Essi Systems has been a leader in stress research since 1985. With the release of Essi Systems' StressMap, we have collected and studied data from around the world. Here are a few of our findings:

Women appear under greater stress than men, having more work and family pressures, as well as more work and personal changes.

Workers with high work pressures and poor time management skills are twice as likely to miss work as those with high work pressures and good time management skills.

Employees with low emotional distress are twice as likely to have no work absences due to illness.

Employees absent for one week or more, for illness reasons, exhibited less work satisfaction, more personal changes, and greater personal pressures.

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From Essi Systems' 1999 Transforming Workplace Stress Into Optimal Performance:

1. COPING SKILLS INSULATE AGAINST BURNOUT
Employees who have strong self-management skills cope better with work pressures. These skills have the highest correlation to low symptomology of all factors measured, including Self-Care, Work Satisfaction and Personal Pressures. In fact, for those who report high Work Pressures, a high Adaptability score was twice as effective in reducing emotional symptoms of stress than a high Self-Care score. In other words, the capacity to adapt to new circumstances reduces emotional distress to a much greater degree than does taking physical care of oneself.

2. A SENSE OF PERSONAL POWER PROVIDES THE GREATEST BUFFER AGAINST DISTRESS
"Personal Power" is the one factor that shows the greatest difference between those who suffer the highest symptoms of stress and those who score in the "Optimal" range. Employees who feel they exercise some control over situations and events are much less likely to have symptoms of distress than those who lack a sense of personal power.

3. HEALTH CARE COSTS ARE CONNECTED TO WORKER STRESS
An individual’s self report of health is a better predictor of morbidity and mortality than are medical reports. Those who perceive themselves to be physically healthy show the fewest symptoms of stress. They also cope more effectively with their environment and feel they have some control over it. Those who report themselves to be in "Excellent" health have a more positive view of Work Pressures and score higher on Adaptability, Direct Action, Time Management and Situation Mastery than those who report "Fair or "Poor" health.

4. TYPE OF WORK AND LEVEL IN THE ORGANIZATION CREATE DIFFERENT STRESS ISSUES
The assumption that managers suffer the greatest stress is not born out by the data. In fact, there is greater distress, and therefore greater risk, at lower levels in the organization, including lower-level managers. This is an issue of control – the more control a person has over his/her time, workload, pace and access to information, the less distress they’re likely to experience. Conversely, employees with a number of supervisors over them and less control over their work environment tend to get sick more often (especially back pains and headaches), be absent more, and exhibit more symptoms of emotional distress such as depression and insomnia. Learn more.

5. MEN AND WOMEN EXPERIENCE AND COPE WITH STRESS DIFFERENTLY
Although women have traditionally reported being more distressed than their male counterparts, it has been assumed that the sources of distress were the same for both genders. The data conclusively show this to be false. In fact, distress due to home pressures results in greater absenteeism for men than women who report the same home pressures. Distress due to work pressures results in higher absenteeism for women than men.

Other differences show that men feel strained by inadequate use of their skills and abilities and lack of control of their jobs. Women reported strain because they don’t have the resources needed to do their jobs well, have to work in a bleak or uncomfortable environment, and have too much or too little contact with people.

Finally, men report less sensitivity than women to subtle signs of distress in their bodies, preferring to ignore them and push through the body’s warnings. Women are likely to do something to resolve those same symptoms.

6, YOUNGER WORKERS EXPERIENCE MORE DISTRESS THAN OLDER WORKERS
Though we may assume that young people are more carefree and capable of dealing with distress than older people, this doesn’t seem to be true. Most of the younger respondents experience more personal changes and pressures in their non-work lives. They are not as concerned with Self Care, have lower Positive Outlook scores and have a greater tendency to overeat, drink too much or use drugs to cope with or escape from stress. Older employees take better care of themselves and are more sociable, optimistic and less likely to indulge in negative behavior patterns. Learn how to measure your stress with Essi Systems' Award-Winning StressMap^®.