Management

Sound the Alarm!

Finding Your Path to Self-contentment

“BEEP. . . BEEP. . . BEEP!” This is an all too common sound of an alarm clock going off each morning. Have you ever wondered what “alarm” means and why we choose to wake up this way each morning? Alarm is defined as startled, fearful, or expecting attack. This is a terrible way to wake up each day— startled, fearful, or expecting an attack. Unfortunately, for many people, the fearful, startled state does not subside throughout the day. People are constantly living in a state of anxiety moving from one alarm to the next throughout the day whether it be pressures from home, deadlines at work, or personal goals that are unreached. All of these things can develop into stress even though we think it is just normal day-to-day life. When the stress never goes away and just mounts each day it can become chronic stress which can lead to life threatening conditions.

Never-ending Cycle

Stress can be found in any person or profession, not just in the corporate world. Stress can lead to adverse health conditions such as stroke, heart-attack, high blood pressure, eating disorders and/or anxiety. Stress can grow through being overworked in a job or trying to balance competing responsibilities such as home and work. The majority of people do not finish everything on their daily to-do list each workday. Every day people feel “pinched” and “overwhelmed” because the to-dos do not get done and carry over to the next day when new items arise. People also experience work guilt if they work longer hours to get things done, thereby disrupting their work-life harmony. It is a never-ending cycle and many employers do not help combat employees’ stress because to do so might be too costly if the company has to hire additional employees to cover the workload or provide other benefits such as more paid time-off, counseling, or relaxation times. However, companies may forgo the benefits of spending the

extra money to help combat employee stress, particularly in relation to creating higher employee morale and ethics.

Rationalization

So, how does stress relate to ethics? It has been shown that people become less ethical when they are under stress. Stress eats away at a person’s ethical compass. People start to look for the easy route to accomplish a task and not the most ethical route. For example, if an employee forgets their lunch, or money for lunch, instead of trying to go home to retrieve it or not eating that day, the person might steal someone else’s food from the work refrigerator

or borrow money from the company’s petty cash. Most people forget to put the money back into petty cash and subsequently realize how easy it was to take the money. Then, the next time they need cash for something (it may not even be lunch) they might take more money and escalate to greater amounts each time. Even if the It has been shown that employee eventually puts the money back, people become less it is theft of company funds. ethical when they are Many employees will try to rationalize the behavior by stating under stress... People that the company owes them for the start to look for the easy longer hours they are working. An employer only owes an emroute to accomplish a ployee the paycheck they agreed upon task and not the most and any other terms and conditions stated in an employment ethical route. agreement, nothing else. An employee is not entitled to what they believe they should receive if they work longer hours. There are other rationalizations that employees use to justify unethical behavior, particularly unethical behavior brought on by stress. For instance, many employees say they “fudge” numbers to meet quotas or obtain the end of the year bonus. In addition, employees claim they are just following company orders or acting the same as everyone else in the company. All of these rationalizations are just excuses to negate any guilt of acting unethically. Stress can also lead to low employee morale and lack of trust among employees. For instance, people under stress

tend to be more defensive, argumentative, and overly critical. Most people under stress believe they are working more than anyone else and despise other people who they believe (rationally or irrationally) are not working as hard. This attitude breeds distrust, unrest, and unhappy employees. People no longer work as a team, but are only out for themselves. This usually leads to less productivity and a poor business culture.

Every person has to decide what type of lifestyle fits them best and then find a job that will help support that lifestyle.

Cari Sheehan is Of Counsel with Barnes & Thornburg, where she sits on the firm’s Professional Responsibility Committee. She focuses her practice on legal ethics, professional accountability and loss prevention. HCBM

This article should not be construed as legal advice or legal opinion on any specific facts or circumstances. The contents are intended for general informational purposes only, and you are urged to consult your own lawyer on any specific legal questions you may have concerning your situation.

The Solution

So how do people take control of their lives and combat stress? The first step— and it’s a big one—is to recognize there is a different way of life with less stress with some modifications and changes. However, this step takes a lot of self-examination in asking oneself what are the most important things in life and what brings self-contentment. Is it money or something else? In our fast-paced culture of climbing the corporate ladder to financial success, people tend to race past what should matter most in life: family, friends, and our own personal happiness and health. So, ask yourself, do you want to work endlessly hard and give-up personal contentment for money? Or, do you want a life with less stress and more personal contentment? The answers to these questions are different for everyone. Every person has to decide what type of lifestyle fits them best and then find a job that will help support that lifestyle. However, there will always be trade-offs and sacrifices, whether you pick the big corporate job with lots of money and stress or the lowkey job where you stay at home with more time for family and friends. During the heart of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021, many people asked themselves these exact questions and realized that working in a job that leads to stress was not worth the financial compensation. Many people transitioned to a lifestyle in which self-care and personal contentment became the top priority, such as influencers, at-home business, remote work, or similar jobs. If you are contemplating a lifestyle change I would challenge you to take a few days and not set an alarm clock. Focus on your own self-contentment and what makes you the happiest and build your life around it. I promise you it will not be easy. It will be very scary. But, in the end, it may be the only thing that saves you from a life of chronic stress.