Stress of Workplace Reading Answers

Dec 21, 2022

Stress of Workplace Reading Answers is an article in the IELTS reading section. This IELTS reading topic has all the questions related to the passage. The article also has explained answers from each genre of questions to help candidates understand how to attempt the questions. The topic Stress of Workplace Reading Answers is an IELTS reading Academic topic. The questions from this passage are of three types: Matching information, Choose the correct option, and No more than two words. The total score of the candidate can be improved by solving several topics in the IELTS reading practice papers. The candidates must follow the instructions before answering the question for the topic Stress of Workplace Reading Answers. They can find this topic in the book: E-ENG-school IELTS Reading Test With Answers Key.

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Section 1

Read the passage to answer the following questions

Stress of Workplace Reading Answers

A How busy is too busy? For some it means having to miss the occasional long lunch; for others it means missing lunch altogether. For a few, it is not being able to take a “sickie” once a month. Then there is a group of people for whom working every evening and weekend is normal, and frantic is the tempo of their lives. For most senior executives, workloads swing between extremely busy and frenzied. The vice-president of the management consultancy AT Kearney and its head of telecommunications for the Asia-Pacific region, Neil Plumridge, says his work weeks vary from a “manageable” 45 hours to 80 hours, but average 60 hours.

B Three warning signs alert Plumridge about his workload: sleep, scheduling and family. He knows he has too much on when he gets less than six hours of sleep for three consecutive nights; when he is constantly having to reschedule appointments; “and the third one is on the family side”, says Plumridge, the father of a three-year-old daughter, and expecting a second child in October. “If I happen to miss a birthday or anniversary, I know things are out of control.” Being “too busy” is highly subjective. But for any individual, the perception of being too busy over a prolonged period can start showing up as stress: disturbed sleep, and declining mental and physical health. National workers’ compensation figures show stress causes the most lost time of any workplace injury. Employees suffering stress are off work an average of 16.6 weeks. The effects of stress are also expensive. Comcare, the Federal Government insurer, reports that in 2003-04, claims for psychological injury accounted for 7% of claims but almost 27% of claim costs. Experts say the key to dealing with stress is not to focus on relief – a game of golf or a massage – but to reassess workloads. Neil Plumridge says he makes it a priority to work out what has to change; that might mean allocating extra resources to a job, allowing more time or changing expectations. The decision may take several days. He also relies on the advice of colleagues, saying his peers coach each other with business problems. “Just a fresh pair of eyes over an issue can help,” he says.

C Executive stress is not confined to big organisations. Vanessa Stoykov has been running her own advertising and public relations business for seven years, specialising in work for financial and professional services firms. Evolution Media has grown so fast that it debuted on the BRW Fast 100 list of fastest-growing small enterprises last year – just after Stoykov had her first child. Stoykov thrives on the mental stimulation of running her own business. “Like everyone, I have the occasional day when I think my head’s going to blow off,” she says. Because of the growth phase the business is in, Stoykov has to concentrate on short-term stress relief – weekends in the mountains, the occasional “mental health” day – rather than delegating more work. She says: “We’re hiring more people, but you need to train them, teach them about the culture and the clients, so it’s actually more work rather than less.”

D Identify the causes: Jan Elsnera, Melbourne psychologist who specialises in executive coaching, says thriving on a demanding workload is typical of senior executives and other high-potential business people. She says there is no one-size-fits-all approach to stress: some people work best with high-adrenalin periods followed by quieter patches, while others thrive under sustained pressure. “We could take urine and blood hormonal measures and pass a judgment of whether someone’s physiologically stressed or not,” she says. “But that’s not going to give us an indicator of what their experience of stress is, and what the emotional and cognitive impacts of stress are going to be.”

E Eisner’s practice is informed by a movement known as positive psychology, a school of thought that argues “positive” experiences – feeling engaged, challenged, and that one is making a contribution to something meaningful – do not balance out negative ones such as stress; instead, they help people increase their resilience over time. Good stress, or positive experiences of being challenged and rewarded, is thus cumulative in the same way as bad stress. Elsner says many of the senior business people she coaches are relying more on regulating bad stress through methods such as meditation and yoga. She points to research showing that meditation can alter the biochemistry of the brain and actually help people “retrain” the way their brains and bodies react to stress. “Meditation and yoga enable you to shift the way that your brain reacts, so if you get proficient at it you’re in control.”

F The Australian vice-president of AT Kearney, Neil Plumridge, says: “Often stress is caused by our setting unrealistic expectations of ourselves. I’ll promise a client I’ll do something tomorrow, and then promise another client the same thing, when I really know it’s not going to happen. I’ve put stress on myself when I could have said to the clients: ‘Why don’t I give that to you in 48 hours?’ The client doesn’t care.” Over-committing is something people experience as an individual problem. We explain it as the result of procrastination or Parkinson’s law: that work expands to fill the time available. New research indicates that people may be hard-wired to do it.

