How To Cope With Workplace Stress

How To Cope With Workplace Stress

Stress is a common word in English language and the general public use the term in a variety of ways. Generally, stress is the reaction of man which occurs when he can no longer meet with the demands of his environment. It is the body’s reaction to outside pressures; that is, to physiological wear and tear caused by attempting to adjust to events that cause emotional and other forms of arousal (Denga 1991).

Stress at the workplace exists when there is a mismatch between an individual’s potential and or capabilities and the demands of work. Events that trigger off these reactions are called stressors.

The commonest causes of workplace stress include task demands where an individual performs difficult tasks, is overloaded with jobs. The environment could be unbearable for work resulting in stress and attendant low productivity. Temperature, lighting, office design and equipment can be sources of stress just as role demand could induce stress especially if one fails to integrate the formal organizational goals with one’s informal need and desires.

Other stressors in the workplace include bad management style, outdated equipment, bad route to and from work, unfavorable government laws and regulations, economic depression, technological and scientific development, bad formal and informal relationship among employees, travel as part of one’s job, job insecurity, long hours of work, and duration of work task. Some factors external to the workplace such as marital disharmony, death of children, infertility etc, can cause or increase workplace stress.

Apart from decreased productivity level, stress have detrimental effect on employees if not tackled and could cause accident, violence, loss of appetite, depression, dejection, insomania, sexual difficulties, migraine, headache’ gastrointestinal disorder, ulcers, stroke, heart disease and skin diseases such as acne and hives.

Coping Strategies-

Since stress affects not just the employee’s health but also the fortunes of the organization in terms of declining productivity, negative changes in attitude and burnout, both the employee and the employer should work together to cope with stress.

At the organizational level, institutional and collateral programmes for managing stress would include properly designed shift, a day off after working a particular shift and reducing workload. On its part, collateral stress programme refer to an organizational programme specifically created to help employees manage stress for example granting of annual, casual and compassionate leaves. Sporting activities after work which may be weekly or monthly, monthly endurance trekking to ease stress could similarly be arranged. The organization can map out specific times as break so that employees can take enough rest during their normal work day.  Recreational activities like picnics or games for employees and their families will help them to share ideas as well as engage in other roles that will help them forget job tasks.

For the individual, exercise, relaxation, time management, meditation, yoga and maintaining a healthy personality will be helpful. Research findings show that people who exercise regularly are less likely to have heart attacks than inactive people. And in order to avoid role overload and role conflict, employees are expected to have ‘to-do-list’ book where they put down what their daily activities will be. This should be arranged systematically so that one activity follows another. Social support could be sourced from friends and relations who come to share our joys and sorrows.

The critical factor in stress management for the individual employee is the maintaining of a healthy personality. To maintain a healthy personality in the presence of mental and adjustment problems, employees should extend themselves by being genuinely involved in their job, family, a course or anything important to them.  This triggers a sense of good feeling, which allows little time to brood over stressful experiences. Socializing, reaching out and showing compassion and warmth; interacting with others enhances our own security and acceptance of our weaknesses. A deliberate effort should be made to focus on the positive aspect in our life- emphasizing our achievements or strength while de -emphasizing our failures. At the same time, we should take responsibility for our actions and with a sense of humor, always smiling receive every bad news which are usually inevitable. Bad news about job cuts, salary cuts, transfers that result in relocating of families and the associated costs are part of everyday experience at the workplace and should not be allowed to stress us, sometimes, these turn out as blessings in disguise.                                          

In the final analysis, we should appreciate the fact that stress could have beneficial effects on us. Conflict and frustrations of life make us dynamic and innovative as we seek solutions to our problems. In other words, it is suggested that for life to be interesting, challenging and fascinating, stress is needed but to a level that will not over task our coping resources and put us in a disadvantaged  position of illness and dissatisfaction with life.