Many employees feel that on-the-job stress is difficult to control, but at least when they get home they can relax. However, as the nature of work changes, the home is no longer the sanctuary it once was. With advanced information technology and customer demands for 24-hour service, an increasing number of employees are on call at all times or working the “graveyard” shift that used to exist only for factory workers. For example, today there are numerous Wal-Mart stores, Walgreens drugstores, and supermarkets that never close. And consider the Heartland Golf Park in Deer Park, Long Island. A golfer who wants a late evening tee-off time can get one up to 3:00 A.M. The strategy has proven so popular that within 90 days of the time it was introduced, the wait time at midnight had grown to two and a half hours. Avid golfers do not mind, however, as the course is well lit and they can play as if it were high noon. All around the country, businesses are realizing that there is a great deal of profit that can be added to the bottom line if they remain open outside of “normal” hours. One research firm estimates that this strategy can add 5% to overall profits, a hefty sum given that more and more businesses are finding their profit margins being narrowed by the competition. In some cases, the decision to expand working hours has been a result of customer needs. Kinko’s Inc. moved to a 24-hour schedule when people literally started banging on their doors after regular business hours and asking them to let them come in for desperately needed photocopies. As a news article recently put it, “The company’s … stores are magnets for ambassadors of the night: everyone from dreamers pursuing secret schemes and second careers to executives putting the final touches on tomorrow’s presentation.” In Chicago, Kinko’s set up an office in the lobby of the Stouffer Renaissance Hotel, a favorite spot of international executives. Customers from different time zones had been coming down at odd hours to ask the hotel to fax materials abroad and to help them with their desktop publishing. The hotel was not equipped to provide these services, so it asked Kinko’s to help out. The guests are delighted with the new service, and the hotel is............

Question

1. How would a Type A personality feel if his or her organization suddenly announced that everyone was to be on call 24 hours a day because the company was moving to round the-clock customer service? 

2. How would psychological hardiness help people deal with these emerging round-the clock operations?

3. What are some ways employees and their organizations could cope with the stress caused by these new round-the-clock developments?