G A study in the February issue of the Journal of Experimental Psychology shows that people always believe they will be less busy in the future than now. This is a misapprehension, according to the authors of the report, Professor Gal Zauberman, of the University of North Carolina, and Professor John Lynch, of Duke University. “On average, an individual will be just as busy two weeks or a month from now as he or she is today. But that is not how it appears to be in everyday life,” they wrote. “People often make commitments long in advance that they would never make if the same commitments required immediate action. That is, they discount future time investments relatively steeply.” Why do we perceive a greater “surplus” of time in the future than in the present? The researchers suggest that people underestimate completion times for tasks stretching into the future, and that they are bad at imagining future competition for their time.

Section 2

Solution and Explanation

Questions 1-5

Use the information in the passage to match the people (listed A-D) with opinions or deeds below.
Write the appropriate letters A-D in boxes 14-18 on your answer sheet.
NB You may use any letter more than once.

Jan Elsner
Vanessa Stoykov
Gal Zauberman
Neil Plumridge

Work stress usually happens at the high level of a business.

Answer: A
Supporting Sentence: Jan Elsner, a Melbourne psychologist who specializes in executive coaching, says thriving on a demanding workload is typical of senior executives and other high-potential business people.
Keyword: Workload
Keyword Location: Section D, 2nd line
Explanation: We see that Jan Elsner who is a Melbourne psychologist says that a demanding workload happens to seniors and high potential business people. This means that the stress of work happens more at a higher position or a higher-ranked position. It can be working seniors or high-potential people who own a business. Hence, A is the correct answer.

More people’s ideas would be beneficial for stress relief.

Answer: D
Supporting Sentence: He also relies on the advice of colleagues, saying his peers coach each other with business problems. “Just a fresh pair of eyes over an issue can help,” he says.
Keyword: Stress, fresh pair of eyes
Keyword Location: Section B, 12th line
Explanation: As per the passage, Neil Plumbridge has prioritized working out on the things which need modification. According to him, colleagues act as the best business coach for them, and also, a second thought gives you a better analysis of the situation. Fresh pair of eyes on an issue can solve it. Hence, the more ideas are involved, the better.

Temporary holidays sometimes don't mean less work.

Answer: B
Supporting Sentence: Stoykov has to concentrate on short-term stress relief – weekends in the mountains, the occasional “mental health” day – rather than delegating more work.
Keywords: Stress relief, weekends
Keyword Location: Section C, 7th line
Explanation: As per the passage, the author mentions that people need to concentrate on short-term stress relief. It might mean small holidays, and occasional leaves. However, this does not mean less work. This has been said by Stoykov.

Stress leads to a wrong direction when trying to satisfy customers.

Answer: D
Supporting Sentence: I’ll promise a client I’ll do something tomorrow, and then promise another client the same thing when I really know it’s not going to happen.
Keywords: expectations, clients
Keyword Location: Section F, 2nd line
Explanation: The passage states that stress involves unrealistic expectations. Unrealistic commitments will lend you to over-stressed situations and loss of credibility. Neil Plumridge calls this situation procrastination or Parkinson's Law which states, “work expands to fill the time available”. This simply means that even if the task can be accomplished in a short time frame, we keep stretching it till the deadline. Hence, D is the correct answer.

It is not correct that stress in the future will be eased more than now.

Answer: C
Supporting Sentence: This is a misapprehension, according to the authors of the report, Professor Gal Zauberman, of the University of North Carolina, and Professor John Lynch, of Duke University.
Keywords: future
Keyword Location: Section G, 2nd line
Explanation: The statement before the supporting sentence says that a study in the February issue of the Journal of Experimental Psychology shows that people always believe they will be less busy in the future. However, this is incorrect. This was confirmed by Professor Gal Zauberman.

Question 6-8
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
Write your answers in boxes 19-21 on your answer sheet.

Which of the following workplace stress is NOT mentioned according to Plumridge in the following options

Not enough time spend on family
Unable to concentrate on work
Inadequate time of sleep
Alteration of appointment

Answer: B
Supporting Sentence: Three warning signs alert Plumridge about his workload: sleep, scheduling and family.
Keywords: Sleep, family
Keyword Location: Section B, 1st line
Explanation: The passage states that according to Plumridge, his work stress is defined around three areas, i.e., sleep, family, and schedule. When Plumridge is under work stress, he is not able to have a minimum six hours of sleep. The author clearly mentions sleep, schedule and family. Therefore, the correct option is B (Unable to concentrate on work) as it has not been mentioned is the three work stress of Plumridge.

