Introduction
This essay discusses how job stress can affect not only the attitudes and performance of people in the workplace, but can also affect the turnover of employees in an organization. The position taken is that it does have a significant effect on all three factors mentioned.
What is Job Stress?
Job stress is defined as: “The adverse reaction people have to excessive pressures or other types of demand placed on them at work.” (“What is Stress?”, n.d.).
Not only has the problem of job stress dramatically increased over the years, but it has been shown by various studies to have been – as far as American adults are concerned – the major source of stress overall. That stress, characterized by more and more demands in a situation over which the subject feels they have very little control, can in turn lead to high blood pressure plus increased likelihood of heart and other medical disorders. (“Workplace Stress” n.d.
Effects on Employees’ Attitudes
As regards its effects on people in the workplace, many reported changed attitudes including incidences of violence caused by job stress, and cited verbal abuse and shouting as common occurrences. Some admitted shouting at others due to job stress, even damaging equipment through rage, and a few admitted striking another person. Even homicide in the workplace is not a rarity, and those high levels of workplace violence have led to terms like “desk rage” and “phone rage” coming into common usage. (“Workplace Stress” n.d.).
This writer has personal experience of how job stress can bring about a change of attitude. Regularly working longer hours (without extra pay) was in this instance more for personal convenience to avoid rush hour traffic peaks, but instead of ever being praised for those extra hours at both ends of the working day, on the odd occasion arrival or departure was at “normal” times, the boss would make a smart remark like “late today then?” or “going already, couldn’t stay all day??” The effect in this instance was to feel increasingly stressed and thus to have a completely changed attitude towards work, becoming demotivated, and resolving not to make those extra efforts in future to expedite completion of a project, etc.
Effects on Employees’ Performance
Job stress can be the cause of a range of health issues, dependent to some extent on the individual, affecting job performance as a result. Although the stress may arise from factors within the workplace such as working conditions, bullying, lack of job security, office politics, etc., it can also be a consequence of conflicts arising between work and family demands, manifesting itself as poor performance in the job (Gupta & Chandwani, 2012).
Extreme disagreements leading to violence affect job performance – not just for the perpetrators but those on the receiving end. It can also affect company performance, especially if employees have to be fired, meaning a reduced workforce until replacements are taken on and trained and added costs of that activity. (“Workplace Stress” n.d).
Stressed employees have poor morale and reduced loyalty to the company, which can as a result downgrade the levels of customer service performance, ultimately meaning lost customers. The effects of stress can also slow production, which could mean having to suffer the costs of overtime working to make up the shortfall. Teamwork is also impaired when employees are stressed, arising from negative attitudes like reduced levels of cooperation, especially if the stressed person becomes short-tempered. (Webb, n.d.).
Effects on Employee Turnover
In more serious cases of job stress, it can lead – if the person (such as one who is a victim of violence) sees no alternative – to them looking for another job as the only way they can see to relieve or escape from the stressful situation or environment causing the problems, thus affecting the company’s staff turnover rate. In addition to violence affecting attitude and performance, in many instances the employer may have to let the violent person go, thus affecting employee turnover due to unavoidable dismissal(s). (“Workplace Stress” n.d).
Employees “escaping” to find a job with another company cause considerable consequential costs in terms of finding, hiring and perhaps training replacement personnel (Webb, n.d.).
Another effect of high staff turnover, i.e. following the departure of a colleague, the remaining employees feel even greater stress, because they have to cover the duties of that person, in addition to their normal workload, until such time as a replacement is hired and fully trained. That can be a vicious circle, persuading yet more employees to move on and thus increasing the turnover rate, especially if they feel their “temporary” extra efforts are not properly recognized or appreciated (May, n.d.).
Causes & Costs
Although stress is a factor that may affect all of us at some time or another, (e.g. when getting married or divorced or the process of home purchase) the workplace-related stress ranks highest. That stress may result from a variety of causes such as getting fired, company reorganizations, changed responsibility and/or duties or working hours, disagreements with the boss, changed financial circumstances, retiring or going on vacation, and more (Maxon, 1999).
Rapid changes in office practices and procedures in the “information age” are a major cause of job stress. The introduction of technology not only tends to require less human input and therefore less jobs, but the employees retained have to undergo retraining and probably accept greater responsibility – all likely to cause stress, and in particular causing resentment and resistance to change, which in turn affects work attitudes, productivity and probably decreased loyalty, too (Maxon, 1999).
