Job Stress and Management of Stress - Research Paper Example

Job Stress and Management of Stress Introduction Job is one of the most important parts of human life. The history of job dates back to the time God placed Adam and Even in the Garden of Eden, where He commanded Adam that he would only be able to eat from his sweat. Since then, humans have always had to work hard to earn income with which to use to fulfill personal needs, social responsibility, and to support dependants. Despite the benefits that people get from work, it is sometimes full of stress. In fact, some people often opt to leave their places of employment when the stress proves to be too much to bear. Job stress, in its simplest term, refers to stress that comes because of job-related issues such as stressful deadlines, performance expectation, and responsibilities. This discourse seeks to explore job stress and its impacts on workers. It will also explore stress management strategies that an employee can adopt to prevent or mitigate its consequences. Job stress is currently regarded as the leading cause of stress among American adults. In fact, reports conducted recently shows that a job stress has continued to rise. The continued rise in job stress has necessitated the formulation of urgent stress management strategies in companies to ensure that employees work in a stress free environment. The research conducted in 2007 showed that about three-quarters of American employees polled were experiencing symptoms of job-related stress. Another study conducted by the American Psychological Association (2008) found that about two-thirds of Americans identified work as the main source of stress in their lives. This accounted for a 15% rise compared to the year before. To make matters worse, about 30% of workers polled said that they were experiencing extreme level of job-related stress. Even though the unemployment rates have dropped significantly in recent time, job stress has continued to rise, according to a new survey conducted recently. The survey showed that, in every ten American workers, eight experiences work-related stress. According to a survey conducted by the American Institute of Stress (2012), which included a poll of 1,019 workers in America by phone, about 83% of all polled reported job stress. This finding indicated a significant rise in job stress since the figures stood at 73% the previous year. It was amazing to learn that only 17% of all those who were polled reported being comfortable and did not experience stress in their jobs. Causes of job stress The studies that have been commissioned by different agencies, including the Bureau of Labor Statistics has found a number of causation. In this regard, poor compensation has been identified as among the leading cause of job stress. A study conducted by the American Psychological Association (APA) (2007) revealed that most employees were experiencing stress in their places of employment due to low pay. Of all those who were polled during the survey, 43% reported low pay as one of the main causes of stress in their work. In most cases, those polled argued that the salaries they get from their employers is not commensurate with the workload they are assigned to do. Some are also concerned that the salaries they get from their employers are not enough to meet their personal and family needs. The U.S. is one of the countries that had been worse hit by the financial meltdown that began in 2007. The crisis made some companies lower the salaries of their workers in order to keep running. This might explain why there has been an increase in the number of those identifying low salary as the leading cause of stress in their jobs. According to a study conducted by the American Institute of Stress (2012), 14% of all polled in a sample of 1,019 employees reported low paycheck as being the main source of work-related stress. Most employees have also identified unreasonable workloads as a main source of stress in their jobs. According to a study conducted by Harris Interactive, 14% of those polled reported that unreasonable workload was the main cause of stress in their jobs. This accounted for a 5% increase compared to the previous year’s survey in which only 9% of those polled identified unreasonable workload as the main cause of work stress. According to those polled, employers have the tendency of assigning employees a lot of work which they require to be completed within a very short time. A study conducted by the American Psychological Association (2008) found out that many people tend to find themselves in a stressful situation when their job assignments have very strict and short deadlines. As a result, an employee finds himself or herself being stressed up by trying to meet the short deadline placed by the manager. Lack of opportunities for advancement has also been linked to job-related stress in most companies in the United States. Normally, employees tend to look for employers who create an environment for growth both academically and professionally. As such, when a company fails to grant an employee an opportunity to grow and advance in their careers, they tend to experience stress. In fact, this is one of the main causes of high turnover in most companies in the United States. This is because employees who are denied the opportunity to grow and advance in their careers tend to resign in search of companies which promote the growth of an employee. According to a study conducted by the American Psychological Association (2008), 43% of the respondents cited lack of opportunities for growth and advancement as the main source of job stress. Unrealistic job expectations are also another leading source of job-related stress for many employees. A study has found that most employees find themselves stressed up when the job expectations issued by the employer are too much and difficult to attain. When job expectation is set so high and difficult to achieve, this puts an employee in a stressful situation in trying to meet the expectation for fear of the consequences that may follow if the expectation is not met. According to a study conducted by the American Psychological Association (2007), 40% of workers polled