Stress of employees in the organization and its implications
By Md Rezaul Karim, 13th Nov 2011 | Follow this author
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Posted in WikinutBusinessEmployment
Motivation and stress are closely correlated in the business world. All the rude behavior and bad customer services are also the product of Stress and pressures. We all need to understand it.
Ideas about Stress
1) Introduction:
According to a survey of 800,000 workers in over 300 USA companies, the number of employees calling in sick because of stress tripled from 1996 to 2000. An estimated 1 million workers are absent every day due to stress. The European Agency for Safety and Health at Work reported that over half of the 550 million working days lost annually in the U.S. from absenteeism are stress related and that one in five of all last minute no-shows are due to job stress. If this occurs in key employees it can have a domino effect that spreads down the line to disrupt scheduled operations. Unanticipated absenteeism is estimated to cost American companies $602.00/worker/year and the price tag for large employers could approach $3.5 million annually. A 1997 three year study conducted by one large corporation found that 60% of employee absences could be traced to psychological problems that were due to job stress.
Bangladesh is a place where finding any trouble-free spheres of working-life is a miracle. Nothing is free from flaws; this is particularly true if the environment, health, hygiene and ergonomic perspectives are looked into. It is also important to understand and try to address the problem that encountered in daily working life. Due to unemployment, hiring and firing policy is abruptly practiced. Employees’ welfare and rights, so to say, are not recognized. Due to lack in research it is found to be difficult to figure out ‘the cause- effect relationships’ of various physio-psycho problems of staff and workers that are correlated to working environment. Most of all cost incurred due to stress problems is really a luxury tht companies in Bangladesh can hardly afford, both in short and long term perspectives.
2) Objectives of the study:
i) To define the types and nature of workplace stress conceptually;
ii) To explore if the workers and employees really understand the concept;
iii) To find out laws relating to it;
iv) To find out the stressors and a comparative study with the West;
v) To find out solutions relating to workplace stress;
vi) To understand the attitude of management and staff towards stress issues.
3) Methodology:
This study is done both by deskwork and first-hand data that collected from various institutions through questionnaires in Chittagong. To study the types and nature of workplace stress conceptually a total of 85 individuals from 6 different sectors have been randomly selected for sample. They were asked structured questions. Side by side various other Western Surveys and studies are checked to find out the similarities and gravities of the issue. The survey was conducted in the Chittagong city in 2007.
3.a) Rationale of this study:
Numerous surveys and studies confirm that occupational pressures and fears are far and away the leading source of stress for American adults, and that these have steadily increased over the past few decades. Unions or organizations conduct some self-serving polls claiming that a particular occupation is “the most stressful” in an attempt to get higher wages or better benefits for their members. Others may be conducted to promote a product, such as the "Stress In the Nineties" survey by the maker of a deodorant that found housewives were under more stress than the CEO's of major corporations. Such a conclusion might be anticipated from telephone calls to residential phones conducted in the afternoon. It is crucial to keep all these caveats in mind when evaluating job stress statistics.
Since no studies on this issue of ‘Stress related loss’ have so far been conducted in Bangladesh, we have no statistical data nor do we know how many people are stressed at workplace, till to date.
3.b) Literature review:
Other Research findings in the context of Western industries:
In the Western context, more research findings on the issue of workplace stress are - 40% of job turnover is due to stress; Xerox estimated that it cost them $1 to $1.5 million to replace a top executive and that was two decades ago; Replacing an average employee today costs between $3,000 and $13,000. 60 to 80% of accidents on the job are stress related and some, like the Three Mile Island and Exxon Valdez disasters, can affect untold thousands many miles away.
In California, the number of Workers' compensation claims for mental stress increased by almost 700 percent over eight years and ninety percent were successful with an average award of $15,000 compared to a national average of $3,420. In 1987, California shelled out almost $1,000,000,000 for medical and legal fees alone, which are more than most states spend on actual awards. Double digit increases in Workers' compensation premiums every year as a result of mental stress claims threaten to bankrupt the system in several states. A jury in New York awarded nearly $6 million in 1996 to three women for repetitive stress injury allegedly due to faulty computer keyboards.
These findings are supported by other studies that put their significance in perspective. Without a healthy environment and staff no company can succeed in reaching their long-term objectives irrespective of the nature and size of the organization. To have a physically and psychologically sound workforce is an inevitable leverage for industries. That is why in Europe and America they do have laws and regulations and guidelines in improving working conditions, i.e., pro-worker policy where human being is treated as human-capital.
Concept:
4) Conceptual Aspects of Stresses:
Stress is a response to any situation or factor that creates a negative emotional or physical change or combination of both emotional and physical changes (the most typical scenario). Stress is an unavoidable aspect of life.1 Stress can come from any situation or thought that makes you feel frustrated, angry, or anxious. What is stressful to one person is not necessarily stressful to another. Anxiety is a feeling of apprehension or fear.2 Hans Selye, as it is currently used coined the term “stress”, in 1936, who defined it as "the non-specific response of the body to any demand for change". Some people used stress to refer to an overbearing or bad boss or some other unpleasant situation they were subjected to. For many, stress was their reaction to this in the form of chest pain, heartburn, headache or palpitations. Others used stress to refer to what they perceived as the end result of these repeated responses, such as an ulcer or heart attack. Many scientists complained about this confusion and one physician concluded in a 1951 issue of the British Medical Journal that, "Stress in addition to being itself, was also the cause of itself, and the result of itself." 3
Stress was generally considered as being synonymous with distress and dictionaries defined it as "physical, mental, or emotional strain or tension" or "a condition or feeling experienced when a person perceives that demands exceed the personal and social resources the individual is able to mobilize." Thus, stress was put in a negative light and its positive effects ignored. However, stress can be helpful and good when it motivates people to accomplish more.
