“Resilience is also a responsibility for managers”

You study stress responses. How do you measure them?
Eva Mertens: “In my research, I mainly look at what people report themselves: which events cause them stress and how they respond to them. Other studies investigate the biological mechanisms underlying stress, but that is not my focus.

“I distinguish between four aspects of stress responses. The first is stress reactivity: how much does your stress level rise when something stressful happens? Does it shoot up, or is your response relatively limited?

“The second is stress recovery: how quickly do you return to your normal state after a stressful event? Does it take minutes, or does the stress continue to affect you for hours?

“The third aspect is stress inertia. This looks at how long stress-related emotions persist. For example, do you keep dwelling on an unpleasant experience, or can you move on to a different emotional state relatively easily?

“Finally, there is stress accumulation. Here, we look at the bigger picture: how many stressors does someone face, and how do they follow one another? A single event may not be a major problem in itself, but several stressors can add up and take a significant toll.”

“When a minor stressor keeps recurring and coincides with tensions in your personal life, the cumulative strain can become too much”
 

When can stress contribute to the development of burnout?
“Research suggests that people who have high stress reactivity, recover slowly from stress, experience prolonged stress-related emotions and face a build-up of stressors are at greater risk of developing burnout in the long term.

“Stress accumulation is particularly important. A minor stressor at work may not mean much in itself. But if it keeps recurring and coincides with tensions in your personal life, the cumulative strain can become too much. You could compare it to a frog in a pot of water that gradually heats up. Everything seems fine until the water gets too hot.”

“How someone functions also depends on the support they receive from their manager and colleagues, as well as their workload and responsibilities”

To what extent can resilience be developed?
“Resilience is a dynamic concept. It is not a fixed personality trait that you either have or don’t have. How resilient you are also depends on the circumstances in which you live and work. These circumstances change throughout your life, meaning that you may be better able to cope with stress at some times than at others.

“Research into resilience and how to strengthen it also raises social and ethical questions: to what extent should we hold individuals responsible, and to what extent should organisations and society create the conditions that enable people to be resilient?

“The emphasis is often on the individual: you have to learn to manage stress, respect your own limits and equip yourself to deal with life’s challenges. But we do not have the same degree of control over every stressor. Resilience develops through the interaction between the individual and their environment. Someone may thrive in a particular workplace because their manager offers support, colleagues lend a hand and their workload provides the right level of challenge. The same person may struggle much more in another workplace if those conditions are absent.”

Does that also mean we don’t always have to be resilient?
“Absolutely. We should not expect people to be resilient under all circumstances. Sometimes we experience difficult events that require time and space to process. Think, for example, of a traumatic experience or a profound loss. Expecting someone to quickly get back to normal afterwards can create additional pressure, when in reality everyone needs their own time to recover.”

What does a work environment that supports resilience look like?
“One useful framework is the Job Demands–Resources model. It distinguishes between job demands — aspects of work that require effort and energy, such as tight deadlines, pressure to excel and unpredictability — and job resources, which help people cope with those demands, such as autonomy, support from colleagues and managers, and opportunities to learn and develop.

“The aim is not simply to eliminate or reduce all job demands. What matters is ensuring that demands do not remain excessively high over time and that people have sufficient resources to cope with them. When that balance is lacking for a prolonged period, even someone who generally handles stress well can begin to struggle.”

How can managers use this model to strengthen their employees’ resilience?

“Everyone responds to stress differently, so it is important to be alert to (seemingly) small changes. For some people, it is easy to tell when they are feeling stressed; others become quieter or show it in more subtle ways. It is also important to check in with people regularly, even when there are no obvious signs of stress, and to show a genuine interest in how they are doing.

“The Job Demands–Resources model can provide a useful framework for these conversations: how are you experiencing your workload? Do you feel you have enough support at the moment? And so on. As a manager, you also lead by example, so it can help to be open about your own vulnerabilities and explain what you find stressful and how you deal with it. This sends the team a message that it is OK to talk about these things, making them more likely to do so themselves.”

“The goal is not for everyone to learn to tolerate ever-increasing levels of stress. We need to explore how we can improve the conditions”
 

Is this model mainly useful for managers, or can employees use it themselves too?
“Employees can certainly use the model to assess their own situation. Which aspects of my work take up a lot of energy? What resources do I have, and where are they lacking? It is also useful to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. How have I been feeling over the past few months? Is this an exceptionally busy period, or has this gradually become the norm?

“If you notice stress building up, try to identify what is causing it. Has something changed in your workload or in the way you work with others? And which factors can you influence yourself, and which are beyond your control?

“If the demands of your job consistently outweigh what you can manage, this can be a starting point for a conversation with your line manager. What could change? Would it be possible, for example, to get additional support? The goal is not for everyone to learn to tolerate ever-increasing levels of stress. It is also important to explore how we can improve the conditions themselves.”