Tweet

Stresses in the Workplace and How to Combat Same

Written by: Nuala Duignan

Article Overview: Stress is the body’s reaction to outside influences, demands or strains. In a sense, the body is revved up to respond to a threat or a challenge. Everybody experiences stress occasionally and this is unlikely to have any lasting impact unless the experience is particularly traumatic. Such acute stress can occur as a result of actual or threatened violence. Staff employed in banks, post offices, public transport, the health service and other occupations are at risk of experiencing acute stress as a result of robberies, assaults and violence. Every precaution needs to be taken to protect workers in vulnerable situations against such risks. Where incidents do occur, procedures should exist, including independent counseling where necessary, to minimise the long–term impact.

Stresses in the Workplace and How to Combat Same

Stress is the body's reaction to outside influences, demands or strains. In a sense, the body is revved up to respond to a threat or a challenge. For the entrepreneur every precaution needs to be taken to protect his/her workers in vulnerable situations against stress. Where incidents do occur, procedures should exist, including independent counseling where necessary, to minimise the long-term impact. Most stress due to work is not acute. Nevertheless, chronic exposure to stressful conditions may be more harmful to health in the long-term. It may result in absenteeism, irritability or ill health or even work disability. It usually arises because of the combination of the nature of the work, the way it is organised, and the general environment. Low pay, insecurity, shift or night work are also factors which can contribute to stress.

Manyentrepreneurs remain in the highest risk of stress category resulting in working longer hours on a continual basis simply to "keep up" - "wealth but no time for leisure" could well be their epitaph. Occupational stress during the Celtic Tiger Era was largely self-induced as "celtic cubs" chased the dream, driven by the desire to make their fortune, fast car, more than one annual foreign holiday and the home of their dreams. Now, however as things are changing fast as entrepreneurs/organisations are laying off staff, out-sourcing and contracting part-time workers, the stress factors have changed. The stresses now emanate from the lack of employment or part-time work, financial pressures and too much free time. People currently employed feel they must go to work even when they are genuinely ill, functioning at a substandard level, burdening their colleagues in the process, and subsequently suffering from "burn out. This does not make sound business sense.

There is now a growing recognition that those most at risk are workers who have excessive demands on them without the means to influence those demands or modify work patterns. It is a combination of work overload with a feeling of low control and low support that gives rise to most problems. A combination of "work over load" or "quality under load" are causes for stress.Employees involved in repetitive tasks working under close measurement and supervision to increase production quotas are likely to be stressed, particularly if their training, equipment or opportunity for breaks is inadequate.

Stress and Ill Health

Continuous exposure to stress is likely to lead to ill health. Increased blood pressure, for example may be a symptom of work-related stress. Some people may experience muscular tension with chronic pain in the neck, head or shoulders. Resistance to infection may be lowered. The concept of "burn-out" is well documented - especially in the health and education sectors. The reaction to stress can involve emotional, behavioral and physical reactions. Emotional reactions can involve feelings of anxiety, depression, apathy, alienation and low esteem. Such reactions can lead in turn to changes in behaviors. This can take a number of forms like alcohol or drug abuse or increased tobacco consumption. Some people in these situations may behave passively (like losing interest in their work or withdrawing into themselves) Others may react aggressively. All of this works against the entrepreneur/employer, thus an employer's legal duty of care towards his/her staff necessitates a plan of action which should be undertaken based on stress assessments in the work place. Potentially, this could involve a number of strategies:-

• Redesign of work to expand the area of control and responsibility by the individual or work team and the elimination of monotonous or paced work.
• Improved and on-going training to promote new opportunities for learning and promotion.
• Improved workplace environment, e.g, improved design of work station layout and a reduction of noise levels.

An entrepreneur's/employer's legal duty of care towards his/her staff also includes the environment in which they work as mentioned above together with themore obvious stressors ranging from incorrect temperatures to poor design and lay out of machines by overcrowding or cluttering of work spaces. Health and Safety legislation requires employers to carry out an assessment of these factors and to plan and implement strategies to remedy any associated problems.

Victims of stress must be supported. Measures should be taken to identify such problems and intervene to assist vulnerable persons. The focus should be on removing as far as practical the factors giving rise to stress. Individual support though desirable, should not be the primary focus. The overall systems in place should be competent, independent and confidential. The individual deserve be sure that in being honest about his/her difficulties that this information would not be used to the detriment of his/ her prospects of further employment or promotion in the future.

