Job insecurity causes stress

Taking into consideration the continued rise in the cost of living, house prices, and budget changes, more than ever employees want to feel that their jobs are secure with a steady income to support them and their families.

The era of downsizing and re-engineering in all around the globe has done more than make corporations "leaner and meaner"; it is literally making employees sick. Surprisingly, the effect is worse than actually losing your job, the research suggests.

Based on how participants rated their own physical and mental health, Burgard (2009), a sociologist at the University of Michigan,  found that people who were persistently concerned about losing their jobs reported significantly worse overall health in both studies and were more depressed in one of the studies than those who had actually lost and regained their jobs recently. She also highlights the fact that chronic job insecurity was a stronger predictor of poor health than either smoking or hypertension in one of the groups. 

It's important that all times the major decisions which affect the company's direction or fate should be communicated before the rumors cause panic. HR should intervene and prevent miscommunication to avoid employees loosing faith in the organization completely and be a demotivating factor for others.

References

Burgard, S., Brand, J. and House, J. (2009). Perceived job insecurity and worker health in the United States. Social Science & Medicine, 69(5), pp.777-785.

Poor Communication and Stress

Even as organizations explore new communication methods to increase productivity and improve the mental state. For an organization, productivity and success depends mainly on the well-being and mental health of its employees.

Over communication and confusion

In today’s digital world, there is an overabundance of communication tools available. Companies can pick and choose from these options or use them all. In the case of many organizations, management adopts the “more the merrier” mind frame. Although their efforts to create more communication opportunities are valiant, too many tools can be a curse for employees. The biggest complaint found is that being told to use multiple communication tools deals a blow to their productivity. 35% of employees say their company does not provide guidance on how and when to use communication tools. (Sanders, 2019)

Lack of communication and suspicion

Lack of information creates a sense of distrust that should not exist inside a successful organization. Rumors are a powerful thing, and when the employees are not privy to the inner workings of their organization, the gossip ensues. Unlike open and honest communications, this sharing of information is detrimental and spreads negativity throughout the organization. Under-communication leaves a gap that your employees will fill with their doubts and insecurities. The best way to defeat those feelings is to encourage an open flow of communication and a culture of recognition.

Manager relations and increased stress

According to a Holmes report (2019), the cost of poor communication has hit an overwhelming $37 billion. This report also found that companies with leaders who possess effective communication skills produced a 47 percent higher return to shareholders over a five-year period. Take strides to make sure that your employees feel valued, satisfied and most of all heard. A workplace where employees feel valued enough to breed security and safe enough to communicate important information is ideal. This attention to stress and employee mental health increases your chances of preventing any mental health troubles in the future.

References

Report, H. and Report, H. (2019). The Cost Of Poor Communications. [online] Holmesreport.com. Available at: https://www.holmesreport.com/latest/article/the-cost-of-poor-communications [Accessed 19  April 2019].

Sanders, G. (2019). 10 Things We Learned in 2018 about Employee Communication and Engagement | Dynamic Signal. [online] Dynamic Signal. Available at: https://dynamicsignal.com/2018/12/14/10-things-we-learned-in-2018-about-employee-communication-and-engagement/ [Accessed 19 April 2019].

Weak or ineffective management and stress

Poor leadership and employee stress go hand in hand. The management staff of any business or organization is responsible for setting priorities for the staff, defining expectations, and generally making sure things run smoothly. If management is not fulfilling these responsibilities or is doing a poor job of fulfilling them, employee stress will be significantly higher.

Many managers are responsible for choosing the direction their team will go. Some managers may focus on one project for a short time then suddenly the project manager changes his or her focus and deserts the first project, leaving it undone and staff members scrambling to get up to speed on the new task. This jumping around not only confuses employees, but is also a great way to make a business fail.

Most employees perform best when their duties and responsibilities are clearly defined. This allows the staff to break their larger responsibilities into daily, weekly, and monthly tasks according to the larger goals put forth by management. (Hector, 2019) For example, a good goal for a sales department would be to increase sales by 15 percent over the next quarter. A poor and vague goal would be to "do a good job."

In many offices and job sites, it's the responsibility of the management to take care of the details. This includes mundane tasks like paying the office's utilities, ordering supplies, or arranging for repair or replacement of broken equipment.

