1998_04 Insight April 1998

              InStep
April 29, 1998
7
Stress on the job, who needs it?
by Daniel Dallas
Staff Writer
Unemployment's down, interest
rates are low and prices are stable
across the nation. Perhaps there
should be little for the country's work
force to worry about. Little, apart
from job stress.
Over me last 10 years, more than
a dozen studies have named job stress
as a critical factor in high blood pressure. Four studies concluded
stressed- out workers have high blood
pressure even while sleeping.
The third edition of "Jobs Rated
Almanac," produced by the National
Business Employment Weekly, lists
the 25 most stressful jobs. It gives
some surprising results.
Included are taxi drivers at No.5.
NFL football players at No.9. Mayors, like Jim Patterson who is under
considerable duress recently, appears
at No. 13.
Real estate agents are at No. 17
with fishermen at No.2l. Lumberjacks have the twenty-third most
stressful job. while architects complete the list at No.25.
Although the report was produced before the Monica Lewinsky
scandal. President Bill Clinton still
possessed the most stressful job.
Stockbrokers are at a surprising
No.20, highway patrol officers (11),
police officers (8) and medical surgeons (6). Somehow all of these intense and critical jobs fell short of
Indy- Class race car drivers at No.4.
Nurses do not appear on the list.
While bosses arc considered a
major cause of stress in the workplace, a study produced last month
showed that those who do the firing
are at serious risk themselves.
Conducted at 45 hospitals across
the country, the study offers strong
evidence that brief spurts of suess on
the job can be hazardous to the heart.
The week after they give someone the
ax, managers and employers run the
risk of a heart attack at double the
rate as usual.
An earlier study at Harvard
University's Center for Corporate
Health at Beth Israel Deaconess, estimated that 60 to 90 percent of all
medical office visits are for stress-
related disorders, while 80 percent of
all disease and illness is started or aggravated by stress.
Los Angeles police officers have
an extremely stressful job.
Sgt. Joe Friday, of the film
"Dragnet," describes it this way:
"You're going to rub elbows with the
elite. Pimps, addicts, thieves, bums,
winos, girls who can't keep an address and men who don't care. Liars,
cheats, con men, the class of skid
row....Oh it's going to be a thrill a
minute....never knowing who you'll
meet: a kid with a knife, a pill-head
with a gun or two ex-cons with nothing to lose."
On average, two active-duty
LAPD cops kill themselves a year,
out of its 9,800 officers. Since the
turn of the decade, more officers have
committed suicide than have been
killed in the line of duty in Los Angeles. LAPD cops are nearly three
times more likely to kill themselves
than the general public.
This alarming trend has led to
the increase of police psychologists,
who often go on a ride-along with
officers and give them a place to discuss their problems away from the
every day turmoil they face.
The work of a psychologist arc
important, since police officers nationwide appear to have more drinking problems, troubled relationships
and shorter life expectancies then the
general public. By understanding
police officers, the psychologist can
often help them.
Stockbrokers face a different
kind of stress on the job. Most of their
tension comes with the fact that they
are dealing with other peoples'
money. Often someone's life savings.
In today's volatile market, the
job becomes even more stressful.
Bentley Meredith, of Meredith Investment Company, believes ultimately that stress affects everyone
differently depending on the type of
person you are.
He said eventually you are going to lose someone else's money and
it depends whether or not you care.
A stockbroker must detach him or
herself from the client and try their
best to use the money wisely.
"There are lots of different factors involved with strcs*on the job,"
Meredith said. "Calling potential clients can be difficult and once there
is a relationship, you cannot feel bad
if you lose their cash. The hours can
be bad also. Often, the day lasts 10
hours; it is not a nine to five job. One
way to gain relief from stress is to be
good at your job."
HOPE Publications, which provides
informative wellness materials, lists 35 tips
on reducing stress. Some of these include:
• Get up on time so you con start the day un-
rushed
• Say no to projects that won't fit Into your
schedule
• Allow extra time to do things and get to places
• Make friends with happy, non-stressed people
•Laugh
• Laugh some more
• Take your work seriously, but yourself not at ail
• Talk less; listen more
• Sit on your ego
Several local Rock 'n' Roll bands
strut stuff at Vintage Days
by Melissa Esqueda
Staff Writer
Sounds of rock and roll
during the 1998 Vintage Days
celebration sparked the curiosity
of many on campus.
