...Workplace Stress Stress is a factor in everyone’s life mainly during difficult times such as divorce, marriage, and even when buying a house, but the most stress seems to be related to the workplace. Employees deal with firings, change in financial status, and problems with the boss, altered responsibilities, variations in work hours, business readjustments, retirement and vacations. Stress interferes with your productivity and can reduce your physical and emotional health and affects everyone differently. Stress is a normal physical response to events that make you feel threatened or upset your balance in some way. The body’s defenses kick into high gear in a rapid, automatic process known as the “fight-or-flight” reaction, or the stress response. The stress response is the body’s way of protecting you. When it is working properly, it helps you stay focused, alert, and energetic. In certain emergency situations, stress can save your life. It goes extra strength to defend you. Stress response also helps you meet challenges. Managers should be educated and aware of the many symptoms of stress because if they go unnoticed and unattended they can lead to bigger problems. People feel overwhelmed and several signs and symptoms can occur such as: • Feeling anxious, irritable, or depressed • Apathy, loss of interest in work. • Problems sleeping • Fatigue, • Trouble concentrating • Muscle tension or headaches • Stomach problems • Social withdrawal • Loss of...
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...Stress at Work Have you ever had a job or position that left you feeling pressure, anxiety, discontent, or completely disconnected? You are not alone; nearly everyone who is employed has experienced those feelings at one time or another in their life. The world, in which we live, is fast paced and ever changing. Companies have grown increasingly demanding and as a result the workload has increased while the workforce has not. As less people are used in the work force the workload is ever increasing. The stress at work can eventually spill over into all aspects of that person’s life thus causing more damage and further issues. The key is to recognize the stress and the impact it has and use the best way to manage stress while still being able to adapt to a changing working environment. Recognizing the Stress In order to solve any issue, we must first acknowledge the problem and then understand what is causing us to have that problem. Stress can creep up on anyone; it can remain un-detected for quite some time. Our body is a wonderfully constructed marvel of engineering brilliance. More often than not, when something goes wrong, there are warning signs exhibited. While it is very common to have busy days at work, there is a difference between being busy and being stressed. The various signs of stress may include frequent headaches, stomachaches, elevated blood pressure, lack of sleep, depression, and many other symptoms. There are a multitude of things that can contribute...
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...“What is stress at work? Set out the main causes of stress at work and explores some strategies for reducing the impact of stress on individuals and organizations. Give examples to support your points”. In modern society, both in and outside work, some struggle under the strong influences and expectations we meet on a daily basis while also setting requirements and expectations for ourselves most wish to live up to. Private matters can influence the situation in the workplace. Conditions and events in the home, obligations to children and old parents, may require time and attention also during working hours, and in some situations so much so that it can go beyond the job and ones capability. This can amplify stress experienced on workplace. According to MHF(Mental Health Foundation) «calls for more help in managing stress as; 1. 59% of British adults say their life is more stressful than it was five years ago 2. Money and work top survey results as main causes of stress in Britain 3. People three times more likely to drink alcohol to help deal with stress than would go to a GP. Results from a recent Mental Health Foundation survey indicate stress is becoming increasingly common in these difficult economic times; a fact also highlighted by the recent NHS Information Centre survey revealing that hospital admissions for stress have risen by seven per cent in just 12 months.» (Mentalhealth.org.uk, 2014) An understanding of the concept of stress has evolved from many...
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...It is not unusual for people to feel stress in their everyday lives. Stress can be found in most aspects of people lives, including in their home, in their relationships, and even in the workplace. Some people even consider their job as the most stressful aspect of their lives. According to Robbins (2003), stress can be defined as a dynamic condition in which an individual is confronted with an opportunity, constraint or demand related to what he needs and for which the outcomes are perceived to be both uncertain and important. When people feel stress, they will have several different symptoms. These reactions can be divided into three types, physiological, psychological and behavioral symptoms (Robbins, 2003). Physiological symptom is a condition whereby the stress felt by individual would affect the individual physically, such as headache, heart diseases and other physical discomfort. Psychological symptom is when the stress felt by the individual is affecting the individual psychologically or emotionally. When the individual feels stress, he would experience some psychological discomfort, such as anxiety which could lead to depression. Another symptom is when the stress affecting the individual in his or her daily behaviors or actions. In the daily lives, one symptom can lead to another symptom. In 1954, Abraham Harold Maslow (1908-1970) suggested the “Maslow’s hierarchy of needs” theory. According to this theory, the most basic needs of humans are the physiological needs...
