What is stress? How it impacts employees in a workplace?
The word stress is introduced by Hans Selye. (Selye, 1976) Stress is the response to change by brain and body. He also extends that it is a pain self-produced occurring in thoughts and completely depended on various situations and environments.There are various contributors to workplace stress ranging from given work beyond the capacity of the employee, non - safe work environment to workplace harassment and bullying (ComPsych, 2016). Major factors that contribute to the workplace stress will be focused individually. The following info graphic shows the impact due to workplace stress which emphasis on it's magnitude and why it should be address now more than ever. Most of these stats are provided by the American Psychological Association from their 2017 Stress in America survey.
Lack of stress management in the workplace contributes to illnesses, absenteeism and employee turnover. (APA, 2017) Another primary indicator of stress is under performance at work. To deal with stress in workers, it is vital to take effective actions and procedures. These measures not will not only benefit the stressed employee but also, improves the scope for organizational development.
References
Selye, H. (1976). The stress of life. 1st ed. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company.ComPsych (2016). ComPsych® StressPulse® Report. Chicago: ComPsych.
APA (2017). Stress in America. American Psychological Association.
BDA (2013). Sources of Work-related Stressamong Salaried Primary Care Dentists in the UK. England: British Dental Association.
MMPI (2019). MMPI-2. Minnesota: Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory.
Stress, we often face in everyday life. Since this life is getting hectic day by day, you never know the factors creating stress. These stress could be invisible and intangible.
ReplyDeleteAlso you could see the stress they carry when they leave home to office. Family problems, society problems, psychological problem also affect stress at work place.
Correct. Thank for point that out. It has been addressed in the latter in approaching Employees with Empathy. A more current example is companies which has never allowed working from home facility before has stated to embrace them and also offered lend hands to the immediate families who have been affected with any help the company can yield during the prevailing situation in the country.
Delete59 percent of employees report being in the high-stress category, according to the 2017 StressPulseSM survey, released by ComPsych that is three out of every five employees are in stress. Further it says that fifty-six percent of employees see accomplishing basic tasks as the top work priority, while workload and people issues are the top work stressors.
ReplyDeleteIdentifying the reasons for stress of employees and helping them to overcome is an important task in Human Resources Management.
Yes, and I have included your research and survey outcomes to the post. You can find the updated statistics in the above post. Thank you for pointing that out.
DeleteHave you ever met an employee who pressured himself to get a better position and higher salary? This phenomenon has been becoming more and more in young employees in China. "996" style means a six days work per week that starts from 9 a.m. and ends at 9 p.m. A significant number of these employees are voluntarily working overtime. This style of working is certainly unhealthy and unsustainable, but it is a fact of life, a product of overall social stress and collective anxiety.
ReplyDeleteIt is very common in Software Engineering sector. Most of the Software engineers work hard so that they can quickly escalate through career ladder. That should be tackled by HR by making sure that the 8 hours spent is spend efficiently and proper work life balance is maintained. Major giants have taken actions against 996 culture including Alibaba Group.
DeleteThis is one of the biggest issue every HR department to work on and work load, work environment are not the only problems incapable bosses may be play vital role too. In Sri Lanka I think most of the issue arise with their bosses, they leave places because of the bosses.
ReplyDeleteSo this will be complete read if you consider those facts as well in future posts.
Correct and Yes I have highlighted the issues under 2 different topics in 2 distinct perspectives. How poor management can cause stress and also how workplace harassment by bad bosses being a key contributor to stress affecting the overall outcome of the employee.
DeleteThis important timely tropic to discuss.yes.. stress is personal inability to meet the demand from another party.There are many factors lead to stress. Management responsibility to look at the factors and find the solution immediately. Unless it affects to employee performance as well as the organisation performance as whole.
ReplyDeleteExactly, High workloads can also come in a form of harassment and not only means that the employee is incapable but being a victim of a bad boss.
DeleteMike Scalise wrote a popular essay for the New York Times detailing his growing inability to deal with workplace stress, which eventually included quitting 12 jobs in eight years.
ReplyDelete"Stress's most insidious power is its ability, like water, to find the cracks and then flood right through them," Mike wrote. "I had to make a change, but to what? Stress seemed to be the lifeblood of a productive career."
Research shows that 60 percent of workers suffer from work-related stress that costs U.S. businesses $30 billion a year in lost workdays. The impact of employee burnout presents an opportunity for a river of problems.
I agree with Mike Scalise. Stress works better to bring out the best in people by pushing their limits, However researches done says otherwise mostly. It's not possible to eradicate stress entirely because you and I get stressed for different reasons. It's the matter of HR and top management to address the existence of issue and take preventive action rather than ignoring them completely.
DeleteBroader topic hence many factors compact on stress of employees. Due to that reason difficult to keen on one or few areas. Job stress is common word for most of the organizations. According to my knowledge Asian countries not much keen on employee stress as like western world countries. Most of the Asian model companies suffering from employee ethics and rights valuations due to that in eastern world employees have more stress than western world . Finally employee stress will decrees productivity and high employee turnover ect.
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