- Introduction
While some stress is inevitable in life, undue amounts of stress in the workplace can have a very detrimental effect on an individual’s life and mental health if it continues for any significant amount of time. There are a plethora of reasons for stress in the workplace; each reason impacts individuals differently, as everyone handles stress levels with completely different levels of competency. There are, essentially, five factors that govern the amount of stress that an individual feels in the workplace; in an ideal work environment, each type of stress will be minimized as much as possible and the effects of stress on the individual mitigated. These factors are demands, control, support, relationships, and role; the impact of each of these reasons will be investigated in depth in this discussion.
Stress is a physiological response to one’s environment, and when one’s environment is too stressful, the long-term effects of stress can cause serious physical and mental harm to an individual. This is why it is important to offset the effects of stress in the workplace-- a workplace that is too stressful is likely to be full of unhappy and ill employees, as long-term stress can affect one’s immune system and overall sense of well-being.
- Reasons for Stress in the Workplace
- Demands
Having a demanding job is often one of the reasons cited for stress in the workplace. A “demanding” job may, in fact, be different for everyone-- what one employee may consider to be relatively realistic demands, another may consider to be altogether inappropriate demands on their time (Arnold et al., 2010). Some work environments are much more demanding than others as well: for instance, a doctor in an Emergency Room must be capable of dealing with stress from emotional situations more effectively than a fast food worker must. This does not negate the fact that the fast food worker also experiences stress in his or her work environment, nor does it negate the fact that there are real demands on a fast food worker-- however, the doctor’s basic threshold for stress must be much higher, and demands on his or her time will, by default, be much greater (Arnold et al. 2010).
The problem often arises when there is friction between what the employee expects for demands on his or her time versus what the company or organization expects; if the organization expects significant overtime but the employee was not expecting to put in that kind of time, there can be friction between expectations and demands on the part of the employee and his or her managers (Alan et al., 2010). Long hours and a heavy workload are both indicators that a job has unreasonable demands on the individual, and may lead to stress and burnout as a result of the culture of the workplace (Alan et al., 2010).
Another important thing to consider regarding the demands of a workplace is the problem of changing expectations. While some of this is covered in section E, changing demands and changing expectations in the workplace can be incredibly toxic for the individual who constantly feels as though they cannot catch up with all the work they have to do (Alan et al., 2010). This quickly leads to a constant feeling of low-level panic, as though the individual is in a sinking ship and cannot bail themselves out quickly enough. Management often has to find a way to delegate tasks to employees, and sometimes there are conflicting orders given when changes are made and management has to find a way to delegate new tasks. Ensuring that employees are not feeling as though demands are unfair or unrealistic is a good way to minimize workplace stress for all involved (Alan et al., 2010).
- Control
Employees need to feel as though they have control in their working environments to ensure that their stress levels remain low. Employees who feel as though they do not have control of their working environments often feel as though they are merely cogs in a machine-- parts of a whole, rather than individual parts that are both independent and necessary. This issue goes hand-in-hand with the issue of support-- section C-- because without adequate support from employers and management, employees will never feel as though they have any control over their situation in the company.
Employees who feel as though they have control over the pace at which they work and the ability to use their skills to complete work are more likely to feel less stress regarding the control aspect of their jobs. They are more likely to feel satisfied with their jobs if they can communicate adequately with employers regarding the projects that they do and the skills that they feel most comfortable
- Support
Support is not just an employer or manager’s willingness to address and respond to employee concerns, although that is certainly part of the support system that must be put into place for employees. Support also refers to the ability of employees to communicate all types of concerns to their employer or manager. Specific systems must be put into place so that all employees know that there is a very structured system for communicating concerns to employers and management (Fincham and Rhodes, 2005).
An employee who needs support in his or her role as employee will begin to feel unnecessarily stressed when he or she is faced with a situation in which the employer is unaccessible for some reason, whether this reason is real or merely a perceived inaccessibility (Fincham and Rhodes, 2005). Communicating proper support channels to employees is just as important as actually establishing those support channels; if employees are unaware that those channels exist, then they are as non-functional as if they did not exist at all. Finally, it is also important for both employees and employers to receive regular feedback. This will keep channels of communication open and help management determine whether or not more support structures are necessary-- and if they are, in what locations within the organization they are necessary (Fincham and Rhodes, 2005).
- Relationships
Relationships within the workplace can be very difficult. Of course, everyone should be free from bullying and harassment in their workplace; this is a fact that few would disagree with. However, it is not always easy for an employer to determine which relationships are normal in a business environment, and which are problematic; bullies and abusers are often adept at hiding their behavior. As a result, it is important to have open lines of communication with all employees to ensure that they feel comfortable reporting unwanted behavior.