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...Work Pressure and Stress How do symptoms of stress differ from male to female? Date: 25/05/2012 Module code: MN1010N Tutor: Chaidi Fourali By Edou Mota ID no: 11016465 Contents Abstract3 Hypothesis 14 Hypothesis 24 Introduction4 Methodology5 Sample4 Data Collection4 Data Analysis4 Findings4 Literary Review4 Discussion5 Conclusion6 References7 Abstract Work-related stress occurs when people may be presented with work demands and pressures that are not matched to their knowledge and abilities and which challenges their ability to cope. According to Hans Selye, acknowledge internationally as the “father of stress research” (1936), defined stress as “the nonspecific response of the body to any demand placed upon it”. Researchers continue to struggle today in an effort to agree on exactly what is stress and how it can be measured (AIS, 1979). Stress is a word that comes from the Latin word stringere meaning to draw tight, Cannon (1929) defined stress in terms of the internal physiological state of subjects exposed to threatening or exciting situations, e.g. the raised adrenaline secretion that can be observed in the well-known ‘fight or flight’ reaction (Arnorld and Randall et al., 2010) For several decades, occupational health researchers have been concerned with factors at work that may cause stress (Innstrand et al., 2012). Work-related stress and work pressure draw attention of many researchers due to the increase...
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...Guide Work-related stress What the law says ‘Stress at work is a major issue … together we can successfully manage and prevent it.’ Health and Safety Executive (HSE) ‘Whatever your industry, size of business or location, there are things you can do for the health and well-being of your employees.’ Health, Work and Well-being ‘Work can have a positive impact on our health and well-being. Healthy and well-motivated employees can have an equally positive impact on the productivity and effectiveness of a business.’ Acas ‘Managers need to know what stress is; and also understand what skills, abilities and behaviours are necessary to manage employees in a way that minimises work-related stress.’ CIPD Acknowledgements This guide was written and conceived by John Hamilton, Head of Safety, Health and Wellbeing at Leeds Metropolitan University and a visiting lecturer in health and safety law at Salford Law School, University of Salford. info@stressguidance.org www.stressguidance.org Contents Introduction 2 In this guidance 3 Identifying a problem 4 Preventing harm 6 Protecting individuals 7 Managing the workplace 8 The Management Standards for Work-related Stress 10 Managing stress checklist 11 Further reading 12 About this guide 13 Work-related stress: What the law says 1 Introduction This guidance summarises the legal duties that employers Statutory...
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...knowledge on stress at work. This text provides information on how to help people in the work place to reduce the stress. Phrases like: to help, to familiarise, to promote etc. are helping to establish the meaning of the text. The author of the text wants to show us about the seriousness of the problem by pointing out some words repeatedly. The text is divided into few sections with highlighted headings usage of bold and italic fonts, bullets. The text is written in a brochure format, where author used formal language. 2. Target audience for this document is everyone involved with an organisation he/she works for. When we read through the document, we encounter words like manager, employer and employee. The text is generally targeted for the employers as it provides guidelines to assist employee’s stress at work. 3. What is work – related stress, and why do we need to tackle it? We all experience stress and pressure in our personal and working lives. When we are unable to cope any longer and pressure grows then comes stress. It stops us from performing at our best. The HSE definition of stress is “the adverse reaction a person has to excessive pressure or other types of demand placed upon them”. Work-related stress can be solved by looking at the issues and finding out the ways to tackle them. HSE has produced the leaflet on work-related stress for employees and their representatives. What the Management Standards mean to me? * Better understanding of stress as manager...
