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Stress Management Program for the Workplace

Stacey Story

Purdue University Global

HW410 Models of Health & Wellness

Professor Henningsen

July 19, 2022

Stress Management Program for the Workplace

Stress management is needed in every area of life. The balancing act of being a parent, a

full-time employee out in the workforce, and being an active citizen is tricky at time and can

cause stress to be elevated. This is particularly challenging for single parents who also work full

time, and specifically single moms. Single moms in the workforce experience burnout levels at

higher rates than home with two parents out in the workforce. According to (Harvard Business

Review, 2021) companies and organizations need to take a more active role in stress

management for their employees, especially single parents. The burnout that single parents

experience is the result of stresses that occur at work and home that can only be alleviated with

holistic approaches to stress management. Therefore, understanding stressors, how to cope with

stress, and ways to manage stress through Stress Management Programs is important. It is

especially important of single moms to learn how to deal with and manage stress because their

daily life loads are extremely heavy with a lot of responsible on the shoulders of just them.

Single working moms need ways to be able to release stress to effectively continue their

demanding job as a single working mom. Stress is defined as events or thoughts that cause

tension, either physical or emotional that evoke negative feelings. While stress is a normal part of

life, there are two different types of stress, acute and chronic, that play different roles within the

normal stress of life. Acute stresses are those that are short lived and are caused by one single

event and the stress ends when the situation is resolved. Acute stress can be beneficial as it helps

you respond appropriately to an event. Chronic stress is stress that remains even when the

situation has been resolved. Chronic stress is unhealthy and can lead to other physical conditions.

(U.S. National Library of Medicine, n.d.).

Single working moms have tons of stressors, but we are going to discuss some of the

more common ones and how they affect a single mom in her place of employment. Legal issues

are a big stressor for single moms, whether they are single because they divorced, are widowed,

or just not with the child’s father, they all cause some sort of legal issue to be dealt with such as

custody battles, or financial issues because of divorcing or becoming a widow. Another stressor

is worrying about living arrangements and maneuvering children from home to home and

accommodating schedules for two separate homes versus one home. Filing for child support is

another stressor that single moms face, if they cannot get the other parent to willfully help with

the child financially then court ordered child support is needed and that causes extreme stress for

most people. It is a long process and doesn’t always have an appropriate outcome. Issues with

co-parenting is yet another stressor. Single moms have the stress of ensuring that co-parenting is

not toxic and that is does not cause negative effects to the children involved. This is a hard

relationship to reach and maintain and is usually full of stressors. Figuring out the roles that new

relationships with each parent will be is a fifth common stressor among single moms. It is

stressful to know that new parental figure has come into your child’s life and voicing boundaries

and expectations for this new relationship is stressful. The sixth common stress is financial

stability. Single moms have the burden of the cost of everything on their shoulders, especially if

child support is taking a long time to get set up or if no child support is in order. That leads us to

a seventh common stressor of stability in general. Single moms experience stress with providing

stability for their children. It becomes solely their job to meet every need the child has,

financially and emotionally. Social stigma is yet another stress that can be difficult to maneuver.

We live in such a judgmental society and the negative stigma that goes along with being a single

mom is not unfelt by single moms. Finally, we reach the tenth common stressor among single
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moms which is guilt. This can be for many reasons but often is a result of feeling like they failed

their child/children but not having a successful relationship with their father. (Meleen, n.d.).

These common stressors all affect a single mom in the workplace with an added burden

of worrying about getting time off for necessary legal appointment/ court appearances, as well

financial burdens for having to miss additional workdays, as well as feelings of guilt for letting

your work team down for missing extra workdays. There is also the added pressure of missing

additional work because of appointments or different needs the children have that require

missing work such as doctors and dentists’ appointment. Single moms often do not have a great

support system and without the other parent taking equal responsibility for these things it all falls

on mom. The emotional stress single moms go through affects their work productivity as well.

The stressors that single moms face make it difficult for them to balance and meet the demands

of work, parenting, social, and economical responsibilities. This imbalance causes chronic stress

for single working moms which can cause a variety of other health conditions to arise. Some

such conditions that develop due to chronic stress are “Anxiety, depression, digestive problems,

headaches, muscle tension and pain, heart disease, heart attack, high blood pressure and stroke,

sleep problems, weight gain, memory and concentration impairment.” (Mayo Clinic, 2021).

