as a wife & as a mother. She may be a model worker for her company, first to come to work & the last one to leave & putting in more than a day's work every day.

There may be no kudos for this exemplary performance. But if her child was found with head-lice, who is going to be blamed for it? You guessed it!

Working women, on average, work 21 hours more per week than men do. No, wonder that women with full time jobs & children at home have higher levels of cortisol, a stress hormone, known to increase the risk for heart disease.