in America cited unrealistic job expectation as one of the main source of stress in their work. In fact, the study also found out that setting high job expectation makes an employee feel demoralized when the target cannot be met, thereby resulting in stress and sometimes resignation. Job security has been identified as one of the most critical aspects that employees nowadays look in an employer. Research shows that most employees today tend to seek employment mainly on companies and organizations that provide job security. Unfortunately, the majority of companies in the U.S. does not offer job security. As such, those working in companies that do not offer job security tend to experience stress ranging from mild to extreme due to lack of job security. A study conducted by the American Psychological Association (2008) found that 34% of American employees experience job-related stress due to lack of job security. Those surveyed claim that the stress comes about for fear of sucking, retrenchment, restructuring, or downsizing, which might render them jobless. As a result, they are concerned that, in the event that the employer terminates their services, they may find it hard making ends meet. Working for longer hours has also been singled out as a leading cause of job stress to most employees in the United States. According to a study conducted by the American Psychological Association (2007), more than more than half of employers reported that business performance is affected by the stress that employees who work for long hours undergo. At the same time, of all the employees surveyed, most of them sited working past normal working hours as the main source of stress in their workstation. They claim that being put to stay at the workstation leaves them with very little time to attend to their personal and family issues. In fact, most employees ended up developing poor mental performance and increased sicknesses and injuries due to too much stress associated with working for several hours. Poor work environment has also been cited by many employers and employees as a source of stress in their workplace. Many people prefer working in a quiet and clean environment. As such, any deviation from this causes job stress. For instance, many employees and employers have cited noise such as those from the coworkers to result in destruction and stress. This is even worse when an office is situated in places that are noisy such as those bordering blacksmith shops. In fact, a study conducted by the Cornell University demonstrated that stress is not only caused by loud noise, but also even by low-level noise. The research found that the stress hormones are activated by even low-level noise (Koch, 2013). Research has shown that job stress can emanate from a number of sources. Layoff, company restructuring, or any change in management has also been found to be a major source of anxiety and stress to most employees. According to a Norwegian study, it was found that just a mere rumor of a closure of a factory resulted in a rapid increase in the pulse rate and blood pressure of workers (Koch, 2013). Some studies have revealed that job stress can emanate from lack of participations in decision-making. Most employees tend to get motivated when they are involved in the decision-making on issues affecting the company. As such, any failure to involve an employee in making crucial decisions affecting their welfare may result in a stressful situation. This source of stress had particularly been prevalent in bureaucratic organizations in which major decisions affecting the company is made by top-level management (Koch, 2013). The gender wage gap has also been found to be a major cause of stress to employees. In this regard, several studies have demonstrated that women have a high likelihood of citing low pay as the major sources of stress in their jobs. One study showed that, whereas only about 10% of men cited low pay as the most stressful aspect of their work, about 18% of women would say the same (Swanson, 2000). Several studies have found that job stress is the major source of stress for most American adults today. The studies have also linked job stress to the increase in the number of American adults suffering from diseases such as hypertension, heart ailments, and depression among other diseases. In Los Angeles and New York, for example, the link between job stress and heart attacks is very common to the extent that any law enforcement officer, who suffers from a coronary event on or off the job, is assumed to suffer from a work-related stress and compensated accordingly (Mayo Clinic Staff, 2013). Consequences of job stress Wyatt (2008) observes that even though the consequences of job stress can sometimes bring a positive outcome in an organization, its negative consequences outweighs the benefits. In this regard, research has shown that work stress can sometimes serve as a useful motivator for an employee to perform, as long as it is provided in the right way that does not strain an employee. As such, many employers sometimes take advantage of this argument to exert a lot of pressure on employees to increase their productivity. Nevertheless, psychologists have warned that too much stress can also result in a decline, in productivity. According to a study conducted back in 1908, researchers observed that once the stress surpasses a mid to high level, the productivity of an employee drops significantly (Wyatt, 2008). The researchers also observed that the drop in productivity makes the bottom line suffer. As aforementioned, the consequences of job stress are mostly negative. This explains why companies are required to institute proper mechanisms to manage job stress. Firstly, job stress has been cited as one of the leading cause of accidents on jobs in the United States. Research has found that stress-related sleeplessness or destructions are responsible for about 60 to 80% of accidents on jobs, according to the American Institute of Stress. Some of the accidents that occur because of job stress results in deaths or injuries. In fact, according to the American Institute of Stress, these accidents are to blame for the increase in the number of disabled