Let's fight against work stress
Work-related
stress is a growing problem that is affecting both employees’ psychical as well
as mental well-being and the organization's productivity. As a result of the
pressure in a new era of large-scale companies and an increase in competition
could result to build a stressful environment internally. Stress is not always
bad. But work-related stress arises when there is an imbalance between the job
demands and the abilities, capabilities and skills of an employee to deal with
these job demands. (Blaug, Kenyon & Lekhi, 2007).
Causes for work-related stress
01.Poor
Task designing
Because of the competition most companies not giving adequate time to complete the tasks. Apart from that appointing meaningless tasks, giving tasks that do not match with the employee's KAS, not appreciating the employee, and not giving proper training for the workers (technical, social) may lead to creating stress.
02.Over
workload
Word load is considered the most common reason for job stress. Overwork can be categorized as duties consuming a long time, forced to work overtime in addition to standard time, unfair job demands, pressure to speed up work, more expectations, and asking to work on days off and weekends. Ultimately this may affect work-life balance also.
03.Role
in the organization
If there is a role conflict (conflicting in job demands, roles and having several supervisors), lack of clarity about responsibilities, expectations and not having enough responsibilities to do the task, may be reasons for creating stress.
04.Career
development
Demotions or sometimes giving promotions beyond the capacity, lack of opportunity for career development or growth and insecurity feel about the job will be reasons for stress.
05.Relationships
at workplace
Supervisors
and peer groups not giving enough support and guidance, treat of harassment,
and not having a proper system to report unacceptable behavior can affect
employees’ minds.
06.Organization culture and Management style
Poor internal communication system, managers making decisions without taking ideas from others (autocratic leadership), minimum rewards and recognition for good performances will create a negative feeling in employees’ minds.
07.Poor
working conditions
When
having an unpleasant working conditions or not maintaining safety standards
employees may experience stress.
Work stress vs Health
Research
done by Peter & Siegrist (2000, S41-S45) and Belkic, Landsbergis, Schnall,
& Baker (2004, 85-128) confirmed that work stress negatively affected the
employee’s physical and psychological health.
Source : https://wow-webmagazine.com/workplace-stress-a-21st-century-health-epidemic
Tips for employees to manage the work
stress
01.Manage
your time
Prepare a to-do list as the first task in the morning and prioritize your work according to its importance.
02.Record
your stressors
Keep a record of the situations which create the most stress and the responses you have been given to face those situations. Here you should record your feelings, thoughts and environmental information and about the people as well as circumstances. Then try to avoid those things as soon as possible. This record will help you to find out a pattern among your stressors.
03.Develop
healthy responses
Don’t try to fight stress in an unhealthy way. Practice some health-friendly ways to be relaxed. Try yoga, spend some time exercising or for hobbies. (traveling, sports, reading books, watching movies). On the other hand, you should have enough and quality sleep. (6-8 hours per day)
04.Establish
boundaries
You have to make a boundary between work and your personal life. This will help to reduce work-life conflicts also. As a practice don’t do any official work during office time and on the other hand don’t use your working time for any kind of personal work.
05.Switching
off
Take a considerable time to be refreshed. You should avoid all the official work until you feel like you are totally ok. During this period, you can go for a long vacation inside or outside the country.
06.Learn
how to relax
Practice techniques like meditation, sound therapy, breathing exercises and yoga. Apart from that you can spend some time with nature. As a simple activity, you can swim, walk, listen to a song or can eat some food you loved.
07.Talk
to your supervisor
Share your situation with the supervisor openly and ask for some flexibility in the working situation. You are the only person who knows about yourself completely. So, if the stress comes from work-related things most effective way to overcome stress is this. If you feel stress as a result of a lack of competencies or skills, you can ask for training. If you don’t have a clear idea about the management expectations, you can clear it by having an open conversation. If stress is coming as a result of personal things supervisor may give flexibility as well as will give some guidance.
08.Get
some help
Share
your feelings with your friends or with family members and ask their opinion.
They will recommend you some mental health professionals or counseling options.
Most companies organize counseling sessions for their workers every month. If
your company has that facility, don’t think twice use that option.
Conclusion
The
effect of stress on an employee may vary. Stress mainly affects employee
turnover. Apart from that, it affects to increase absenteeism, create poor
internal relationships, reduce productivity as well as morale and increase
dissatisfaction in employee mind. So, an organization should try to create a
stress-free environment internally to some extent to retain their key
performers with the company. But the most important thing is as an employee if
you have stress as a result of work tries above mentioned ways to overcome it.
Watch this
video to get an idea about some stress management techniques.
(LifeHack, 2020)
Reference
Belkic, K.
L., Landsbergis, P. A., Schnall, P. L., & Baker, D. (2004) Is job strain a
major source of cardiovascular disease risk?. Scandinavian journal of work,
environment & health, 85-128.
Blaug, R.,
Kenyon, A., & Lekhi, R. (2007) Stress at work: a report prepared for The
Work Foundation’s principal partners. London: The Work Foundation.
LifeHack,
(2020) 7 Stress Management Techniques to Get You Back on Track | Lifehack,
[online video] Available at : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0GtbGFQgtU
[Accessed 02.04.2023]
Peter, R.,
& Siegrist, J. (2000) Psychosocial work environment and the risk of
coronary heart disease. International Archives of Occupational and
Environmental Health, 73(1) S41-S45.
Remember, everyone experience work stress at some point. It's important to take care of yourself and find healthy way to cope. If you stress levels are consistently high, consider speaking with a mental health professional for additional support. Good job.
ReplyDeleteIt is true that managing stress is important in the workplace and employees should be aware of themselves and avoid stress. The tips you have suggested are valuable that helps to relieve stress for all those who are working.
ReplyDeleteYou chose a logical theme for your blog, and everyone is aware that too much stress is bad for your health. The impacts of burnout on organizational performance are less well-publicized. Stress momentarily affects strategic thinking and dulls creative abilities, and it increases people's likelihood of quitting their professions by almost three times. Hence, burnout poses a risk to your business's bottom line and costs the United States more than $300 billion annually due to absenteeism, employee turnover, decreased productivity, as well as increased expenditures for insurance, legal defense, and medical care. Great work !
ReplyDeleteCurrently work stress have become a big issue with employees since the global business context is changing rapidly and companies are forced to change with the times. In most cases companies are not equipped with employees that could handle change which can lead to demanding employees to be more productive with the lack of skill and knowledge. Great Work.
ReplyDeleteWorkplace stress became a critical topic all around the world, here world health organizations also directly involve to find the solution for away from workplace stress, here some of the authors are arguing about the need for workplace stress for efficiency, and performance,
ReplyDeletehowever, I think its negative impact on mental and physical health. Workplace stress impact short-term and long-term healthy life.
for example, headaches, high blood pressure, heart problems, diabetes, skin conditions, asthma, arthritis, depression, and anxiety.
on the other hand from an organizational point lead to downturns in productivity and increases in absenteeism, hence as per the author fighting against workplace stress is highly beneficial to both the employee and employer side.
Work stress refers to the physical, emotional, and mental strain experienced by individuals as a result of their job demands and the inability to cope with them. It can be caused by various factors such as excessive workload, time pressure, interpersonal conflicts, lack of autonomy, and job insecurity. Prolonged exposure to work stress can have adverse effects on employee health, well-being, and job performance, and can lead to burnout, absenteeism, and turnover. It is important for employers to implement effective stress management strategies and promote a healthy work-life balance to reduce work-related stress among employees. Well done Rangana.
ReplyDelete