Employee Stress: Breaking the Cycle of Negativity and Low Productivity - Research Paper

Introduction

Understanding employee's stress is one area that most managers and organizations have ignored over the past decades. Research has revealed that stress can lead to negative attitudes toward work. When employees develop negative attitudes towards work, productivity will be low. Besides, in the United States, over forty percent of industrial workers do not turn up for work because of stress. Also, between fifty to eighty percent of industrial injuries in the US are caused by stress (UMEA UNIVERSITET, 2019). Due to such injuries, companies lose many during employee compensation. Besides, many adults overwhelmed with responsibilities succumb to stress, which sometimes leads to alcoholism and addiction. Many youths in the US who abuse drugs is due to the stress that they experience in life. Stress is not a matter that employers or organizations should assume because it leads to many negative things. It leads to depression that can cause the death of an individual. There is a need for managers to train employees on how to manage stress. Therefore, this paper seeks to discuss the causes of stress and how people can manage individual stress.

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Individuals are expected to think of stress as a product to understand its dynamics. Besides, organizations and individuals live in an environment where they encounter different forces. These forces sometimes prevent people from achieving their goals and reduces their performances. Besides, a person's performance in an organization is dictated by either complements or contradictions. These forces drive change in individual behaviors. However, some forces will refrain from behaving in a particular manner. Also, when such forces become imbalanced in an organization, performance changes. When the driving force towards behavioral change overweighs resisting force, change occurs. Also, when the resisting force overpowers the driving force, change occurs in the opposite direction.

Causes of Stress

Many factors are contributing to stress. The primary cause of stress is time management. Time stress result from work overload with limited time. In an organization, managers are responsible for all operations, which leads to stress. Besides, western culture is time consciousness, which is why many managers develop stress over time. They try to complete their duties in time under pressure, which later causes stress to then both at work and at home. Also, there is stress caused by relationships that are referred to as encounter stressors. In everyday life, people meet friends, employers, and workmates, and family members. Encounter stressors can result from arguments between such groups (WHETMC, 2006). Working with an employer with whom you have had quarrels sometimes is stressful. Besides, mistrust can develop between an employer and employee leading to stress. Such stress also arises from conflicts such as role conflict, where an individual failed a responsibility assigned.

Similarly, there is also situational stress, which occurs following the influence of the environment people live. Unfavorable working condition is one of the situational stress individuals develop. People often need to work in an environment that favors their profession and health. There is no human being who wants to work is a condition that they are forced to work. However, sometimes people have to work in whichever condition they are exposed to because they need to earn leading to stress. Anticipatory stress occurs to people when they try to imagine what is yet to happen. People get stressed when they think something worse can happen to them, but it has not happened. They anticipate in fear of an event. Anticipatory stress is worse because it places an individual in a dilemma. They do not know what is going to happen next, for example, when an employee misbehaves but the manager has not done anything. He or she has not been summoned by the manager; she or he will anticipate what will happen.

Managing Stress

Managing stress can be a permanent solution to the problems people encounter because of stress. The first step to manage stress is to appreciate the environment in which one works and lives. People can eliminate factors contributing to their stress by creating a favorable work and home environment. Individuals whose stress results from time should develop effective time management. Time management is a significant way through which people can reduce stress (Health Promotion Foundation, 2012). Also, individuals will need to efficiently manage time by making a list of the things they need to accomplish in a day. Besides, individuals need to prioritize the things they need to work on because it will help them complete or attend to urgent issues. Managers, for example, need to assign responsibilities to their assistants to help in completing projects and supervising. However, they need not give excess responsibilities because it will stress the worker. Managers need to understand that excess work cause fatigue and stress, and they need to assist employees in managing stress.

In an organization, employees need to collaborate to reduce encounter conflicts that may cause stress. Without collaboration, conflict is most likely to occur in an organization leading to stress. Also, individuals need to work on their social and emotional intelligence. Individuals with morals will not become emotional while overcoming stress or while in conflict with their colleagues. Their social morals will guide them to avoid such environments, and they will not encounter emotional stress. Additionally, people can overcome situational stress through combined tasks. They can use their skills to work on a variety of jobs than working on a simple Job, which is stressing. People should build custom relationships (Nekoranec, 2015). Identifying ones labor is significant in reducing stress, and improving decision-making authority help in reducing employee's stress. Managers who allow their juniors and other employees to make work decisions reduces conflicts and stress that might arise in the organization. Managers should open feedback channels because communication in an organization is significant and it will keep people informed. When employees become aware of the changes made in the organization, they will not get stressed by abrupt information. In every organization, commutation is the primary tool that is used to run daily activities. Without communication, workers may feel they are overworked, thereby causing stress.

Conclusion

Conclusively, managing personal stress is possible despite the causes. Many people become stressed because of the environments in which they live and work. The people they interact with, situations they are exposed to, and responsibilities they are charged with all combine to expose them to stress. Managers need to plan and make timetables on how they will complete their responsibilities. Also, employees need to collaborate among themselves to avoid emotional and social problems causing stress at work. Besides, when they collaborate, they will be able to avoid intrapersonal conflicts. In an organization, individuals are expected to work as a team to create togetherness among employees. Therefore, stress is an issue that individuals can manage.

References

Health Promotion Foundation. (2012). Reducing Stress in the Workplace. Retrieved from https://www.headsup.org.au/docs/default-source/default-document-library/chw_stress_full_web_final.pdf?sfvrsn=860e274d_4

Nekoranec, J. (2015). Stress in the Workplace-Sources, Effects, and Coping Strategies. Retrieved from http://www.afahc.ro/ro/revista/2015_1/163.pdf

UMEA UNIVERSITET. (2019). Stress Causes and Its Management at Work Place. Retrieved from https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:693132/FULLTEXT01.pdf

WHETMC. (2006). Managing Personal Stress. Retrieved from file:///C:/Users/Bony/Downloads/WHETMC02_%20stress-Time%20MGT%20(1).pdf