Whether you’re old, young, woman or man; stress affects everyone who enters the workplace.

Christopher P. Parker, associate professor of industrial/organizational psychology, said the level of stress a person can handle in the workplace can be correlated to the dynamics of an arch.

At the bottom of the arch, a person can handle a lot of stress, and it will actually benefit the efficiency of that person’s work.

“If you want to get something done, give it to a busy person,” he said.

At the top of the arch, the stress becomes too much and is counterproductive, but everyone has different stress levels, and arches vary from person to person.

Another way to evaluate stress in the workplace is to sort the worker’s thought process into three main categories; strength, function and structure, Parker said.

A worker’s strong familiarity in the subject matter of their work, meaningful perception of what their job functions are and affective cognitive consistency of their internal structure will determine how well they handle their stress, he said.

The Cognitive Consistency Theory states that stress motivates behavior to reduce that stress, Parker said. Affective cognitive consistency of one’s internal structure balances a worker’s emotions with their reasoning.

Much of a worker’s stress level seems to be related to the familiarity of their work environment.

Lisa Finkelstein, associate professor of industrial/organizational psychology, said people prefer to work with their peers.

There is a familiarity factor that workers attribute to other workers who are the same age, wear the same clothes, talk the same way or have the same sense of humor, she said.

In the situation of an older employee working under a younger manager, their familiarity with each other is sparse and both need to establish their relationship as a learning experience.

In the case of stressful situations, some worker’s behavior come to fight or flight.

Senior sociology major Sam Garcia works as a supervisor for the asphalt paving company, Pave Plus, Inc. in Bolingbrook.

He said when he’s stressed from trying to schedule slow or lazy workers, he lets the owner handle the problem.

Junior electrical engineering major Jonathan McMahan deals with his stress differently.

McMahan works as a shop assistant for Allison’s Hydraulics in Romeoville, and described his relationship with the mechanics as degrading and pessimistic.

He said he banters back and forth with the mechanics until he goes home and unleashes his tension on his punching bag and work-out equipment.

“After a while you learn to deal with it. Just don’t take it personally,” he said.