What is Job Demands

“Job pressure” is the number one cause of stress according to The American Psychological Association. However, there has been no systematic transformation in business practice to intentionally establish stress-reducing psychosocial work environments and to stop the “churn and burn” of employment. Such stress is compounded and becomes a sort of combat stress for employees in high-risk, high-emotion professions. Healing Comes First is an analysis of the critical impact of work stress on the individual employee and organizational productivity. Using the Jobs Demand-Resource Model as a foundational framework, this chapter provides leaders a pathway forward from identifying symptoms of a “stressed out” work environment to enacting mitigating strategies to reduce work stress consequences. Furthermore, the chapter recommends the incorporation of trauma-sensitive practices and the creation of a positive psychosocial work environment to help mitigate the effects of work stress on productivity.