When an employee is faced with stress in the workplace, he/she should be encouraged to try and use it as an opportunity to grow by choosing wisely and positively. It is how we grow through the challenges we encounter that determines our wisdom. If we face the lesson and grow through it we will be the wiser for it, rather than let the stressors get the better of us.

Employers are now waking up to the fact that a healthy stress-free workplace simply makes sound business sense. And a happy balance between work and play, home and office, family and career, risk and reasonable security, is essential, not just for personal contentment but for productive endeavor profits and success.

Related Articles
  5 Practical Ideas to Keep Your Employees Motivated
  Combating Loneliness While Working From Home
  Imposed Stress at the Workplace
  Workplace Bullying: 7 Ways to Ward Off the Bully
  The True Value of Much More Than Only Satisfied Employees

Article Tags: absenteeism, celtic tiger, chronic exposure, continual basis, financial pressures, free time, ill health, insecurity, irritability, occupational stress, part time work, precaution, sound business sense, strains, stress factors, stresses, stressful conditions, term impact, time workers, vulnerable situations



Related Forum Posts
Workplace Warrior: Insights and advice for winning on the co - Workplace Warrior: Insights and advice for winning on the corporate battlefield Kay Hammer 2000 From the inside jacket: Successful people don't get to the top without struggles. But few are willing to expose the failures and setbacks that have lined their paths through the battle zones of business. Kay Hammer is that rare breed. With startling candor and penetrating intelligence, this "very modern, very American heroine (Forbes) gives a frank and full recounting of her mid-career reinvention, from a linguistics professor alone to the President, CEO, and co-founder of Evolutionary Technologies International... Hammer's new life began with an epiphany - that nothing substantive in her life would change unless she made it happen. There would be no Prince Charming. From that moment on, she began a long, ardous journey to carve for herself in the youthful, male-dominated software industry-a journey which she likens to serving the apprenticeship of a medieval warrior... Her strategies are geared for battles on all fronts: not only for disarming foes, gaining allies, and winning battles in the boardroom, but also for confronting the internal enemies of self-doubt, fear of failure, and unresolved anger.
Books for Women Entrepreneurs - There's a thread for good books in the Resources folder, but it doesn't target books for businesswomen particularly, so I figured I'd start such a thread here. It doesn't matter how successful you are in your business - it's always possible to learn something new. In subsequent posts I give Table of Contents and brief descriptions for various titles - most of them devoted to the businesswoman - and sometimes a review. If anyone else has read a review, or has read the book and found it useful, please comment! 1. The Old Girl's Network 2. Mother's Work 3. The 7 Greatest Truths About Successful Women 4. Pitch Like A Girl 5. Workplace Warrior 6. Treasure Hunt: Inside the Mind of the Modern Consumer 7. Contingency Planning & Disaster Recovery 8. She Wins, You Win 9. Napoleon On Project Management 10. Why Good Girls Dont' Get Ahead, But Gutsy Girls Do 11. Comeback Moms: How to Leave Work, Raise Children, and Restart your Career even If you Haven't Had a Job in Years 12. The One Minute Millionaire 13. Talking From 9 to 5 14. Soloing: Realizing Your Life's Ambitions 15. 101 Best Home Based Businesses for Women: Everything You Need to Know About Getting Started on the Road To Success 16. Work With Passion: How to Do What You Love for a Living. Revised and Expanded 17. Fail-Proof Your Business: Beat the Odds and be Successful 18. Confidence: How Winning Streaks and Losing Streaks Begin and End 19. Women Don't Ask: Negotiation and the Gender Divide 20. Millionaire Women Next Door: The Many Journeys of Successful American Businesswomen 21. Start Small, Finish Big: Fifteen Key Lessons to Start - and Run - Your Own Successful Business 22. Rewired, Rehired or Retired: A Global Guide for the Experienced Worker 23. The Martha Rules: 10 essentials for achieving success as you start, build or manage a business 24. The Essentials of Entrepreneurship: What it takes to create Successful Enterprises 25. Net Ready: Strategies for Success in the E-conomy 26. The Promotable Woman 27. Leave The Office Earlier: The Productivity Pro shows you how to do more in less time and feel great about it 28. The Work At Home Balancing Act: The professional resource guide for managing yourself, your work, and your family at home 29. Secrets of Six-Figure Women


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

10 Steps to a Great Support Team

The Right Job - Part Five 'Compensation'

9 Steps to Improve Performance

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.