people in most companies. This has been particularly so in the construction industries, where job stress has been linked to an increase in the number of falls from heights (Wyatt, 2008). Work stress has also results in the increased claim for compensation, which costs organizations millions of dollars. In fact, as the claims for compensation continue to increase; most companies are likely to become bankrupt in several states, in the country. Research has shown the most stressed up employees tend to become fatigued and prone to injuries and mistakes. This increases the health costs that companies have to incur treating or compensating employees. A reported conducted by the American Institute of Stress found that companies incur twice as high healthcare cost on stress management than for other employees. According to the study, stress-related illnesses such as heart diseases, manic disorders, or hypertension, cost companies approximately $200 to $300 billion every year in lost productivity. These statistics has acted as a wake up call to many companies by seeing the need to act now (Hiriyappa, 2013). Job stress is also linked to the rising cases of absenteeism in the workplace. According to the American Institute of Stress, about one million employees fail to report to their workstations because of stress. This costs companies about $602 per worker per year. Most companies also end up suffering from decreased productivity when an employee fails to report for work due to stress. In fact, research has shown that companies spend about 26% of health-related costs on lost productivity. This figure is likely to increase as the stress level among employees continues to rise (Hiriyappa, 2013). Job stress is also to blame for the increasing cases of presenteeism in most organizations today. Presenteeism refers to a situation in which employees report for work, but fails to work up to their capabilities on the job. In certain research conducted on companies in the U.S., about 60% of respondents reported experiencing decline in productivity due to work-stress. The consequences of presenteeism are many and manifests in different ways. Some of the consequences of presenteeism in an organization include increased mistakes, lack of commitment on job, poor quality work, too much time being spent on an easy task, increased burnouts, resentment, anger, low morale, and impaired social functioning, just to name but a few. In total, presenteeism costs companies an estimated $150 billion every year in lost productivity, according to the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans report. Researchers have also warned that the cost could even the higher is nothing is done to address presenteeism, since it may result in increased absenteeism, chronic illnesses, job resignations and disability (Willingham, 2008). As earlier stated, most companies spent huge sums of money to pay for healthcare costs due to job-stress related issues. According to a study conducted by the national institute for Occupational Safety and health (NIOSH), it was observed that workers who experience stress on their jobs incur about 46% of healthcare costs higher than they incur the non-stressed employees. At the same time, the survey found that about 60 to 90% of doctor visits are attributable to stress-related diseases and symptoms. Normally, these doctor visits cost companies huge sums of money for consultation and treatments (Wyatt, 2008). Davidson (2001) demonstrated that when stress is left untreated for a long period this might increase the risk of an employee developing chronic diseases, which as costly to treat. Some of the illnesses associated with stress that an employee may develop include diabetes, heart diseases, hypertension, and cancer. These diseases are expensive to treat and collectively accounts for a huge amount of healthcare costs for companies. For instance, diabetes alone cost companies approximately $58 billion in 2007 in term of direct expenses. At the same time, another 15 million was lost because of work delays that occurred due to absenteeism while another 120million were lost due to reduced productivity that comes with illnesses. Apart from the chronic diseases, work stress has the effect of lowering the immune system of an employee, which increases the risk of developing flu, colds, and other infectious diseases. Additionally, workers experiencing stress have a higher chance of experiencing pain-related conditions and many other ailments ranging from teeth grinding to fatigue. In fact, according to a survey conducted by the American Psychological Association (2008), it was found that 53% of employees reported having developed fatigue due to job stress. Job stress has also been linked to certain psychological effects. According to the American Institute of Stress, stressed up workers tend to experience job dissatisfaction, poor concentration, low morale and temperamental. The researchers also found out that stressed employees are at a higher risk of developing mental problems, including substance abuse, anxiety, and depression. In fact, stress and clinical depression often go in handy and identify family problems as the second and third most major problems in the workplace. A study conducted by the National Institutes of Mental Health estimated that depression has caused businesses about $23 billion every year in lost workdays. Another Study conducted by the Lluminari Landmark Study in 2004 found that stressed workers are at a higher risk of developing the following mental and physical effects: substance abuse, anxiety, demoralization, heart diseases, hypertension, depression, certain cancers, back pain, and certain infectious diseases (Wein, 2010). Job stress is also linked with the development of certain unhealthy coping habits. In this regard, the Kent Center for Human and Organizational Development (2010) observed that to manage stress, about 40% of people smoke, 35% shopped; 41% gambled while 27% drunk alcohol. The researchers also noted that stress results in overeating habit, which increases the chances of developing obesity, a disease that currently cost businesses over $13 billion every year in lost productivity and medical expenses. In