Stress in Workplace

Vincent (Vivienne) Silalahi

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Introduction

Some jobs can prove quite stressful, especially when the implications of your
work are rather permanent. Thus is the life of a Tattooist as they make a living
from offering to create an artistic masterpiece permanently embedded in their
clients’ skin. It’s easier for this stress to reach the person due to how direct their
influence is, seeing a statistic regarding the company you work at and seeing a
reduction in profits earned can be draining but this effect is even more prevalent
when you know exactly or assume that you yourself are the reason why profits
have been dropping.
It’s difficult to join or be part of a Tattoo Company as most people have strong
assumptions regarding the position such as the assumption that it’s “easy work”
since all you do is “draw on people and make sure it looks good”. Drawing is no
easy task and even knowing how to draw is not enough as one would need to
familiarize themselves with a new medium of doing art, tattoo equipment.
It is due to this that in order to gain an apprenticeship that it is preferable to
have connections with people within the company. It’s a personal business that
has somehow remained in the past when it comes to it’s method of hire as it’s a
very specific task and skill to do. It is for this reason and my skill in art that I
wish to one day become a Tattooist, I wish to learn and be honoured in creating
artworks that people want on their skin as they become a living breathing art
piece.

Body

The company being researched is called the Wanderlust Tattoo Company. The
type of work I seek to do is to become a Tattoo Artist but what I could do as a
fresh face within the company is clean the store and by extension the equipment
(and by extension, familiarize myself with said equipment), book appointments
for clients, handle phone calls, and base level work usually required and needed
by all companies that exist.
The company situated in Parksville in Vancouver Island has a total of four
employees, all with varying places within the company. There are two
Tattooists namely, Mark Jansen, and Bradley Glendale who take care of the
clients wants when it comes to planning, starting, and completing a tattoo as

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well as educating them regarding how a tattoo heals and what to avoid while it
is healing.
Then there are the other staff of the company: Tee Tyson, and ‘Koop’ who keep
the company afloat behind the scenes as they keep the shop clean and hygienic,
handle phone calls, book and remind of appointments, sort through emails and
fielding questions, as well as respond and upkeep their social media platform.
Their working hours depend on the amount of customers/clients they get as well
as the intensity or intricacy of the art piece the customer would like to get done;
in other words, commission. Their working hours are fixed as they work a
minimum of 6 and a maximum of 8 hours per day, depending on the day of the
week as they’re open for longer on every day except Sundays and Thursdays.

Their company infrastructure is rather simple as there aren't a lot of employees

situated within where the shop is stationed and stress would be placed in the
middle ground. The nature of the environment itself comes off as very personal
and appears to feel more like a passion-project rather than some required day
job they have to drag themselves through. The stress within this workplace is
related to completing work with above acceptable quality as society is still very
critical on tattoos and in order to maintain their current reputation, a good image
is required on both their social media platform and the people they work with.
Their format for the employee wellness program they offer to their employees
appears very personal as everyone working there knows each other, one of the
employees even brings in their child as seen in an image posted on their official
website. It can be seen that they are their own support group where their
familiarity with one another aids their intellectual health since there is always
someone who they can talk to and feel comfortable with coupled with the
knowledge that they aren’t going to be judged.

As it currently stands, it appears that they take a very personal route with
employee health, wellness, and stress, with the assumption that personal
connection will ensure that employees will reach out to one another. My
suggestion would be to have designated days to hold a small meeting to discuss
any problems they may be experiencing or qualms with what they are doing or
their hours as it has been implied that ‘Koop’ (one of the employees) has other
jobs that he must juggle as well.

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Conclusion

It is easier for employees to reduce the amount of stress coming from their work
when they feel personally fulfilled by the type of work they do as well as when
they are familiar with the people they work with. This doesn’t mean that issues
can’t arise despite personally knowing everyone within the workplace as
decisions on whether work load is fair or if hours are even will have to be
discussed since it is also reliant on the amount of pressure that comes with the
type of work done. Best case scenario for any company is that every employee
enjoys the type of work they do and that they personally know each and every
one of the other employees working there, even with this best case scenario it is
also recommended that hours or meetings designated for communication and
possible company outings take place to get everyone’s mind off of work and
remind themselves that they’re working with people and not machinery as every
interaction with one another does not necessarily have to be work related.

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Bibliography

Wanderlust Tattoo Company. (2020, August 1). MISSION STATEMENT.

https://wanderlusttattooco.com/mission-statement/

Shrm. (2020, April 09). How to Establish and Design a Wellness Program.
Retrieved August 1, 2020, from
https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/tools-and-samples/how-to-guides/page
s/howtoestablishanddesignawellnessprogram.aspx

Stillman, J. (2018, September 17). Congrats, Small-Biz Owners. Your

Companies Are Way Less Stressful to Work for Than Large Ones. Retrieved
August 1, 2020, from
https://www.inc.com/jessica-stillman/congrats-small-biz-owners-youre-way-les
s-stressful-to-work-for-than-big-companies.html

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