Unfortunately, other employees and employee relationships are often one of the biggest stressors that an individual can have in a work environment. Not all individuals work well together, and sometimes personalities clash in a very real way. When this happens, there needs to be a support system in place for employees to contact employers and go through a mediation process. This will alleviate much of the stress on both parties, as well as bystanders in the workplace who may or may not be tangentially involved.
Relationships do not have to be abusive to be strained. Sometimes certain people just do not work together well in any environment; when this is the case, these individuals must be coached to work together with more efficiency and respect. Respect for each other and respect for other employees is of paramount importance, and a negative working environment will cause problems for the entire office, not merely the people involved in the dispute. Indeed, disputes between employees can even become a human resources issue if the conflict escalates to the point where a hostile work environment is created.
- Role
Employees, understandably, want to understand what their role is in the organization. Role is important; when an employee does not understand his or her job, it is difficult to fulfill the role that is envisioned for him or her by the company. If the employee and the employer have a different understanding of what the employee’s role should be in the workplace, the employee may have significant amounts of stress trying to understand what his or her role should be in the employer’s eyes.
Any change in employee role will also cause stress to the employee; this is unavoidable, but it can and should be mitigated with the use of good communication between employer and employee. An employer who does not communicate and does not encourage the employee to communicate will undoubtedly find him or herself juggling employees who are uncertain about their position in the company, and their new purpose within the hierarchical structures of the organization. Managers and employers who do not continuously reassess communication and roles within the hierarchical organization of the company may also find that roles have shifted unbidden-- or need to be shifted-- and employees are feeling stress about their roles in the company because of this shift or lack of shift.
- Negative Impacts of Stress in the Workplace
Stress is, of course, a primarily physiological response to the external stimuli that exist in an individual’s environment; because people are in their workplace for so many hours each day, extended levels of stress can be quite problematic for the body. As a result, it is important to reduce stress levels as much as possible, although it is impossible to reduce stress completely. Too much stress can lead to employee underachievement or even employee burnout; emotional stress may lead to employees leaving a company or a field of business altogether, especially in fields that are high-stress and emotionally taxing.
In addition, there is an increasingly large instance of employees feeling as though their employment is not permanent. Cooper (1998) writes about this phenomenon, stating: “in addition to downsizing and all its nefarious consequences, the logical extension of the privatisation of the public sector has been the privatisation of the private sector and a growth in outsourcing. The development of outsourcing further erodes the relationship between employer and employee because it leads inexorably toward a more insidious work environment in which the short-term contract, freelance culture or what employers euphemistically refer to as 'the flexible workforce', reigns supreme. The psychological contract between employer and employee in terms of reasonably permanent employment for work well done is now seriously at risk of being broken” (Cooper, 1998). In short, there is a very real issue with employees feeling as though their employment is constantly in jeopardy; as a result, they are handling stressful situations for much longer and suffering consequences as a result.
- Solutions for Reducing the Impact of Stress on the Individual
Addressing issues with the five factors that govern the amount of stress that an individual feels in the workplace will help reduce the stress that an employee feels in the workplace; in an ideal work environment, each type of stress will be minimized as much as possible and the effects of stress on the individual mitigated. Again, the factors that are commonly associated with stress in the workplace are demands, control, support, relationships, and role. Communication and employee support from management is fundamentally important for reducing the amount of stress that an employee feels. When an employee has a good relationship with management, nearly all issues with all other types of stress can be mitigated; merely talking to an employer in an attempt to solve the problem is often enough to offset all but the most significant amounts of stress for employees.
References
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Blosi, W., Cook, C., Hunsaker, P. (2007) (2nd European edition), Management and Organisational Behaviour, McGraw-Hill: Maidenhead.
Bratton, J., Forshaw. C, Callinan, Sawchuk, P and Corbett, M. (2010) Work and Organizational Behaviour: Understanding the Workplace Palgrave.
Buelens, M., Sinding, K and Waldstrom, C. (2011) (Fourth Edition) Organisational Behaviour: McGraw-Hill Education: UK
Cooper, C.L. (1998) ‘Working in a Short-term Culture’, Management Today, February: 5.
Dick, P. and Ellis, S. (2006) Introduction to Organizational Behaviour (3rd Ed) Mc Graw Hill: Berkshire.
Fincham, R and Rhodes, P. (2005) (Fourth Edition) Principles of Organizational Behaviour: Oxford University Press: Oxford