one survey, about 26% of employees polled cited that they added more than 10 pounds at work, while 12% of the respondents said they added more than 20 pounds. The survey found that almost two-thirds of workers said that they normally eat unhealthy snacks, including candy and chips at their workstations at least once a day. Another 25% said they normally eat more than twice a day at work. Such eating habits have been linked to the increased cases of obesity in most companies in the U.S. (The Kent Center for Human and Organizational Development, 2010). Stress management strategies Stress is indeed a big problem to many businesses in the United States today. The consequences of job stress impact negatively on both the employer and the employee. As such, it is high time for managers to consider initiating effective stress management strategies to ensure that employees work in a stress free environment. This would help in increasing job satisfaction and productivity, which would translate to organizational success. To reduce stress in an organization, experts advise that employers must demonstrate that they value not only the productivity of their workers, but also the health of the workers. In addition, experts advise that the strategies adopted should promote changes in an organization, as well as encourage workers to learn to manage their stress, regardless of the source of stress. Further, the strategies adopted need not be expensive or elaborate. Instead, managers should plan ways to improve communication and recognize ways in which employees can become more effective (Peck, 2007). One of the best strategies that managers can adopt to reduce stress in the company is to initiate programs that recognize the accomplishments made by workers, as well as promoting leadership training. Research has shown that most employees are motivated when their efforts are being recognized by the employer. At the same time, recognizing employee accomplishment helps in reducing stress since it boosts the employee’s morale to increase their effort. North Side Food Company located in the Pittsburg area is a classical example of a company that has created a conducive working environment free of stress by recognizing the efforts of its employees. The company reported the company usually recognizes the accomplishments made by its employees. In addition, the company has also been able to manage the stress in the workplace by meeting regularly with its employees every six weeks with the aim of identifying workplace stressors and begin communication between workers and management (Choudhury, 2012). Experts advise that stress management begin by evaluating the degree of stress in the workplace by analyzing the illnesses, rates of absenteeism, performance problems, and turnover rates. These aspects act as a pointer of whether a stress exists in an organization or not and the causes. Knowing the stressor is important for managers since it helps in coming up with an effective management strategy for any particular stressor. However, before developing a strategy to address a stressor, experts advise that managers should ask employees the strategies, which they feel can remedy the situation. Once this has been done, managers are required to ensure that workloads are in line with the resources and capabilities of employees. Managers should also ensure that the roles and responsibilities of workers are clearly defined. The managers are also expected to provide employees with the opportunity to participate in the decision-making affecting their jobs. In addition, managers should ensure that there is effective communication to assist in minimizing uncertainties regarding career development and future employment panoramas. All this strategies aim at addressing stressors that emanate from poorly designed job role (Sormaz and Tulgan, 2003). Managers should also provide employees with the opportunity to attend to family issues by creating a flexible working schedule. Where necessary, employees can be allowed to work from home. In addition, employers should ensure that employees are allowed longer lunch hour breaks for socialization. The effective implementation of these strategies has proved effective in minimizing stressors in the workplace (Stranks, 2013). Apart from the stress, management strategies initiated by the employer, employees also have a responsibility to take measures aimed at minimizing stress in the workplace. Firstly, psychologists recommend that employees should make sure that they have enough workday breaks. In this regard, they advise that an employee should always dedicate at least 10 minutes for personal things as a way of refreshing the mind outlook. During this time, an employee may take a brief walk, socialize with colleagues and discuss issues not related to jobs, or just sit quietly and take a nap. However, in the event that an employee feels angry, psychologists advise that the employee should walk away. This is intended to give the employee time for recollection (Boghosian, 2005). Finally, employees are advised to set reasonable standards for themselves and others. In this regard, employees and employers are advised not to expect perfection. This is because those who expect perfection normally find themselves stressed up when they cannot achieve what they initially thought they could (Hiriyappa, 2013). Conclusion The increase in job stress in recent times is so alarming. The surveys conducted since 2007 have indicated the job stress has been increasing every year. These impact negatively both on the business, as well as on the employees. Therefore, it is important for managers to initiate stress management measures to reduce stressors in the workplace. In addition, workers must also initiate measures that minimize stress in their jobs. This will help in increasing job satisfaction, thus productivity. References American Psychological Association (2007). A major health problem in the U.S. Retrieved from http://www.apahelpcenter.org/articles/article.php?id=165 American Psychological Association (2008). Stress in America. Retrieved from http://apahelpcenter.mediaroom.com/file Boghosian, J. (2005). 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