Stress is often understood in the current context as the most frequent and, at the same, time, dangerous psychophysiological state of a modern person. This state of severe psychological stress, as a rule, is associated with an excessive number of necessary tasks and a heightened sense of high responsibility. The problem of stress is especially widespread in modern countries of the first and second worlds, where the very specifics of lifestyle can exert tremendous pressure. It is required to discover and describe those causal relationships that determine the presence of stress in a person. An attempt was made to identify the combination of stress factors that make the normal life of an ordinary person not only difficult but even unbearable. It is demonstrated that there is a close connection between modern work requirements and conditions, the stress experienced in family life and immediate harm to the psychological health of a person.
Primarily, this essay focuses on the factors that cause stress and at the same time represent a kind of combination between a person’s work and family activities. The so-called conflict between work and family is the overlap of one layer of activity on another. Taking care of one’s relatives implies financial assistance and interaction, the presence of a family budget, that is, work is a guarantee of the family’s security. However, today it happens to be extremely difficult to combine active labor activity with real care for the family. It is required to describe those factors of family life inherent exclusively in the modern situation in the world and society, which conflict with an adequately built regular activity.
One of the most problematic issues for a modern person at the moment is perhaps time management, the ability to organize a schedule in such a way as to conveniently distribute all his activities. Increasing productivity, performance of work, in this aspect, seems to be one of the main goals, since it is a condition for a reliable social position with a stable financial income (Rabenu et al. 1143). Consequently, a clear distribution of time, despite the possible difficult implications that it may have for a person, has become something like a condition of modern existence.
At the same time, it is difficult to say that such a life on a constant clear schedule contributes to the psychological health of a person. The need to fit into the formal framework, to subject one’s household chores and leisure to a clear time limit, seems to further complicate a person’s life. Moreover, one could say that the need to organize your free time, the search for a blank space in the schedule for rest, can negatively affect the very principle of getting pleasure from leisure. Thus, in contemporary socio-economic conditions, it becomes increasingly difficult for a person who cares about those they love to find time exclusively for themselves.
Young families who are just getting used to everyday life and organizing their independent life find it especially difficult due to the need to take care of children. In modern culture, the upbringing of children is at that historical stage when, according to public opinion, children should be given as much time as possible. Despite the seeming truth of this thesis, in the context of additional living conditions such as pressure at work, this massively widespread perception can occur to be its hard-hitting side. In the context of constant pressure at work, the need to spend more time with children can be expressed in increased tension between family members, conflict, and mutual misunderstanding.
Speaking about other family problems that a modern person is forced to pay attention to, it is necessary to stipulate the need to take care of elderly relatives. Due to the increased life expectancy and increased workload on a person, at the moment, young families need not only to raise their own children but also to take care of their own parents and grandparents. In the context of the controversial reputation that nursing homes and hospices have throughout history, as well as the moral pressures of this option, most families continue to constantly care for the older generations. Despite the unconditional ethical benefactor of such a decision, it should be noted that it hardly fits into the already busy life of a modern person.
At the same time, in this particular context, it should be said that taking care of elderly relatives, due to historically established cultural ideas, more often falls on a woman than on a man. Despite the gradual elimination of clear gender roles from modern culture, in this case, women are historically oppressed. It is no coincidence that the generation forced to raise its family and care for the families of relatives is usually called the “sandwich generation” (Hämäläinen & Tanskanen, p. 337). This is a special historically formed type, a stratum of society, subject to permanent pressure from both the previous and the next generation. Considering that in modern economic and cultural conditions a woman must also work and be the second earner in the family, the conditions of such a life turn out to be extremely stressful.
Speaking about the context as close as possible to modernity, one would also need to highlight the problem of stressful stress on a person’s family and work life in the context of a pandemic situation. In many countries, the 2020 lockdown has changed the way people think about economic reality (Spinelli et al. 639). Many people have lost their jobs or opportunities to engage in independent business activities. The economic system around the world has undergone a tremendous burden and, in the process of adapting the world to new realities, this has led to the need for retraining for many workers.
Those who previously had reliable jobs lost the opportunity to receive a stable income, which negatively affects the family budget and forces them to look for any other way to get money. Thus, the problem of unemployment and economic pressure during the pandemic only exacerbated the already enormous pressure on working family members. In particular, this tragic situation affected people of low income or low social status, for example, families forced to live in ghettos or slums (Spinelli et al. 640). However, socio-economic changes during the pandemic affected almost everyone, and for families, the lockdown situation also presented a great burden.
In particular, a condition contributing to the emergence of severe forms of stress during a pandemic is the need for constant coexistence. In the context of apartments and slums, this situation seems not only stressful, but also epidemiologically dangerous. Considering it in the context of permanent pressure on modern man, it also seems extremely disturbing. The pressure to pay constant attention to children who are also experiencing mixed emotions during a period of high global turbulence certainly puts pressure (Hämäläinen & Tanskanen 337). This constant responsiveness must also be taken in combination with the possible need to go to work remotely, right from home.
Thus, a person is either forced to work from home, or his work is unrealizable and, therefore, not paid. The availability of every person online in modern realities also seems to be extremely psychologically harmful. The notification systems installed in every modern mobile device actually make it so that a person is in constant access mode, without the ability to ignore updates and work requirements. The need for constant, round-the-clock reconciliation of family life and work leads to the impossibility of separating and balancing these branches of life (Rabenu et al. 1143). Such difficulties can be characterized as approaches to a critical psychological state, which has unpredictable consequences and results.
Thus, it can be concluded that modern working conditions, requiring constant availability and willingness to perform work, are superimposed on similar social requirements to constantly take care of the family and children. This load for certain strata and members of society may be superior to human capabilities, which, against the background of the need to act, is not noticed by a working person. A large amount of pressure, aggravated also by an unstable socio-economic situation, can imperceptibly deform the human psyche, causing enormous damage to it. This is an acute social problem since the most vulnerable of the able-bodied segments of the population are exposed to stress due to the combination of family and work. The conflict between work and family is a kind of mediation between stress at work and family crisis, exacerbating the negative aspects of both parts of a healthy and productive life.
Works Cited
Hämäläinen, H., & Tanskanen, A. O. (2021). “‘Sandwich generation’: generational transfers towards adult children and elderly parents”. Journal of Family Studies, vol. 21, no. 3, pp. 336-355.
Rabenu, E., et al. (2017). “The relationship between work-family conflict, stress, and work attitudes.”International Journal of Manpower, vol. 38, no. 8, pp. 1143-1156.
Spinelli, M. et al. (2020). “Parenting stress during the COVID-19 outbreak: Socioeconomic and environmental risk factors and implications for children emotion regulation.”Family Process, vol. 60 no. 2, pp. 639-653.