ur manager or, seemingly unattainable deadlines. Problems at home may compound these issues when they are presented in an occupational situation. Stress may be caused by many different situations in the various environments that we are a part of each day. Some social stress factors may be measured by Life Crisis Units (LCU) (Holmes and Rahe, 1967). This scale is used to aid in evaluation of, but not predict, an individuals susceptibility to stress based on naturally occurring stressors taking place in their life. The following stressors are ranked based on this scale: Death 100 Life Crisis Units Separations or divorce 50 Life Crisis Units Arguments with important people 25 LCU. Life Crisis Units Sound familiar? A lot of the above circumstances are as unavoidable death and taxes (Unless you are Leona Helmsly and even then the IRS will catch up to you). At work, some stress factors may be; the possibility or reality of losing your job, poor supervision, lack of goals, rotating shifts and the inability to keep up with technology. Let's look at the technology and the rate of change in computers in just the last 10 years. To a ten year old this may be no big deal, the stressor may not exist because the child is a product of a computer driven society. But to a fifty year old person, the rate of technology advancement over this period of time may be to much change compared to their experience. In some cases, failure to understand such technology in the work environment, may mean the loss of possible advancement opportunities. One stressor may cause another to create a domino effect of stressors. According to W. Hendrix (1987) these stressors may build up and cause job as well as social stress. Are some individuals more prone to stress than others?: By use of the Person/Environment Fit Model (Kahn 1964-1979-1992) it can be hypothesized that certain individuals may be at a higher risk for work related stress then others. For example, a person wh...