Poor leadership can increase employee stress in a variety of ways, and in many cases there isn't much an employee can do to improve the situation. (Hector, 2019) He or she could possibly talk to the boss's boss, but in some companies this type of action may result in repercussions from the employee's direct supervisor. Poor leadership can be so stressful to other staff members that some may choose to find a job somewhere else, rather than subjecting themselves to the whims of a capricious management team.

References  

Hector, M. (2019). Poor Leadership and Employee Stress. [online] Stress.lovetoknow.com. Available at: https://stress.lovetoknow.com/Poor_Leadership_and_Employee_Stress [Accessed 9 Apr. 2019].

Bullying and Harassment as a stress contributor

In the majority of cases, bullying in the workplace is reported as having been by someone who has authority over their victim. However, bullies can also be peers, and occasionally subordinates. Workplace bullying is a persistent pattern of mistreatment from others in the workplace that causes either physical or emotional harm. It can include such tactics as verbal, nonverbal, psychological, physical abuse and humiliation. Research has also investigated the impact of the larger organizational context on bullying as well as the group-level processes that impact on the incidence and maintenance of bullying behavior. Bullying can be covert or overt. It may be missed by superiors; it may be known by many throughout the organization.Bullying and harassment is behavior that makes someone feel intimidated or offended. Harassment is unlawful under the Equality Act 2010.

Bullying and harassment can happen:

• face-to-face
• by email
• by phone
• by letter

Examples of bullying or harassing behavior include:

• denying someone’s training or promotion opportunities
• unfair treatment
• spreading malicious rumors
• picking on or regularly undermining someone

Bullying itself is not against the law, but harassment is. This is when the unwanted behavior is related to one of the following:

• age
• sex
• race
• disability
• gender reassignment
• religion or belief
• sexual orientation
• marriage and civil partnership
• pregnancy and maternity

Researchers at the University of Manitoba found workplace bullying inflicts more harm on employees than sexual harassment. (Armstrong, 2008) Compared to victims of sexual harassment in the workplace, bullied employees showed:

• More job stress
• Less commitment to the company
• Higher levels of anxiety and anger

References

Armstrong, N. (2008). Workplace bullying worse than sexual harassment: study. [online] www.reuters.com. Available at: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-bullies-work/workplace-bullying-worse-than-sexual-harassment-study-idUSN0622290520080310 [Accessed 2 Apr. 2019].

Influence of Physical Office Environments towards Stress

Office employees spend a lot of their time inside a building, where the physical environments influence their well-being and directly influence their work performance and productivity. In the workplace, it is often assumed that employees who are more satisfied with the physical environment are more likely to produce better work outcomes.Temperature, air quality, lighting and noise conditions in the office affect the work concentration and productivity. Numerous studies have consistently demonstrated that characteristics of the physical office environment can have a significant effect on behavior, perceptions and productivity of employees.

Most industries have an unsafe workplace environment and are most time unhealthy too. An unsafe health facility environment such as unsuitable furniture, poorly designed workstations, lack of ventilation, excessive noise, inappropriate lighting, poor supervisor support, poor work space, poor communication, poor fire safety measures for emergencies, and lack of personal protective equipment, can adversely affect the productivity of the employee and also induce stress in employees. Management effort in ensuring an active workforce should be focused on employee personal motivation and the infrastructure of the work environment. 

According to Vischer & Jacqueline (1989), the good of physical office arrangement is important to:

• Helps workers perform their tasks more quickly, easily and efficiently.
• The planned layout also allows more space to maximum use and economy.
• Supervision and monitoring of workers becomes easier.
• Communication system becomes easier and faster.
• It provides comfort as well affect the behavior and employees‘ works.  

While Kamarulzaman et al., (2003), suggests five aspects to be considered in physical office arrangement:

• The smoothness of work among officers and employees.
• Work efficiency among officers and workers as well as conditioning of the work area workers who have the same characteristics must be considered.
• Equipment and forms - should be placed and arranged systematically.
• References files - must be made available easily.
• Light like source of electricity, artificial light etc - must be sufficient.
• Air circulation – has to be adequate. 

Reference

Kulik, C. and Vischer, J. (1990). Environmental Quality in Offices. The Academy of Management Review, 15(2), p.339.

Kamarulzaman, N., Saleh, A., Hashim, S., Hashim, H. and Abdul-Ghani, A. (2011). An Overview of the Influence of Physical Office Environments Towards Employee. Procedia Engineering, 20, pp.262-268.