14 March 2007

Stress at Work

Human beings have a need to work and it is part of human development. Whether you are a housewife, self-employed or an employee, we all work. Usually we spend an average of 10 hours at work. Therefore,workplace has a significant impact on our mental health and well being.

A safe and condusive workplace promotes work efficiency and makes working pleasurable and satisfying while poor working conditions create stressful atmosphere. When a person is happy and satisfied with his working environment, he will give his good effort and in turn increase the productivity.

A small amount of stress at work is not a bad thing as it enhances productive work performance. However, when the stress grow to an unmanageable state, it can seriously affect our health. A stressful work environment will decrease the productivity and may lead to illness and accident.

Stress is very much related to time. Element of stress starts to develop when a person is trying to accomplish certain amount of work within a short given time frame. In other words, there is a high correlation between stress, workload and time frame.

A good time management may help to eliminate stress, however, if the time given for a task is not realistic, a good time management could only help to reduce the stress. Maximum production rate (or minimum production time) is the target of every employer and organization, thus the employees are always loaded with maximum amount of work. But lack of time may not be the only reason for stress even though it certainly ranks as one of the most important elements in developing stress.

Other factors that can cause stress or which can make an existing stressful situation worse are;

1. Poor support from the employer
  • Failure of the employer to provide the workers with proper tooling and equipment to accomplish a task;
  • Failure of the employer to create a safe working environment equipped with proper support equipment;
  • Failure of the employer to provide sufficient manpower;
  • Improper planning of the work flow

2. Inexperienced, or insufficient skill or knowledge in the task assigned.

3. Poor support from the team members.

4. Personal problems
  • Conflict with colleagues or superior;
  • Financial or family problems.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Custom Search