The detrimental effects of stress often get downplayed and when it comes to workplace stress, this is especially true. People expect that work is supposed to be stressful and that if you are not stressed, you are not taking it seriously. However, this does not have to be the case. If you feel like a job is taking a strain on other aspects of your life, don’t hesitate to act.
Try talking to your boss and being honest about your health. You should try and work the best way you can, in a suitable environment. Though your work should be accommodating, when it comes down to it, there is no amount of money that can compensate for health problems due to stress.
Stress has serious consequences for both companies and their workers. Stress is a risk factor for basically every ailment you can think of, from life-threatening conditions like atherosclerosis all the way down the benign and seemingly unrelated conditions like athlete’s foot or Gout “Stress” is a catch-all term for various types of social pressure, setting, time constraint, expectation, conflict… the list goes on. All these factors, which might be roughly captured as someone’s situation, coalesce into a stress level that impacts our interactions, our work, and our daily life. With such a roomy definition, it’s easy to see why it’s hard to pin stress down and act against it in the workplace.
Perceiving Stress
Everyone experiences stress in their own way. Perception plays a vital role in the weight of each stress factor, which is informed by experience and is necessarily individual.
There are proxy physiological markers for stress, such as levels of cortisol (the “stress hormone”) in the body, hypertension, and gut function. However, metrics like these tend not to be monitored until someone is already receiving medical attention for stress – in which case it has already caused problems. It’s worth attempting to address sources of stress well before this happens.
In everyday life, we sometimes don’t acknowledge stress until there’s some objectively accepted reason for it, like a death in the family or going through a divorce. The “Rahe Stress Scale” attempts to quantify these stressful events by assigning a number score to them (in a way that should probably be taken with a grain of salt).
Stress can accumulate from many small sources, or spring from no clear source whatsoever. As an experience, it is purely personal. Because of that, it’s important to acknowledge people’s stress as they experience it and do away with the idea that there are qualifying stressful events. That thinking contributes to the perception that some people aren’t entitled to their stress because they make more money or have a seemingly “easy” role in an organization. This may aggravate their stress by encouraging them to hide it until it becomes a major problem.
Even if we acknowledge that everyone has a certain level of stress, it is not always outwardly obvious. It’s often the co-morbid companions of stress that get noticed. When workers are under pressure, they are prone to poor sleep, distraction, and substance abuse – all of which eventually become apparent and workers must be monitored for signs.
Cumulatively, workplaces try to capture all of these factors under “fit for duty” programs, which range from a simple form acknowledgement to apps that test performance in a game against a baseline. The point is to assess reaction time, focus and working memory believing that these can be taken together as a measure of cognitive readiness. At least it may raise a red flag if there is a sudden dip in performance for any reason, which can be further assessed.
Stress as a Root Cause of Hazards
Measures like these have value but fall short of addressing the root causes. The work situation itself may be the source of stress, with some studies finding nearly half of reported stressors relate to a person’s job.
The good news is that stress originating from work may be possible to control is proper assessment is done. Determining that workers are stressed is worthwhile; determining why is critical.
Some roles are inherently stressful, and it’s generally accepted that only certain individuals are suited to them. Level of responsibility, failure tolerance, work schedule, and the work environment all contribute to stress levels and may be inflexible aspects of doing a job.
A 9-1-1 Operator, for example, doesn’t have the luxury of making a mistake. This is the kind of factor that would be hard to address.
On the other hand, a retail job may be just as stressful because the boss is a tyrant and the culture are toxic. Maybe the shift rotation at a manufacturing plant where workers screw together widgets is messing with people’s sleep and they become increasingly irritable over time. Some factors can be easily addressed, and others can’t, the former should be the focus of corrective action. If your workers are stressed, consider that some or all of the following might be creating that situation:
Insufficient staff levels to meet demands, Inadequate training for workers contributing to frequent errors and a persistent feeling of not knowing what they’re doing, Supervisors lacking training in conflict management, Inappropriate allotment of hours and shift rotation, Monotony and boredom, Environmental factors, such as excessive heat or cold, obnoxious odors, and cramped workspaces, Inappropriate calculation of deadlines and workloads.
Each of the listed root causes have an obvious mitigation, and they should be factored into the organization’s overall management strategy once they have been identified using standard investigation tools. Actively addressing the causes may help to prevent future negative impacts.
Individual workers may endure any or all these factors in silence until an incident occurs, they become ill, or they simply leave the job for a better environment. At best, this is an overall risk to the organization because you’re failing to retain good workers. At its worse, it can contribute to poor worker health and an increase in incident rates.
Reducing Stress at Work Is Essential
Depression usually comes as a result of unfulfilled expectations. This is what happens when you suffer from workplace stress. You expect to be in a normal environment where you can showcase your skills and knowledge. Workplace stress ensues when you get nothing but tasks. And all this happens when you encounter lack of understanding. When you’re feeling negative, it’s your mind telling you to deserve more. Don’t hesitate to listen to it and find help or a better solution. Talk to a specialist or a friend; other people can help a lot
There is an onus on management to provide a safe and healthy work environment – one free of uncontrolled hazards, including excessive stress.
If anyone in your organization dismisses this as coddling workers, it’s worth reminding them of the overall effect stress can have on the bottom line. Fail to control workplace-induced stress and, given enough time, it will cost you.
Bio:
Dr. Bill Pomfret of Safety Projects International Inc who has a training platform, said, “It’s important to clarify that deskless workers aren’t after any old training. Summoning teams to a white-walled room to digest endless slides no longer cuts it. Mobile learning is quickly becoming the most accessible way to get training out to those in the field or working remotely. For training to be a successful retention and recruitment tool, it needs to be an experience learner will enjoy and be in sync with today’s digital habits.”