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Work-Related Anxieties and Work-Place Phobia: A Topical Phenomenon at the Interface of Clinical and Organizational Research and Practice

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Healthy at Work

Abstract

Work-places inherently contain various anxiety-provoking characteristics, including rivalries between colleagues, control issues with supervisors, demands for achievement, dangerous environments, and uncertainty concerning future developments. Work-related anxieties can present in various guises and include situational anxieties, social anxieties, anxiety about being inadequate or underachieving at work, health-related anxieties, or—in the worst case—complex work-place phobias. Work-related anxieties lead to problems with participation in work resulting in (long-term-) sick leave or even disability pensions. In 10 years of research on work-related anxieties, we have found that 30–60 % of individuals undergoing medical/vocational rehabilitation have work-related anxieties that often pose barriers to returning to work. Even 5 % of mentally healthy employees admit that they sometimes ask for a sick leave certificate when experiencing work-related anxieties. Future research on work-related mental health problems should not only focus on rehabilitation and treatment of work-related anxieties, but also earlier stages. The concept of work-related anxieties gives rise to ideas that can be useful for mental health-oriented job analysis, employee–work-place fit, and job design for employees with different psychological constitutions and capacities.

This chapter is a translated and modified version of a recently published paper: Muschalla B (2014) Arbeitsbezogene Ängste in Forschung und Praxis—ein aktuelles Schnittstellenphänomen. Z Arb Organ 58:206–214.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Work and Organizational Psychology, University of Potsdam, Karl-Liebknecht-Strasse 24-25, 14476, Potsdam-Golm, Germany

    Beate Muschalla

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  1. Beate Muschalla
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (BAuA), Berlin, Germany

    Markus Wiencke

  2. SOCIUM Research Center on Inequality & Social Policy, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany

    Mirella Cacace

  3. Leuphana University, Lüneburg, Germany

    Sebastian Fischer

Appendix: Differential Diagnosis of Work-Related Anxieties

Appendix: Differential Diagnosis of Work-Related Anxieties

1.1 Modified and Shortened Version with Permission from Muschalla and Linden 2013a; Muschalla 2008

1. Stimulus-related phobic anxiety and avoidance behavior at work

This category includes specific anxieties towards a defined place, a certain task, or specific situations at work. Affected persons react with tension, anxiety, or even panic when confronted with, or even thinking about, specific places, work tasks, or (non-social) situations at work. Anxiety decreases when the anxiety-provoking stimulus can be avoided. Anxiety-provoking stimuli include computer programs, scaffolds, specific work duties, working times, work-places, and work environments, such as night shift or a single duty with onerous responsibilities. These anxieties are often “learned,” characteristically developing after an initial event (e.g., anxiety after having made a serious mistake with a new computer program or having had an accident on a scaffold).

2. Social anxiety at work

Social anxieties are related to contacts with colleagues, supervisors, or third parties such as clients, students, or patients. These anxieties may reflect a constitutional social insecurity and gaze aversion or have been learned as a result of poor social competency and negative reactions from others. Social anxieties are characterized by one of two extremes: being excessively and awkwardly shy or exhibiting aggressive behavior towards others. Employees with social anxieties have difficulty participating adequately in social situations at work, maintaining their viewpoints in a working team, or exposing themselves to criticism from others, for example when required to give an oral presentation at a conference or in a team meeting. Problems may also occur in the tearoom or canteen when taking a break with colleagues.

3. Health- and body-related anxieties

This category includes all types of hypochondriac anxieties, such as excessive worrying about one’s own physical integrity. Within the context of work, this includes the belief that some aspect of the work environment may be harmful to health (e.g., the toner powder in the office printers or background noise in an open-plan office) or exacerbate an existing illness (e.g., the belief that back pain is aggravated by work or that work stress may cause another myocardial infarction). Affected persons experience symptoms such as an accelerated heart rate or mild paresthesiae in various body parts. As a consequence, they may perform required functions incorrectly and avoid specific work duties or work-places they perceive as hazardous to their health or both.

4. Anxiety about inadequacy at work

Anxieties about inadequacy include anxieties about being insufficiently qualified, easily over-challenged, not knowing enough, or not being sufficiently competent to perform required tasks and therefore being prone to making mistakes and failing. This category includes anxiety about changes, such as undertaking new tasks or learning new procedures that are necessary for incorporating structural, personnel, or technical changes in the firm. Persons with such anxieties often react tensely and nervously and may appear to be relatively helpless or seeking help.

5. Work-related general worrying

Worrying is a type of anxiety that occurs mainly “in the head.” It is characterized by relatively constant tendencies to generalized worrying about minor and everyday matters at work, anticipation of problems everywhere, and great difficulty in dealing with uncertainty. There is a constant worrisome thinking about work problems, even in free time. Individuals with severe work-related worrying see potential worries and problems that might be averted by particular actions everywhere. For example, affected individuals may worry about whether the computer has been turned off correctly, that certain tasks may not be finished correctly by colleagues, or even that they will be sacked from their jobs. People with generalized worrying are often over-conscientious about fulfilling their working duties and may even keep an eye on colleagues for whom they feel responsible. These people are usually very attentive to all official announcements from the firm. They get feedback that they should “not always think about problems” or colleagues may ask them to stop seeking information about and attempting to control other’s work. Their family and friends express concern that the worrying person is unable to get away from work, ask for a vacation, or take sick leave because of their inability to tolerate the uncertainty associated with being absent from work.

6. Work-place phobia

Work-place phobia is a specific form of work-related anxiety. According to the World Health Organization definitions of phobias (1992), an individual has a work-place phobia when approaching, being at, or simply imagining the work-place leads to acute physiological arousal that amounts to a panic reaction. As a consequence, these individuals often exhibit avoidance behavior in the form of taking sick leave (Smith 2009), which in turn operates as a negative reinforcement for the anxiety (Skinner 1969). There is often generalization of the avoidance behavior, for example avoidance of the street where the firm is located, avoidance of events at which one might meet colleagues or supervisors, or even arousal when speaking about work (Haines et al. 2002).

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Muschalla, B. (2016). Work-Related Anxieties and Work-Place Phobia: A Topical Phenomenon at the Interface of Clinical and Organizational Research and Practice. In: Wiencke, M., Cacace, M., Fischer, S. (eds) Healthy at Work . Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-32331-2_5

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