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...Stress in the Workplace What's Eating Your Company? | | | In today's human-capital workplace, stress can be a company's greatest asset or worst liability. The right amount of stress can drive your staff to achieve at high levels. Excessive stress can hurt morale, slow productivity, and lead to a variety of maladies, from chronic absenteeism to workplace violence. In this article, we talk to Barbara Parton, a business consultant who specializes in increasing the value of a company's human capital, to learn more about workplace stress and find out what you can do to manage it. Stress is "not a bad thing, but a necessary thing," according to Barbara Parton. Like a stringed instrument, people need a certain amount of tension in order to perform. Too little stress, and the instrument won't produce the right sound. Too much stress, and the string snaps. Companies need stress to drive production, however, stress can easily escalate, and left unchecked, it can have a negative effect on a company's bottom line. Research shows that the following costs can be directly attributed to excessive stress: * 21.5% of healthcare costs * 40% of turnover costs * 50% of presenteeism (low productivity) * 50% of unscheduled absences * 33% of disability and workers comp costs Unlike cars or machinery, there is no ready gauge or monitor to diagnose human stress. As a result, companies often implement changes with little to no information about how their workers will be affected...
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...Work-related Stress BBA3050 – Management and Organizational Behavior March 11, 2014 Abstract Today’s working Americans are faced with many challenges. A low-stress job can go a long way toward improving their quality of life. Typically, a low-stress job is made up of a combination of factors, including work environment, job competitiveness and risk. It is important to deal with organizational stress by recognizing the signs and sources of stress and to develop a strategy for dealing with stress. Work-related Stress The workplace is full of ups and downs. Change is inevitable and is what makes business boom. Although, when change occurs, it is human nature to try to balance ourselves and return to homeostasis, or a steady state of being. While we are trying to right ourselves, we experience something called stress. Stress, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, is “constraining force or influence: as a force exerted when one body or body part presses on, pulls on, pushes against, or tends to compress or twist another body or body part; the deformation caused in a body by such a force, a physical, chemical, or emotional factor that causes bodily or mental tension and may be a factor in disease causation, a state resulting from a stress; especially : one of bodily or mental tension resulting from factors that tend to alter an existent equilibrium: job-related stress”. Even there, in the dictionary, Mr. Webster points out to us that stress is apparent at...
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...REPORT WORK RELATED STRESS BY JULIE SMITH 2ND SEPTEMBER 2010 Terms of Reference/ 100 Introduction/100 Methodology/300 I created a survey based upon a questionnaire produced by HSE(DATE AND WEB). It was based around the 6 management standards HSE (date and web) of role, demand, change, support, control and relationships. Initially I intended to have equal questions per each section, however, this made the survey to long and the questions that I removed were not evenly based. The survey was made up with; * Role = 2 questions * Demand = 3 questions * Control = 4 questions * Support = 4 questions * Relationships = 2 questions * Change = 3 questions. Candidates were given the choice of 5 options for scoring from; never, seldom, sometimes, often and always. Added to these were 3 further questions on organisational procedures, employee rights and had they suffered work related stress to which they could answer yes or no. I produced 20 surveys which were distributed to members of staff employed by UCS by my tutor on my behalf; hence total anonymity has been sustained as I have no idea who they were given to. The staffing positions ranged from lecturers to academic support staff of which a total of 18 completed surveys were returned to the student academic services for my collection again retaining anonymity. My initial study revealed that the surveys had been completed by 14 females and 4 males, of which 10 were teaching staff and the remaining...
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...of many minorities who are usually discriminated against in the workplace. Interestingly, since companies “have to” hire applicants without discriminating, they found that it is actually beneficial to have diversity in the work environment. There are many advantages to having diversity in age, gender, and disabled employees in the workforce. Age diversity is healthier and more interesting in the workplace. It becomes a learning experience for both young and old age groups. Many young employees learn from the older groups that have been a part of the company longer. Likewise, many older employees learn about the new, fresh ideas from the younger workers. Both age groups tend to balance each other out. While the younger employees tend to be fun and agile, they usually do not have the discipline or the stamina as the older workers, so it is good to have the older workers in the company to help keep the younger guys on point. Young workers are easier to train; therefore, they retain the company’s goals and standards easily. The age groups are different, so they also have different experiences and insights which make it better for the work environment. There may be times when tempers and attitudes can get out of control, so it is important that good managers work closely with the groups to makes sure there is fairness. Even though there may be conflict between the age groups, it needs to be understood that they are both needed in the company and both contribute to the company in their...
