Unit Six: Application 14.2: Stress and the Salesperson

Unit Six: Application 14.2: Stress and the Salesperson

Andrea is a sales representative for Middle East; and Oil Company that imports oil from China. She has been stressing about changes within the company and the President’s fight against terrorism affecting the business. Also about what opportunities are in it for her if she takes the new territories. With all the changes and decisions to be made with the company; she has lost sleep and is unable to think of anything other then the issues faced at work. Now, she is threatening to quit the company due to the stress it has put on her.

The cause of Andrea’s distress is caused by two factors, one being the President and his fight against terrorism. She feels that this will cause problems for Middle East and the imports from China and right now business is increasing. She is afraid this fight will slow exports and this would not be good for business (Drafke, 2006). She also stresses about sales opportunities in which might be lost or might not happen at all by taking on the new territory. “The distress caused here would be participation distress; distress from lack of participation for workers who wish to contribute to the social or working environment” (Drafke, 2006). She wonders if she were to take the territory will she be able to set up her own sales calls or will this be controlled by a co-worker Brad. Brad would rather majority of sales calls to be in the morning but Andrea, she is not a morning person. “This type of stress is called work place control stress; which is distress from a workers lack of control over the pace of work” (Drafke, 2006).

The response to the distress Andrea is having is a flight response; “this is the body’s escapist defense response; preparation to flee the stress” (Drafke, 2006). She tells her self she is just going to quit, she is not going to take on the new territories, and she is just done. Some of the reactions affecting Andrea are active behavioral reaction, physical...