The Role Of Stress In The Workplace

Stress on the job is widespread. According to Walonick (1993), “About half of all American workers feel the pressure of job related stress.” Individuals that experience excessive stress in their organizations, can adversely be affected emotionally and physically. The result of individuals that are affected in this manner is decreased productivity. As the productivity of the employees decrease it lead to other major issues within the organization. Some may ask what Stress in the workplace is. Stress has several imprecise terms. The general definition of stress is internal and external conditions that create stressful situations for individuals that are on his or her job. McGrath (1976) proposed a definition of what stress is based on …show more content…
It can be noticeable by others depending on the severity of how stressed out the person is. There are some cases where leaders in an organization are able to recognize stressed individuals. When discovered early on the appropriate action can be taken before the built up pressure becomes a problem or issues for others that are a part of the organization. It’s always important to pay attention to others that are around for changes in their behavior. As leaders it’s important to pay close attention for changes that the individuals may have that are possibly linked with pressure. Members of the organization that are suffering form emotion symptoms or mental symptoms could possibly be suffering from stress. Emotional symptoms can consist of negativity or feeling depressed often, disappointment in themselves, sensitivity, aggressiveness, mood swings and loss of motivation of commitment and confidence in job performance. Mental symptoms consist of confusion and poor memory. Other signs and symptoms that are out of the norm for a person would be changes in his or her eating habits, changes in sleeping patterns, nervousness, etc. These are all indicators of behavior changes of people that are experiencing stress on the job. It is not left up to the managers to diagnose stress to members of his or her team. However, it is up to the manager to recognize changed behaviors and take prompt actions in …show more content…
Excessive stress in any organization can greatly interfere with a person’s physical and emotional health as stated earlier. A person’s ability to deal with stress can be a great determinate in rather he or she will be successful in their work or if they will fail. Stress in the workplace sometimes is not a bad factor for a person. Sometimes stress can help a person to stay focused, energetic, and able to meet new challenges that the organization may be facing. Some people actually work better and have better results when working under stress. However, when a person is so stressed out in the workplace and it exceeds his or her comfort zone, it can become damaging to the mind, body and job satisfaction. A few tips to help reduce stress in the workplace include (1) prioritize the task that are at hand, while ensuring the task that has the highest priority is taken care of first (2) Delegate responsibility to others. Understand that not only one person can get everything done (3) Be willing to compromise with others. Compromising with others come in hand in the long run within any organization. Each of these are ways that have worked for me in coping with stress on the job. As a manager I implemented a stress prevention in the workplace, based on the above named tips to help in reducing