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...Within the social work profession, stress is an element that can be experienced by the client and the social worker. Stress is considered the physical, mental, and emotional strain that results in negative consequences to those that experience it (American Institute of Stress, 2017). For instance, stress for a social worker and their client can begin influencing their behaviors based on those stressful experiences or by observing others in a stressful situation. In social psychology, these changes in social behavior are based on the learning theory (Lewis, 1936). For this paper, the direct experiences of stressful situations will be discussed and applied to the learning theory of social behavior. The impact of stress through the learning theory...
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...Perspective on Organisation Stress at work and motivational issues Stress at work is a challenging and very common reaction that is perceived by individuals in a working dimension. Stress arising from the conditions of a situation could be pervasive and crucial in its impact on workers, their families and organizations. It is also common thought that management of job stress is a significant key for improving individual performance and enhancing the effectiveness of a certain working dimension. This topic is a substantial interest to researchers and managers, as well as society and various studies where carried on in order to analyze this phenomenon and find a cause and a solution. In 1936 Hans Selye, an Austrian endocrinologist, was one of the earliest scientists that tried to define stress, characterizing it as a non specific outcome of demands made upon the organism as in physical as well as psychological situations. It could affect anyone at any level with no restrictions concerning the working sector and the size of the organisation. The strain caused by the stress has a very serious repercussion on the economical dimension: in fact, according to the International Labour Society, the job related stress cost more than $120 billion per year. It is also the second most reported health problem related to work, influencing 22% of workers within the EU (in 2005) and according to the most recent studies the percentage is even higher today and likely to increase. This aspect...
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...Work Related Stress and its management I worked for JP Morgan Chase a Teller for 1 year ½. The Company is the second largest bank in the US. They support a lot of charitable organizations that are beneficial to helping the less fortunate. They are also very helpful and concerned about their employees and their well beings. So the company itself has a great way of showing their caring for people. But it is a very stressful place to work. The book talks about different subtitles that tie in to Stress one in particular that I’ve encountered on a daily bases is Work over load. Work over load is defined in lame terms as the situation in which someone has too much work to do. As a teller being there the longest out of everyone in the branch, my mangers put to much responsibility on me as an employee. Such as making sure schedule was done properly, making sure I filled my TCD on time, making sure other teller was aware of their duties. Really doing they job wshile they leave early or take long luches. Sometimes they would argue about my school schedule because it was “so called inconvincing them. To me I considered that very stressful and a workover load. I am a big person on work and life balance but being overload with duties that’s really not your responsiblilty will cause health problems and even so life problems. But I had to make a choice to tell them that school was my main priority and and sometimes school is a over load if you allow it. Ive always been taught as young adults...
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...Everyone, at some point, experiences mental or emotional strain; this is known as stress. Stress is a natural part of life that can come in both negative and positive forms. While positive stress can give a person the drive and motivation necessary to succeed, negative stress can lead to severe consequences, especially in the workplace (Seidl, 2009). Work-related stress can cause serious problems for employees as well as the organizations they work for; as such, it is important to be aware of these problems and the factors which contribute to work-related stress must be addressed. Causes of Work-Related Stress Over the course of a day, most adults spend at least eight hours of their time in their work environment; this amounts to a third of their day, and as much as half of their waking hours. During that time, pressures that are placed on those people can lead to stress. Exploring specific factors which can lead to stress at work is necessary for us to better understand the topic. • Lack of Control: People are unable to influence the demands or restrictions placed on them. • Ambiguous Expectations: Employees are unclear on their job functions, or experience conflict between their roles and assignments. • Pressure: Employees feel their work is “piling up” or there is not enough time to accomplish tasks. • Communication: Employees feel left in the dark in regards to the organization’s goals, or their futures within the organization. • Support: Employees are not given...
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