4. Workplace Stress – Concept and Practice:
4.b) Identifying the negative symptoms of workplace stress
Increased stress results in increased productivity – up to a point, after which things go rapidly downhill. However, that point or peak differs for each of us. So we need to be sensitive to the early warning symptoms and signs that suggest a stress overload is starting to push us over the hump. Such signals also differ for each of us and can be so subtle that they are often ignored until it is too late.
A 1999 government study in the US reported that more jobs had been lost in the previous year than any other year in the last half century, and that the number of workers fearful of losing their jobs had more than doubled over the past decade. That was several years ago and the problem has worsened considerably since then. A February 2000 poll found that almost 50 percent of employees were concerned about retaining their job and with good reason. There were massive layoffs due to down-sizing and bankruptcies including the collapse of over 200 dot.com companies. The unemployment rate by the end of the year was the highest it had been in 16 months. Nor have things improved since then. A report released on September 10, 2001 stated that "more than 1 million Americans lost their jobs this year, 83% higher than last year's total." That was a day before the Twin Towers disaster, which added to the problems of job stress and insecurity for many workers. Since then we have witnessed the collapse of Enron and its tidal wave of repercussions on other companies and their employees. There are fears that this may be just the tip of the iceberg as accounting irregularities of a similar nature may augur the downfall of other large organizations widely assumed to be on a solid financial footing.
Nor is the problem limited to the U.S. A 1992 United Nations Report labeled job stress "The 20th Century Disease" and a few years later the World Health Organization said it had become a "World Wide Epidemic." A 1998 study reported that rapid changes in the workforce had resulted in a staggering unemployment rate of 10% in the European Union and higher rates of job stress complaints. Japan had a similar problem as a result of a major and prolonged recession. A subsequent European Commission survey found that more than half of the 147 million workers in the European Union complained of having to work at a very high speed and under tight deadlines; approximately half reported having monotonous or short, repetitive tasks and no opportunity to rotate tasks. Occupational pressures are believed responsible for 30% of workers suffering from back pain; 28% complaining of "stress"; 20% feeling fatigued; 13% with headaches.
Job stress is also very costly with the price tag for U.S. industry estimated at over $300 billion annually as a result of: Accidents, Absenteeism, Employee turnover, Diminished productivity, Direct medical, legal, and insurance costs.
4.B) Typically Stresses can be categorized into three classes
i) Physiological stress Symptoms:
Headaches, migraines, stomach disorders, raised blood pressure, changing sleep patterns, muscle spasms, back/shoulder/neck pain, a sense of feeling unwell, an unwillingness to work.
The following ideas are based on work done by a number of unions and are not intended to be a 'magic wand' process but it is hoped they will help to 'concentrate the mind'
Typical negative symptoms of unmanaged stress
ii) Psychological stress Symptoms:
A growing feeling that the workplace is a 'threat', a place of anxiety, tension and the cause of irritability, low self-esteem, forgetfulness. An increase in worry about problems yet feeling powerless to change the situation. These changes can be felt in the individual who will not always be able to articulate them, but observation of fellow workers of attention to conversation will allow the trade union representative to notice the signs and begin to identify workplace sickness.
This should trigger a more formal study. Absence rates should be checked and any patterns noted. 'Presenteeism' (those attending at work but not working effectively) will also provide a valuable indicator of a developing problem.
Health and Safety Representatives can set in motion a systematic study of the workplace, after seeking advice from their union and also working with the employer, which will allow the stressors to be placed in order of importance and so tackled systematically. A number of large unions have useful information and advice available that will help in the setting up of questionnaires and in their analysis.
iii) Behavioral stress Symptoms:
• Becoming irritable/aggressive, withdrawn, showing signs of social isolation.
• Showing signs of changes in eating habits, sleeping patterns consumption of alcohol, tobacco, tea/coffee, drugs, self-medication.
• Becoming more 'difficult' in the workplace less co-operative, more accident prone, less sociable.
• Becoming more 'difficult' outside work, decrease in social ease inability to cope with family/domestic roles, neglect of personal appearance.
Comments
17th Nov 2011 (#)
Hello Md Rezaul Karim. Your article really is very interesting. I see that that you are a teacher at a University in Bangladesh and I am honored to read your work. Just an initial comment: I know I would never call in to my work place and admit to stress in case I was told to go elsewhere. I would make another excuse. However, I realize there is much moe to your article and I will be reading it again.. Ivyevelyn.. .
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18th Nov 2011 (#)
It's my pleasure, thanks for your time.
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17th Nov 2011 (#)
I love Ivyevelyn's comment.
Enjoyed reading your article, Md. Pleased to meet you.
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20th Nov 2011 (#)
Thank you .. keep in touch..
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