What causes work related stress?
Stress is a mismatch between the demands in our lives and resources we have to deal with those demands. The stressor may be a positive or negative event. We usually think of stressors as events that make us angry or upset. They may be situations that make us sad, frightened, unsure, startled, excited or happy. We may even cause our own stress through our thoughts, feelings and expectations.
Work related stress is always exacerbated when the economy is in decline. Obviously, layoffs and a reduced workforce impacts the level of stress of those who are responsible for producing the same results with fewer employees.
Work related stress may be caused or amplified by a number of factors including: • Bad relations with other work colleagues • Long and/or irregular hours • Too little work • Repetitive work/boredom and lack of job satisfaction • Working alone • Job insecurity • Job or organisational change • Low pay • Jobs with heavy emotional demands • Poor working environments such as excessive noise, the presence of dangerous materials, over-crowding, poor facilities, or extremities of temperature or humidity • Increased accessibility – the use of mobile phones, pagers and emails means the boss can always chase up work. The situation can be made worse if there is bullying, conflict, harassment, and indifference to staff needs. Where the organisation lacks leadership, work arrangements, deadlines and demands are set without consultation and seem to be inflexible, this leads to a high degree of uncertainty about direction, purpose, objective and job responsibilities amongst staff.
