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Stress in the Workplace

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The Stress Management Program for Best Buy

INTRODUCTION The anxious feelings, sweaty palms, wondering how you will get everything done on time, wondering when you will see your family in between the long work hours, dealing with a micro-managing supervisor or unproductive co-workers that push their work on to you, or even the peer that says they enjoy deadlines! These are all depictions of what we call “stress”. While a certain amount of stress is needed to motivate individuals into action, called eustress, when an individual experiences anxiety and physical tension as demands are placed on them which exceed their abilities to cope, distress occurs (McShane & Von Glinow, 2008). Stress in the workplace is becoming a major concern for employees, employers, managers and government agencies. Workplace stress can be defined as the change in one’s physical or mental state in response to workplaces that pose an appraised challenge or threat to that employee (Colligan & Higgins, 2005). Stress research pioneer, Hans Selye, determined that people have a fairly consistent physiological response to stressful situations, called the general adaptation syndrome, providing an automatic defense system to help us cope with environmental demands (McShane & Von Glinow, 2008). More specifically, the three stages of the general adaptation syndrome: alarm (alerts the person to the situation and prepares for the resistance stage), resistance (shut down of the body’s immune system to focus on the source of stress), and exhaustion (when the source of stress persists and there is limited resistance capacity). With approximately 120,000 employees in over 800 stores across the US, Best Buy Co., Inc is North America's number-one specialty retailer of consumer electronics, personal computers, entertainment software and appliances. The key to business growth is eGO, Best

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