Task 3. Professor Cary Cooper is a well-known authority on stress management. Read what he says about stress and answer these questions.

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 678.

1. What are the two major causes of stress at work?

2. What are the examples of stress which Professor mentions.

3. Who can cope with stress better – men or women? Why?

I think the major causes of stress today are firstly, increasing job insecurity, many people these days feel they could lose their jobs. They feel they may not have a job next month or next year. Secondly, working long hours is becoming common across the whole of Europe. There are problems with how much time people are spending at work compared to the time they spend at home – what is called the work-life balance.

- For people to manage stress successfully, they first have to find out the main reason for it. For example, are they stressed because the company they work for has a habit of working long hours? Or is it a boss who gives them orders all the time, a boss who checks their work and doesn't give them freedom or independence to organize their own work? Or is it that the company is not flexible in its working arrangements? Each of these problems needs a different solution.

- I think women are more flexible, and are able to change the way they behave and do things when they're in new situations. They also seem to cope with pressures better than men. Why is it so? Women have the ability to express emotion, to seek social help – to go to people and talk about their problems. And in general women don't pretend that problems don't exist.