Factors Affecting Occupational Stress Essay

In today’s world Stress has become a ubiquitous word. It doesn’t matter if you are working in a highly competitive environment like at Wall Street or in a quiet neighbourhood like in country side or in any tier 2 or tier 3 cities; some amount of stress is inevitable. Stress is a highly serious problem in today world having repercussions on the physical and mental health of individuals. This negative effect can be disastrous for the organizations also. Due to stress the wellbeing of the employee falls and as a result organization itself becomes unwell. The organization sustainability falls as its productivity reduces. Stress can originate from many sources, like relationship problems, obligations and promises to family, friends

This thesis explores the area of occupational stress at a well-known construction company in Sweden, by interviewing employees about their views and perceptions of causes and effects of job stress and what areas that calls for improvement. To get a broader picture of the employee perceptions, an employee survey was sent out to a larger group of employees working in the Gothenburg area. It is clear that construction personnel suffer from a high level of occupational stress. A difference was spotted between those who work on site, compared to those working at the office. Site managers and supervisors working on site were the ones that experienced the highest level of stress. By working in projects, they have both tight deadlines and budgets to

There are numerous challenges that organizations are faced with in order for them to survive and grow. These challenges are mainly faced by people who are tasked with making decisions on a daily basis within the organizations because a majority of the challenges are human based. The employees working in an organization are likely to suffer from occupational stress depending on their work. Occupational stress comes along when an employee is faced with demands within the workplace, and they are not able to complete or carry out these demands. The failure to complete the demands placed upon them would cause the employee mental and physical strain as their body would have a physiological reaction. According to research there are various factors that contribute to stress in the workplace. These factors include isolation, extensive working hours, negative workloads, unhealthy working environments, harassment, bullying by management, and lack of motivation or advancement opportunities. The factors mentioned are not exhaustive as there might be other causes to occupational stress depending on the individual or employees.

According to Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary (2013), stress in general is a physical, chemical, or emotional factor that causes bodily or mental tension and may be a factor in disease causation (Full definition of stress, 1c.). Job stress may involve the type of work your do, your boss, or co-workers or your hours you work. When it comes to job stress, it can take a toll on your productivity, as well as your physical and emotional health.

How each individual chooses to relieve their level of stress is a purely personal matter. Stress is reported to cost employers production and money. Certain levels of stress are beneficial to society and individuals, this allows for positive growth; although long term exposure to stress can cause ill-effects to one’s well-being. Work place stress, otherwise known as occupational stress is said by the United Nations’ International Labor Organization to be a global occurrence. It is estimated that occupational stress causes US employers a loss of up to $200 billion a year. This includes low productivity, workers’

Work related stress has been emerging as one of the main causes of adverse symptoms of mental health in today’s industrial societies. The direct result of excessive pressures and/or demands placed on individuals at work, work-related stress has caused some people to develop symptoms of depression, anxiety, and other adverse mental health effects. While it might be possible that other co-factors contribute to the development of anxiety and depression in some population groups, evidence suggests that pressure from works is more likely to trigger adverse reactions in some people. In fact, positive correlations have been established between symptoms of work stress and mental health problems. That is, it is not uncommon to witness loss of

I would like to conclude on a few points that we have discussed. The term stress was coined by Dr. Hans Selye from the University of Montreal and the basic definition of stress is the body’s response to any demand placed on it, pleasant or unpleasant (Cunningham, 2000). Some major causes of stress are “high physical, mental and or emotional demands, lack of variety, short work cycles, fragmented or meaningless work, underutilization and high uncertainty of work” (NOHSC, 2000, P. 29). There are also psychological stressors that affect workplace but that I will save that for another

Many believe that stress is a simple problem, however it is often misunderstood and more complex than they believe (p. 181, Griffin & Moorhead, 2014). Stress is the physiological and psychological response to excessive and usually unpleasant stimulation as well as threatening events in the environment (p. 284, Schultz and Schultz, 2010). Stress appears in silent and subtle ways but this negative response affects millions of employees in all levels of all types of jobs (p. 284, Schultz and Schultz, 2010). If identified

There are so many reasons to be stressed in the workplace because there are constant demands, physical, and psychological, that are being put on you.

Occupational stress in an increasing topic and focus where stress is concern in the workplace. More and more people are becoming ill due to work and have to take a number of sick days to recupriate for more work hours. What causes this is based on a number of factors which researchers are aiming at looking into, hence the increase of interest in the field of occupational psychology. Occupational psychology, as the British Psychology Society puts it, is the attempt or aim of giving workers the satisfaction of working in an effective and safe-like environment. Occupational psychologists goal is to improve and maintain the working environment for employees which would limit the cause of stress in the workplace and eliminating illness.

Stress pertaining to a person is defined as a state of being in which the emotional and mental state is compromised due to unfavorable or demanding circumstances. In the workplace, is a very frequent occurrence among a wide variety of companies and positions, and can be considered the only common denominator in the workforce across every field of practice. However, it can be argued that stress is not inherently a negative thing. Studies have concluded that there are certain types of stress that are healthy and should not be avoided, such as traveling or falling in love. Characteristically, stress can be categorized into three categories – acute, episodic, and chronic.

In defining the concept of stress, occupational stress and role stress are examined based on the fact that people's lives are characterized with stressors that contribute to numerous threats to their well-being. Since the concept of role stress, which is related to occupational stress, is not found in the dictionary, the starting point in the definition and analysis of stress is the use of the term stress (Riahi, 2011, p.722). While stress was initially described as the experience of some form of strain by any living organisms, the description has been expanded to a phenomenon that contributes to severe and distressing experience,

This author believes Hayes & Weathington (2007) given a great definition of stress which states “stress is any circumstance that places special physical or psychological anxiety on a person such that requires an infrequent or extraordinary response occurs.” Based on this definition it can be said stress from a job will overlap into one’s private life which only will complicate issues more. The effect of stress can leave individual with the mindset that they are trapped in this situation and will not be able to acclimate to the situation.

Stress is a common issue that faces every human being in different times. Stress can be caused by many factors, but one of the main reasons is work which is called occupational stress or work-related stress. Job stress does not only affect the employees’ performance within an organization, but also it affects their general health. Stress has become a challenge for employers now because high level stress results in low productivity, increased absenteeism and other problems like alcoholism, drug abuse and hypertension (Ahmad, Mohamed. 2017). It became a major problem for employers especially in developing countries where they don’t realize the importance of work-life balance and the impact of stress on the productivity level and the job

either at work or at home. When it builds up these may be even more