Stress and working students

Studies show that 80% of students work at least part-time. (Fottrell, 2013). Working and going to school at same time has been growing at a rapid rate. Some students work just to earn spending money, while other work to pay off their debts. Other students work as a way to explore career options. Regardless of the reason for working, students trying to meet the multiple demands as a role of a student and employee often create a high level of stress and anxiety.  This reduces the chance that students will complete their degree.

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Many students who work and attend school have little time for things in their life. Especially those who work more than thirty hours a week. They try to make time between school and work to be around friends and family. Other times they spend studying for a major exam or completing an important paper. Some do not managed their time wisely which can lead to a very stressful life style for them. Stress also come from many sources, like the environments they are in, their thoughts, and social life.

                Some parents support the subject that students should work while they are in school. Believing that it could help them develop a more responsible lifestyle. Working and attending school at the same time will help them learn how to manage their time and money wisely. Working can also help students develop social skills depending on their job. Some jobs can help them be more active, doing inventory counts or moving supplies. Students can also work on campus, patrolling the area, or working in one of the fast food restaurants. This allow them to spend most of their time on campus.

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College students are feeling overwhelmed and stressed, especially working freshman, trying to cope to the new college life of theirs. Some people consider stress as a small issue, and do not realize that it can lead to much more dangerous results.  Being stressed out for a prolonged period of time can have increased health risks. Stress has many side-effects such as memory problems, eating problems, and moodiness. Some effects can be deadly; this includes heart disease, cancer, lung ailments, and even suicide.  Students need to learn how to keep up their class assignments, maintain communication with their family, learn specific stress relaxation techniques, and gain perspective on their problems and discuss them.

College life can be very stressful, especially for those that are also have a job. Working is a great way for students to build social skills, self-directed learning skills and engagement with challenging work. It is a good way to consume their free time, but they need to manage it wisely for their school assignments. They also need to keep a keen eye out for their stress level. They also need to make some time to relax their mind and body, get a good amount of sleep, and keep away from drugs and alcohol. Keeping track of all of these will help students maintain a healthy academic and working lifestyle.

               We all know looking for a job is hard, especially during the time when the economy is bad.  I was one of the lucky few that found a job during that time. I found an opening position at a company my aunt worked at. I went there to apply for the position, giving them my information, resume, and anything else I could think of. They told me to come in next week Friday. The day came, and I was nervous. I didn’t know what I should say or how I should dress. This was my first job interview, and I was scared out of my mind. I arrived about twenty minutes early. I entered and sat down, thinking about how I should introduce myself. After a few minutes of waiting, this tall, slightly big man walked in and called my name. I introduced myself as well as I could, stuttering a little. He took me around the area, showing me what type of work his company does. Nearing the end, he showed me the area I was going to work in, introducing me to the other employees. Afterwards, he described to me what I would do and how the work would be. After the tour was done, he took me back to the office and said, “If you want to work here, just let me know before Monday.” I went home thinking about this job position. I called in the next day to accept the position.

               My boss, Vincent, came out to the work area and asked for everyone to gather around. He told us about a big project. He chose me as one of the members who would lead this huge project. The other guy who would also be leading this project with me was Phillip, who had worked there a few months before I joined. Vincent described to us what this project was and what we had to do. He told us that we would have to ship out 18,000 units to USPS within a three month time span. We had to ship out roughly 2400 units every two weeks. Vincent told us that our group would consist of eleven people. I sat down with Phillip reviewing about the type of work we had to do, also wondering if eleven people would be enough for this project.

Supplies

               We started on the project after waiting for two weeks for the supplies to come in. Phillip and I planned out everything in the best manner we could have thought of. We had four people opening the boxes to inspect the units. They passed the units down for software downloads, where we had two   After the encryption, we had three people testing the units for any malfunction. Once the units passed the test, Phillip made a shipping label for every unit, including a master label for every ten units. Once Phillip finished making labels, they would be passed down for packing. I took the finished products to scan their serial numbers into the database.

people doing that. Afterwards, I gather a cart full of units to get them encrypted.

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               Everything kicked off to a smooth start; we were always on time, finishing at least two hundred to three hundred units a day. Soon, we started to encounter problems. Our software downloading stations were malfunctioning. They either would not recognize the units, or the wires that connected to the units broke. Eventually, the encryption room was being backed up; they could not keep up with our demands. That slowed down our production plan massively. At this point, Phillip and I were stressing out; we didn’t have enough work for the testers and packers. Phillip decided that he would move those workers to the other stations to help out, but that didn’t work out so well. That just increased our output in that area by so much that we had so many units waiting to be encrypted.  At this point, it was so bad Vincent gave half of my group and the encryption people overtime. We finally managed to catch up, but issues were lurking in the shadows waiting to strike again.