Which of the following solution is NOT mentioned in helping reduce the work pressure according to Plumridge

Allocate more personnel
Increase more time
Lower expectation
Do sports and massage

Answer: D
Supporting Sentence: Neil Plumridge says he makes it a priority to work out what has to change;that might mean allocating extra resources to a job, allowing more time or changing expectations.
Keywords: time, expectations,
Keyword Location: Section B, 14th line
Explanation: We all have a general notion that to combat stress you must engage in some stress-releasing activities. These might be any physical or mental activity like golf or a massage to reduce your stress. Neil Plumridge has prioritized analyzing his work and making necessary changes by allocating some new resources to the job, limiting the daily targets to cope with his working capacities. This will ensure that they are expecting low and increasing the deadline of the assigned task to complete it without stress. Therefore, the correct option is D (Do sports and massage)

What is the point of view of Jan Elsner towards work stress

Medical test can only reveal part of the data needed to cope with stress
Index somebody samples willD be abnormal in a stressful experience
Emotional and cognitive affection is superior to physical one
One well designed solution can release all stress

Answer: A
Supporting Sentence: We could take urine and blood hormonal measures and pass a judgment of whether someone’s physiologically stressed or not,” she says. “But that’s not going to give us an indicator of what their
experience of stress is, and what the emotional and cognitive impacts of stress are going to be.”
Keyword: physiologically stressed
Keyword Location: Section D, 6th line
Explanation: According to Jan Elsner, we could take urine and blood hormonal to measure and pass a judgment of whether someone’s physiologically stressed or not, However, this does not give us an indicator of what level their stress is at. This means that medical history can reveal part of the data.

Question 9-14
Complete the following summary of the paragraphs of Reading Passage, using NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the Reading Passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 9-14 on your answer sheet.

Statistics from National worker’s compensation indicate stress plays the most important role in 9_________ which cause the time losses. Staff take about 10 ___________ for absence from work caused by stress. Not just time is our main concern but great expenses generated consequently. An official insurer wrote sometime that about 11 ________ of all claims were mental issues whereas nearly 27% costs in all claims, Sports Such as 12 _________ as well as 13__________ could be a treatment to release stress; However, specialists recommended another practical way out, analyse 14________ once again.

Question 9.

Answer: workplace injury
Supporting Sentence: National workers’ compensation figures show stress causes the most lost time of any workplace injury.
Keyword: workplace injury
Keyword Location: Section B, 8th line
Explanation: The supporting sentence directly states that stress causes most lost time due to workplace injury. According to the official figures employees take 16.6 weeks of work off due to workplace injury. Hence, workplace injury is the correct answer.

Question 10.

Answer: 16.6 weeks
Supporting Sentence: Employees suffering stress are off work an average of 16.6 weeks.
Keyword: employees, off work
Keyword Location: Section B, 8th and 9th line
Explanation: The author in the passage states that some people succumb to stress and take work off most of the time to stabilize their mental state. According to the data, employees take an average of 16.6 weeks of work off to handle their stress. This fact highlights how work affects the work efficiency of the employees. Hence, 16.6 is the correct answer.

Question 11.

Answer: 7%
Supporting Sentence: Comcare, the Federal Government insurer, reports that in 2003-04, claims for psychological injury accounted for 7% of claims but almost 27% of claim costs.
Keyword: claims
Keyword Location: section B, 10th, and 11th line
Explanation: According to Comcare, the Federal Government insurer, there were 7% of the insurance claims in the field of psychological injury in 2003-04. This 7% of the insurers claimed 27% of the claim cost, which is a huge amount in terms of proportion. Hence, 7% is the correct answer.

Question 12.

Answer: golf
Supporting Sentence: Experts say the key to dealing with stress is not to focus on relief – a game of golf or a massage – but to reassess workloads.
Keywords: stress, relief
Keyword Location: Section B, 12th line
Explanation: We usually do stress-relieving exercises when we are in stress. As per experts, playing golf or getting a massage can relieve us of stress. Hence, golf is the correct answer.

Question 13.

Answer: massage
Supporting Sentence: Experts say the key to dealing with stress is not to focus on relief – a game of golf or a massage – but to reassess workloads.
Keywords: stress, relief
Keyword Location: Section B, 12th line
Explanation: As per the author, when we are high on stress, the first thing which strikes our mind is to engage in some stress-releasing activities. The majority of people feel that this is the right way to deal with stress. However, as per the experts, the most appropriate method for dealing with stress is reassessing your workload by a golf game or massage.

Question 14.

Answer: workloads
Supporting Sentence: Experts say the key to dealing with stress is not to focus on relief – a game of golf or a massage – but to reassess workloads. Neil Plumridge says he makes it a priority to work out what has to
change.
Keyword: workload
Keyword Location: Section B, 3rd line
Explanation: The passage states that to reduce workload, activities like golf and massage is helpful. Another way is accessing the workload. Hence, workload is the correct answer.

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