National celebrities they
aren't, yet local bands they are.
With such names as:
Flipside. Redemption, Checkmate and Adrenaline Keepsake,
these local bands are playing
their way to the top.
Flipside, whose posters
describe itself as a funky, roots,
rap, reggae sound system,
formed the group in September
1997.
With three of the five
membe^rtn the group living as
roommates, everyone adds a bit
of his own style to their music.
"Ryan does this freestyle
rap, and we all just work
together to see what we come up
with," said guitarrist Mike
Counts.
With a mix of reggae, rap,
ska and funk, Flipside consists
of lead singer Ryan Weaver,
guitarrist Milce Counts, Matt
Rowe on bass. Greg Kellen on
guitar and Taylor Hardin on
drums.
Flipside started playing the
club circuits in Fresno like the
Eclipse, Tokyo Garden, Lucky
photo by Ryan Weber
After years of work, many Fresno
bands, such as Checkmate, are
starting to gain recognition.
Lady and Jax House. That's how
they became well-known in Fresno.
"At first we were calling the
clubs to book our own gigs, but
since the public reaction was so
great, [the clubs] are calling'us,"
Weaver said.
The fans have a lot to do with
their success. The band has been
drawing crowds close to 200
people.
"It was on a Wednesday night.
which is mainly a low crowd kind
of night." said Counts.
While Rowe and Weaver wrote
songs and recruited the other band
members, Flipside came up with an
earmark.
"We want to encourage people
to dance, so if our music makes you
move, then you've got no choice
but to get up and dance," Weaver
said.
Adrenaline Keepsake, another
local group, is looking forward to
its first full-length CD release on
June 19 at Jax House.
With lyrics like, "...fine as
cherry wine," and songs titled
"Chupacabra" and "Pimp Daddy."
members of Adrenaline Keepsake
worked hard on putting together
their first compilation.
"It was a lot of work, but when
people come up to us to tell us what
they liked," said guitarist Chris Poe.
"It's a good feeling."
Adrenaline Keepsake members
arc Poe, lead singer David Estrada,
lead guitarrist Ben Verkler, Ron
Sotelo on bass and drummer Gary
Shipman.
Poe described the type of
music Adrenaline Keepsake plays
as a cross between Rage Against
the Machine and Red Hot Chili
Peppers.
Poe, a 23-year-old Fresno State
engineering senior, knows all too
well about the type of crowds at
Fresno State.
"We performed at Vintage
Days in '97 and '98, and for
both years, the interest in our
music has been great," said Poe.
"The group formed in
January 1997, and since then it's
been school and the band," Poe
said.
The band has also played
various venues in addition to
Club Fred, Jax House and the
Eclipse— they've also played at
the Nejv Rock 104 Birthday
Bash and the club circuit in San
Francisco.
Even though the two bands
have different and distinctive
sounds, they show some
similarities.
Both bands seem to have a
"love to party, love to play"
motto:
Poe said the band's fans are
the generation X crowd that
"listens to the funky kind of
music compared to what's being
played on the airwaves."
The music of Flipside and
Adrenaline Keepsake have both
been aired on KFSR 90.7 and
New Rock 104.
Flipsidc's next performance
will be on Friday May 1 at Jax
House.
Adrenaline Keepsake will
have its CD release party on
June 19 at Jax House.
Bulldog international athletes impressive
TENNIS, from page 8
Fresno's poor surviving difficult way of life
 POVERTY, from page 6
family and you don't [have] the job
what your dream is. Everything's
tight, it's frustrated."
Vang and her family came to the
United States in the mid 70s, when
Vang was only 24-years-old. They
moved to Fresno after briefly living
in Omaha, Nebraska, where the family was able to buy a home and Cha
was trained in welding, insurance
sales and accounting. Vang and her
husband found the opportunities
available in Nebraska weren't available here.