There are plenty of ways that single moms can cope with and manage their stress levels

that arise from both acute and chronic stress. One great way to do this is through a stress

management technique referred to as the STOP method (S=Stop, T=Take a breath, O=Observe,

P=Proceed). This method is beneficial in moments of high stress. When the STOP method is

used, one can get a moment to get a clear mind and have an appropriate response to the stress

instead of reacting irrational, which can cause more stress. (Stahl & Goldstein, 2019). Yoga is

another great tool for managing stress. There are several different types of yoga, and they all
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have great health benefits such as managing chronic pain, reducing stress, anxiety, and

depression, and promotes balance of the mind, body, and spirit. Mindful meditation is another

excellent stress management tool, and just like yoga there are so many different types of mindful

meditation practices such as sitting meditation, body scan, and self-love/acceptance. Mindful

meditation creates a safe space for the mind to be cleared and negative energy pushed out with

positive thoughts or positive affirmations. Mindful mediation is beneficial to increasing mental

health and gaining spiritual connection, as well as balancing the mind and body as one unit.

(Seaward, 2018).

Stress management programs are sometimes frowned upon because people are not sure

about new things. Therefore, the program I want to implement is simple so that anyone can

utilize the program without needing to go through a lot of education or training. This I believe

will help overcome the unsureness our employees may feel about the program. The stress

management program for the workplace that I would like to implement is to add mindful

meditation rooms where employees can practice mindful meditation in a variety of practices as

well as several different types of yoga practices. The only real obstacles to securing a successful

program is getting the employees engaged to begin with and finding the space withing our

building to create these mindful meditation rooms. These obstacles are not huge, and they can

easily be overcome with very little effort. There is a possibility that we could offer an additional

15-to-30-minute break when initiating the program to get employees to utilize the

meditation/yoga rooms and get familiar with the different types of meditation and yoga. The

extra breaks would not be permanent, this would just be an incentive to get the program going

and utilized by staff. We could take a poll of people willing to try the program before we start

this program to measure the stress levels that those employees currently experience and then
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administer the same poll to the same staff that to see how the stress levels change after utilizing

the program for a determined amount of time. This will help us gauge the success of the program

to decide if it will continue to be offered.

More and more cardiologists are prescribing mindful meditation practices to their patients

because of the heart benefits associated with them. There is more and more evidence being

produced that stress levels affect mental health and mental health triggers negative physical

health conditions that can affect every major organ of the body, including the heart. Cardiologists

are using this evidence to educate their patients on the importance of stress management

techniques such as mindful meditation and yoga. Concerning just the heart, stress can cause

several complications such as heart palpitations, shortness of breath, weakened heart muscles,

coronary heart disease, and even heart failure. To keep the physical heart healthy, cardiologist

and research evidence suggests that the “emotional” heart must be healthy which can be done by

properly managing stress with practices that involve mindfulness in many forms. (Fisher, 2022).

Stress and stress management techniques are both important factors to living a healthy

and balanced life. Figuring out ways to cope and manage stress is important for anyone but

particularly important for working single moms as they do generally have higher stress levels

and burnout rates than their co-workers. Women, especially single working moms, have a lot of

stress in their lives, cooking, cleaning, caring for children, finances, working and so many more

responsibilities fall on their shoulders with very little support. Implementing a program that these

women can utilize at work without judgement creates a safe space for them to begin healing from

current stresses and to learn how to manage future stress effectively.

References

Fisher, J. (2022, January 18). Has your doctor ever prescribed mindfulness meditation? Mindful.

Retrieved July 18, 2022, from https://www.mindful.org/has-your-doctor-ever-prescribed-

mindfulness-meditation/

Harvard Business Review. (2021, August 27). Combating burnout as a single working parent.

Retrieved July 18, 2022, from https://hbr.org/2021/06/combating-burnout-as-a-single-

working-parent

Mayo Clinic. (2021, July 8). Chronic stress puts your health at risk. Mayo Foundation for

Medical Education and Research. Retrieved July 18, 2022, from

https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/stress-management/in-depth/stress/art-

20046037

Meleen, M. (n.d.). Issues commonly faced by single mothers. Love To Know. Retrieved July 18,

2022, from https://family.lovetoknow.com/about-family-values/common-single-mom-

problems

Seaward, B. L. (2020). Managing Stress: Skills for Self-Care, Personal Resiliency and Work-Life

Balance in a Rapidly Changing World (10th Edition). Jones & Bartlett

Learning. https://purdueuniversityglobal.vitalsource.com/books/9781284229875

Retrieved July 17, 2022 from,

https://purdueuniversityglobal.vitalsource.com/reader/books/9781284229875/epubcfi/

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Stahl, B., & Goldstein, E. (2019). A Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Workbook: Vol. Second

edition. New Harbinger Publications. Retrieved July 16, 2022, from https://web-s-

ebscohost-com.libauth.purdueglobal.edu/ehost/ebookviewer/ebook/

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U.S. National Library of Medicine. (n.d.). Stress and your health: Medlineplus medical

encyclopedia. MedlinePlus. Retrieved July 18, 2022, from

https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/003211.htm