Most of us are convinced that stress and performance cannot exist without one another; that we must psych ourselves up to perform well. In fact, we are taught that life in general is stressful. Therefore, any challenge we encounter becomes an Olympic event to complete deadline for both school and work at the same time.
Often, a student's work in the classroom is compromised for good work on the job because the job pays the bills. In other words, without the job she would not be able to pay for college or to pay for the rest of the necessities of life. That is her motivation for keeping her job. Therefore, she frequently completes her classroom work in a sloppy manner without much effort.
Students who do manage to perform well both in school and at a full-time job ususally do so at the expense of their health. For example, many students complain of the inability to handle stress of both a job and school.
UGA students at ASAP conference
Group of Woodbine Agricultural School students, Wo...
Auburn University students at ASAP conferenceIn fact, the stress of both can often cause headaches, dizziness, fatique, and other ailments that slow the body down. As a result their performance in school and at work suffers.
The deadlines that students encounter in the classroom may be different in content than the work they do at work. Actually the importance of meeting those deadlines if the same. Many of the objectives and jobs that need to be completed require that employees work with deadlines. Students must meet assignment deadlines set by the instructor. In both of the area the deadline requirements may take more effort. In fact, failure to meet the dealines in either the classroom or the workforce can mean instant termination.
The clue for us to handle stress adaptively is to aquire the skills we need to feel adequate.