               As the project reached the ending point, everyone was exhausted from working on this brutal job, rushing every day to push out the quantity we needed just so we could impress the customer. On the last batch on units, I encountered a major problem. As I was scanning each unit into the database, I realized we were missing a box. Being stressed out as I was, I panicked, running around, searching in my vicinity for it. I panicked even more after I was unable to find it, but then Phillip pointed out a box on top of a rack, asking me if that was it. I let out a relieved smile and nodded my head.  My thought process was so cloudy, I forgot where I placed it. At least that gave my co-workers a good laugh, watching me running around in a panic.

               We finally finished this exhausting project. Phillip and I were relieved that we managed to pull this off. It was our first time leading a project this big. As a matter of fact, it was our first time leading a project period. Vincent was so pleased with our work that he took us out to eat. After enjoying a wonderful lunch with everyone, Phillip and I went back to our area to clean it up. Once the both of us agreed that everything was neat and back in its place, we reported it to Vincent. At this point, we were about to head back to our original positions, but Vincent offered us a new job. He wanted us to be lead technicians for the newer model hitting the market that year.  We smiled and accepted our new positions.

 “Stress can affect all aspects of your life, including you emotions, behaviors, thinking ability, and physical health. No part of the body is immune.” (WebMD) It’s like a disease, anyone can be effect by it. It is a factor in everyone life and they need to have a better understanding of it. Getting a better comprehension of the person physical or emotional stress and it effects can help prevent or reduce further stress increase. Even if a person know how to avoid or lessen their stress level, they can’t permanently remove it from their life. 

Physical stress target the body performances. Some of these effects vary depending on the person. A few symptoms include fatigue, headaches, insomnia, upset stomach, and nervousness. Some physical stress goes hand and hand. From personal experience, anxiety can also have a chain reaction. When this happen to someone they will probably have an upset stomach pretty soon afterward.  Dizziness is another physical stress symptoms.  This is due to feeling lightheaded or faint from feeling weak or unsteady. One major symptom is insomnia. This make it difficult for the person to fall asleep or staying asleep. Not having enough sleep can result in deadly consequence effect on a person health. Fatigue follow right behind insomnia. Those who feel fatigue, generally feel the lack of energy, or tiredness.

Emotional stress focus obviously on a person emotion. As before, these effects vary depending on the person as well. Some symptoms are depression, frustration, easily agitated, and moody. Depression is a major side effect on those who have strong feelings. People with depression tend to feel sad or empty inside, like the feeling of hopelessness. Some can feel as if they are worthless in some case. Thinking in such a negative manner, can cause future issues in their life. Being easily agitated is another common side effect of being stress out. Small things such as jokes from friend or people around them can trigger a person agitation. Causing them to either lash out on someone or leave the area in an angry manner. Others feel moody, these are people that have unpredictable mood swings.  One minute they can feel happy and joyful to sad and depress.

Stress will always be a component in a person life. Physical or emotional, it can have a major impact either way. Being able to prevent further increase in stress level can make a person life better and more enjoyable. Each individual need to grasp a better understanding of their own stress level to improve their life. People who ignore their stress level can encounter dangerous health issues. It can effect a person asthma, obesity, diabetes and premature death. (WebMD) If you truly care about your personal health, be sure to monitor your stress level on a regular basis to help improve your life.

 “According to the American Psychological Association, chronic stress is linked to the six leading cause of death: heart disease, cancer, lung ailments, accidents, cirrhosis of the liver and suicide.” (Miami Herald)  Stress can affect your body, mind and overall health. Stress is something we all deal with on a daily basis and everyone handle it differently. Some can control stress better than other, while some have a harder time dealing with it.

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A common effect of stress is headaches. Headaches are cause by tension in our head. This cause the person to slowdown or even stop doing their job. There are many good and effective ways to relieve headaches. One way to relieve headaches is to rest in a quiet place. Another prefer method is laying down and placing a cold cloth on the forehead. Some people like to take the simplest path and that is taking over the counter drugs (Aspirin) and going to sleep. Another favorite method to fight headaches is to message the head.

Another effect of stress is sleeplessness. The lack of sleep is one of the worst side effect of stress someone can receive. Not having enough sleep can cause people to have impaired memory. Those who are sleepless also have trouble concentrating. One other side effect is decrease in sociability. People with little sleep tend to communicate less with people in their lives. The simplest way to relieve this kind of stress is having a good night sleep, or taking small nap session.



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Depression is another major side effect from stress. Losing your job is stressful and it can lead to depression. The stress of taking care of a sick family member can lead to depression. People who neglect their body by smoking or drinking alcohol more than usual can lead to depression.   "Stress, or being stressed out, leads to behaviors and patterns that in turn can lead to a chronic stress burden and increase the risk of major depression." (WebMD) People that are in certain or bad situation that know they can’t change the outcome of it, need to learn how to accept it. They can also try to avoid unnecessary stress from negative or unhealthy behaviors. Doing so can help reduce stress and depression.

We all know there will always be stress in our life, but we also know there are ways to avoid it. People need to know that they can prevent stressful situation or even stop it. Stress come to us is many situation, it can be family, work, school, people or even the environment. These people need to develop a way or activity they can do to help reduce their stress factor. Knowing how to handle stress will help reduce it or eliminate it.