Samuel Logston Samuel Logston left home at 5 a.m. and headed for the train station for his 30-mile ride to the centre of

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Samuel Logston Samuel Logston left home at 5 a.m. and headed forthe train station for his 30-mile ride to the centre of the city.As usual, Sam hoped that the train would be on time so that hecould catch a series of buses that would take him to his temporaryjob at a construction company in the congested industrial district.He was not looking forward to the journey, but he really had fewchoices since he had not worked full-time for 18 months. He is amaster plumber with over 15 years of experience, but he was laidoff from his job with a small, industrial plumbing subcontractor.His boss had apologised for the pink slip by saying that industrialand commercial construction was so slow that over 60 per cent ofthe city’s plumbers were unemployed. That was little consolation toSam. Sam believed that the commercial and industrial constructionbusiness would never recover to full employment, so he had begunthe ambitious job of learning computer repair skills so that hecould land a job in the city’s bustling service industries.Although he vowed to study hard in all of his computer courses, hehad found it very difficult to concentrate because he had assumedall of the childcare and household duties since his wife worked asa full-time teacher. This was a serious commitment because theirtwo children were not yet in school. Caring for the two little onesleft Sam with scant time to concentrate on the complexities ofcomputer repair. Sam’s wife, Nora, taught social studies in atough, inner-city school known for its gangs and drug problems.While she was a senior teacher at the top pay level, pay increaseswere few. When they were both working full time, they had to get upearly, prepare the children for daycare and travel by publictransport to their jobs after one or the other had dropped thechildren at the daycare centre. When one of the children was sick,either Sam or Nora had to leave work to take them home to see totheir needs. Sometimes this created problems for each of them atwork because it was difficult for their employers to arrange tofind a qualified substitute at short notice. Recently Sam alwayspicked up the children from daycare, prepared the evening meal andcompleted all the house cleaning. At the weekends, he addedshopping and bill paying to his list of chores. Nora concentratedon her job and frequently at the weekends she would mark herstudents’ exams and prepare lesson plans for the coming week. Bythe time the children were in bed at 8 p.m., both Sam and Nora hadput in 15-hour days and they were simply too tired to talk. If Norahad her school work done, she frequently slept in front of thetelevision. Only Sam’s snoring would awaken her around 11. Shewould nudge Sam and they would stumble to bed. Increasingly, Noracomplained about her job and the extra work she was expected to do.Teachers had to handle discipline problems and they had to beavailable to meet the parents of students who were disruptive atschool. It was not unusual for the parents to become abusive andhostile toward Nora and the school principal in these meetings.While she still enjoyed teaching, she dreaded her job activitiesthat took her out of the classroom. She found being a hall monitorto be particularly stressful. She felt uncomfortable with thetougher teenage boys and she knew that they sensed her uneasiness.Some bolder boys would make threatening remarks to her. Just lastweek she had to fail a student who retaliated by saying that hisfather would be paying her a visit in her classroom. Sam hadnoticed that lately Nora seemed more depressed and he was concernedbecause she frequently talked about giving up her job. One of hercolleagues had called recently and told Sam that she was worriedabout Nora. In spite of Nora’s discomfort at work, neither she norSam had counted on the financial effects of his under-employment ontheir living standards. During the 18 months he had worked anaverage of two days a week. After six months of unemployment he hadgiven up going to the plumbers’ union hall to bid for jobs.Companies simply were not hiring. Since Nora’s salary would notadequately cover their living expenses and the costs of hiscomputer repair courses, he had begun to do small plumbing andcarpentry jobs for people in the neighbourhood. If the childrenwere sick, he would try to make arrangements with Mrs Phillips, thenext door neighbour, to take care of the children when he had arepair job to finish. By now Sam’s temporary job had lasted for amonth. It consisted of routine plumbing work on a major officeremodelling project. At 6.30 p.m. when he returned home, he foundNora crying in the living room. The children were crying too andapparently they were hungry. As he looked closely at his wife, Samsaw that she had a bruised cheek. Nora then explained how the iratefather of her failed student barged into her classroom as she waspreparing to leave for home at 4.30 p.m. He said that she had tochange his son’s mark because failing the course might mean that hewould be held back for a year. Nora had said that she couldn’tchange his mark and he would have to take up the matter with theschool’s principal. The boy’s father had blocked her exit from theclassroom. A security guard had heard the father’s threateningremarks and he called the police. While the boy’s father had nothurt Nora in any way, nonetheless, she was so unnerved by theexperience that she had tripped and fallen on her way out of thebuilding. In the fall she had bruised her cheek. She told thepolice that she did not wish to pursue the matter in any way.However, she had to attend a meeting with both of his parents, theschool principal and a security guard tomorrow at 9 a.m. Nora toldSam that she did not want to go to the meeting and that she couldnot stand the idea of being in the same room with the boy’sparents, particularly his father. As Sam saw the pain on his wife’sface and the nervousness in her voice he understood why she wantedto leave.
Question 1 What are the five stressors that are at work on Samand Nora. Provide reasons for your answer making reference to thecase study?