"[In] Omaha, if you finish training for something, they give you a
job right away," Vang said. "Here you
train, but no job."
Vang knows she may not completely escape the paint-peeling, decaying sin-city life she is slowly contradicting through her simply-styled
navy business suit and nine-to-five
work ethic. But she hopes her children, two of them already attending
college on financial aid, might be able
to. She hopes they, like so many others in the county, will not become
entrenched in the cycle of poverty
perpetuated in Fresno.
♦      <$>      <$>
Going nowhere
Vang's family may be a success
story, but Garabed said, they are the
exception. As long as there arc low-
paying jobs, cheap housing and what
Garabed describes as "a lack of leadership;" Fresno will continue to attract and trap poverty.
"There's no leadership in Fresno
and where there's a void, people arc
going to fill it," said Garabed, who
has worked with the poor in Vang's
neighborhood since the mid-80s. "If
we had excellent leaders,"" we'd be
able to market ourselves. The kind of
jobs that we have arc because there's
been a leadership void."
Bridges and Vang have learned
if they want to escape poverty, they'll
have to do it on their own. While the
rest of California bands together in
newly rediscovered economic security, they, and the rest of Fresno
County's poor, will continue to wonder how they got left on the sidelines.
"Sometimes you feel you're going to [explode] in yourself," Vang
said, a lifetime of poverty boiling
beneath her calm surface. "If they
want the city to grow, this is the time,
this is the place. The city is not growing. They need to bring more jobs to
make it easier for people to have life
in Fresno."
Position Opening:
m> pall  «
Collegian
Editor
Applications are now being
accepted for the editor of the Daily
Collegian for the fall semester.
Applicants must submit a
statement of qualifications for the
position and goals for the
newspaper, along with any ojfier
relevant support materials, to the
Department of Mass
Communication and Journalism,
McKee Fisk 234, not later than
Friday, May 1.
my exchange students help die other
players because they get to leam a
little bit about their culture."
Junior Dora Djilianova, who is
from Plovdiv, Bulgaria, opened the
season ranked ISth in the nation.
Djilianova is on pace to break th-
Fresno State record for singles victories in a season.
She started playing tennis when
she was eight years old. Sheisapre-
business major and has a 4.0 grade
point average. She was the 18th
Fresno State athlete to be named an
Academic All-American.
Freshman Leisl Fichtbaucr, from
Hamburg. Germany, started the season ranked fortieth in the nation. She
Together Djilianova and
Fichtbauer make up Fresno State's
number one doubles team. The two
currently have an 18-10 record.
Junior Terje Pallo, from Tallinn,
Estonia, is currently 5-4 on the season. This fall she advanced to the
quarterfinals of the 'Dog Classic consolation bracket.
Pallo is a business major and she
has a 3.81 GPA, is on the Dean's list
and named Academic All-WAC the
past two seasons.
"I know there are people who
don't understand it, but what has happened is we offer a lot of opportunities for good tennis players to play
tennis and go to college to get their
education," Harris said.
Next up for the women's tennis
team is the WAC Championships that
will begin on April 29.
Valley's attractions could turn into problem
SPRAWL, from page 6
White flight, the phenomenon of white citizens fleeing areas that minorities have moved into, is a glaring problem in Fresno. This unforced segregation has split the city into two separate, but unequal, halves. White said
people will have to learn how to tolerate people's cultural differences before
they can really feel comfortable living together.
White said that downtown will never look like Clovis, but it could look
a lot better than it docs now if only the city's leaders would pay some attention to it.
Both Stevenson and White agreed that there needs to be a plan created
by everyone in the area to tackle the issue of urban sprawl. Although the idea
of regional government is unsettling to him. Stevenson said it might be time
for the cities and the county to streamline its decision—making and end the
bickering over tax sharing that makes cooperation difficult.
Stevenson is optimistic that Fresno can control its growth. He said Fresno
just has to.
"If you are looking at the near term future we are going to be fanning."
Stevenson said. "Beyond that it's pretty hard to say what is going to happen
Bill Milburn
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