Stress not only negatively impacts the “attitudes and behaviors” of employees, it has a knock-on effect on company costs and can also adversely affect the decisions made by anyone in the workforce at any level, which can increase the risks of industrial accidents and/or wastage of materials; people preoccupied with worries brought on by stress are likely to have impaired judgment and so make errors (Webb, n.d.).
Job stress is estimated to cost circa $200 billion annually in terms of “absenteeism, lower productivity, staff turnover, workers’ compensation, medical insurance and other stress-related expenses” (Maxon, 1999). All of those costs make it more difficult for businesses to be successful, which must also affect the employees. It is difficult to work at one’s best and most diligent if the business is rumoured to be struggling to stay afloat.
Another reported cause of job-related stress is “job insecurity.” The economic downturn has forced many businesses to either downsize or close completely, resulting in workers suffering stress through fear of losing their jobs (“Workplace Stress” n.d.).
It is natural that a person feeling insecure in their job will not be so enthusiastic and so will have an inferior attitude to work, resulting in a deterioration in performance; for example if they are constantly thinking about new job opportunities or worrying about how they are going to meet household bills or to pay next month’s mortgage payment.
Ways to Reduce Job Stress
Stress in the workplace can be managed, although the solutions are not always straightforward. The first step is to identify the causes of the stress, because “Occupational stress does not always lead to distress” and if handled properly and effectively, the negative aspects of stress can be turned to positives including growth (Gupta & Chandwani, 2012).
Also on a positive note, gaining an understanding of the ways that stress affects workplace attitudes and the behavior of those affected, can help businesses devise proactive methods of resolving the causes of the stress such as flexible working, which may also help retain employees thereby lowering the turnover rate (Webb, n.d.).
However, because people are all individuals, the approaches to deal with stress should be as flexible as possible, perhaps comprising a combination of different strategies where necessary. It is also true that some jobs and occupations are more stressful than others, and that should be recognized and dealt with accordingly (Gupta & Chandwani, 2012).
Can Job Stress Have Positive Effects?
In most cases job stress has a negative effect on performance, although in certain situations the stress can act as a stimulus to greater efforts and better performance but only up to a certain point, after which distress can cause deterioration in performance (Gupta & Chandwani, 2012). That same sentiment was echoed by another author, stating that stress need not always be a negative factor and can in fact stimulate in a positive way, but that when the stress level becomes too great or too constant, it can become overwhelming (Maxon, 1999).
Conclusions
It is evident that work-related stress is not only one of the primary categories of stress, but can have significant effects on the attitudes and performance of workers as well as being a major cause of high turnover levels in businesses. There is evidence that the stress can be caused by a wide variety of situations and problems, not just within the workplace itself, but also from conflicts between family life and work, which nonetheless have consequences in terms of job attitudes and behaviors, in turn impinging on job performance and productivity.
Because of the high costs of the combined effects of workplace stress, businesses need to spend time, effort and money in managing stress in their workforce, in order to keep morale high, improve staff attitudes and performance, increase staff loyalty levels, maintain a good customer service reputation, minimize staff turnover rates, and more.
References
Maxon, R. (1999). “Stress in the Workplace: A Costly Epidemic.” Fairleigh Dickinson University. Available at: http://www.fdu.edu/newspubs/magazine/99su/stress.html [Accessed 02 June 2013].
May, K. (n.d.). “Causes & Effects of High & Low Staff Turnover.” The Houston Chronicle. Available at: http://smallbusiness.chron.com/causes-effects-high-low-staff-turnover-33939.html [Accessed 02 June 2013].
Gupta, A., & Chandwani, R. (2012). “Job Stress and Performance.” Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore. Available at: http://tejas.iimb.ac.in/articles/24.php [Accessed 02 June 2013].
Webb, C. (n.d.). “How Stress Affects Attitudes & Behaviors in the Work Environment.” The Houston Chronicle. Available at: http://smallbusiness.chron.com/stress-affects-attitudes-behaviors-work-environment-11304.html [Accessed 02 June 2013].
“What is Stress?” (n.d.). Health and Safety Executive (UK). [Accessed 07 June 2013].
“Workplace Stress.” (n.d.). The American Institute of Stress. Available at: http://www.stress.org/workplace-stress/ [Accessed 01 June 2013].
