Discuss about the Occupational Health and Safety Requirements.
A case study is provided where it is seen that there are increased absenteeism and sick applications over the last 12 months. There have been poor staffing levels although work burdened has increased for the employees. They are now working for more hours. They have mainly asked for leaves due to gastro-intestinal upsets, headaches, and a few longer periods of absence due to work related stress. Therefore, this assignment will mainly written in a report format which will shed light on the aspects of work related stress and how it affect not only employees but also organizations.
In the case study, three important causes of loss of productivity and increased work stress was noticed. The first one is the increased workload over 12 months. High amount of workloads that have unrealistic deadlines make the employees feel rushed, pressurized and overwhelmed. Heavy workload also causes a series of concerns as researchers are of the opinion that non-stop flow of work lead to heart disorders, loss of sleep, high blood pressures and even loss of appetite, burnouts become common due to heavy workloads especially when work is repetitive. Employees may get frustrated and lash out at each other (Khamisa et al. 2015). Quality of the work also gets affected and this might affect employee morale, as they believe they cannot put their best effort. All these result in stress. The second is the understaffing. When there are less number of employees than required, it means that present employees will to be responsible for more work. They will face stress from the increased workload, as they would have to complete more work within assigned deadlines and have to meet the performance expectations. This will drain them physically and mentally resulting in increased burnouts, lowered job satisfaction and increased turnovers (Widanarko et al. 2014). The third is the increased overtime. Increased overtime also results in different types of physical effects like fatigue, tiredness, lack of attentiveness, backache, muscle spasms and others. Mental factors leading to stress due to overtime are depression, anxiety, lathery in actions and carelessness (Baron, Franklin and Hmieleski 2016). Socially, it impacts work life balance resulting in issues in personal lives, marital lives and family lives as well. All these are causing stress in the employees of the case study.
Work related stress can be a growing problem all round the world. Researchers are of the opinion that it is not only affecting the health and well-being of the workers but also affecting the productivity of the organizations. Work related stress is mainly seen to occur when the different types of demands and the combinations of the work exceed the capability as well as the capacity of the person to cope with them. Different types of situations can lead to work related stress (Hassard et al.2014). Persons may feel pressurized if their job demands them to work for more hours than acceptable or are greater than they can manage comfortably. Other sources of work related stress may also result fue to conflicts with co-workers and bosses, due to any form of sudden as well as constant changes, threats to job security, short staffing, absence of role clarity, skills not matching with requirements of task and many others.
Over the years, the employees have reported different types of symptoms that have resulted from work-related stress. Some of the physical symptoms that remain associated with this form of stress are fatigue as well as muscular tension. Moreover, headaches and heart palpitation have also been noted among the employees with such stress. Sleeping disorders like that of insomnia as well as gastrointestinal upsets like that of diarrhea or constipation are also noted. The employees have also reported similar symptoms to the authority and this finding can be related to this scenario (Nagieh et al. 2015). Many of the studies also show the presence of dermatological disorders.
Psychological symptoms also include different types of mental illness. Depression, anxiety as well as discouragement and irritability are also found to be common. Other studies have also reported that a worker also develop feelings of pessimism, feelings of being overwhelmed and loses their ability to cope. Cognitive difficulties are also seen to occur when employees suffer from reduced ability for concentrating as well as making decisions (Hoek et al. 2018).
Some of the behavioral symptoms have also been noted in the different research articles. They reveal an increase in absenteeism or sick days are one of the most obvious symptom. Moreover, aggression, and diminishing creativity and initiatives also helps to show that employees are highly stressed due to their work. Moreover, drop in the work performances, different issues with the problems with interpersonal relationships, mood swings and irritability are also the other associated behavioral symptoms (Looyd et al. 2017). Many of the employees also show lower tolerance as well as frustration or impatience when they get immensely stressed from their work. Isolation and even disinterest are also the other symptoms of work related stress.
This is one of the most important causes of stress in workplace that include the increased demands from the employees regarding more workloads, working pattern or that of the working environment. Employees may feel that the demands related to their workloads as well as the associated time pressures are the main source of stress under several situations. These situations may include unrealistic deadlines as well as expectations or may be also due to technology overboard. There are also remains unmanageable workloads or under recruitment of staffs for any kind of tasks that are already scheduled (Harvey et al. 2017). Long working hours also contribute to the excess demands of work output expected from the employees.
Lack of support from the colleagues, management of that of the higher authority is yet another cause that might make the employees feel stressed from their work. Researchers are of the opinion that when employees know that the colleagues and the management are supporting them, they fill boosted up especially in the difficult days. When the employees get no such support or very little support, this can result in the development of feelings of frustration or the employees may also feel that they are not valued by the organization (Oakman and chan 2015).
This criterion mainly shows about how much authority the workers have regarding the procedures of their working. Many of the studies have reported the interviews of employees where they have given valuable information where they have stated that lack of consultation or influences in their approaches to work or the ways by which the work is organized and thereby performed can also lead to the potential source of pressure. Some of the factors in this criterion are lack of control or little control over the aspects of the job. This may be also due to not enough involvement in the decision-making. When the higher authorities do not consider the ideas and suggestions relating to the role of employees it can also lead to stress among the employees. Lack of time as well as no influence over the targets of the performance may also lead to feelings of lack of control and hence work related stress (Vahle et al. 2014).
Work related stress can also take place if the employees do not have role clarity or they suffer from role ambiguity. Such form of stress mainly occurs when workers do not understand their role fully or when they are not fully trained to take upon the responsibilities of the role. Moreover, roles that have conflicting responsibilities also result in the development of work related stress. Researchers are of the opinion that role ambiguity and conflicts have the capability of decreasing the performance of the professionals. They are also seen to have a positive correlation with that of the professionals leaving the organization. They have stated that job satisfaction is the factor that results in the positive evaluation of the job (Tabai et al. 2015). Again, commitment of the company is seen to be associated with that of the attachment of the employee to the job.
It is true that for human being, it is not possible to have healthy relationships with everyone in the workplace. The main concern lies in the area where personalities clash resulting in the occurrence of the conflicts that result in possible workplace bullying. This creates emotional turmoil, embarrassments, and tensions among the employees that affect their work and makes them stressed.
Pressure that remains associated with increasingly demanded work culture is seen to be associated with work related stress and thereby contributes to challenges associated with different types of mental health issues. Such demand of work is seen to be affecting the personal and home life of every employee potentially. This results in putting strain on relationships that are outside work. Some of the issues that culminate in affecting work-life balance are long hours and excessive travel time. Over demanding and inflexible work schedules, pressure on family relationships and work interfering with personal life are also major contributors (Macdonald and Oakman 2015).
A number of negative effects remain associated when employees are stressed from the work and these affect the organization to large extent. There will be increased situations when the employees become argumentative or easily agitated or irritated. A change in behavior of the employees will be noticed and they will be tend to make more mistakes. This will result in the decline of their performance and this would affect the productivity of the organization. Frequent sick leaves or absenteeism may result due to stress and this will affect the workflow of the organization. Businesses will be seen to suffer dramatically from a resulting lack of customer services as well as uncompleted projects (Holmgren et al. 2016). This will not only affect the productivity but also the reputation as well as worth of the organization in the business market and even among the customers. Orders will also not be placed on time and the company may notice a decline in the sales. This will affect their profit margin and will in turn threaten the future of the organization. Many researchers are of the opinion that stress can also relate to counterproductive work behaviors that might include different types of personality changes in the workers. They may be also seen to disrespect their colleagues as well as customers and might show extreme anger towards the managers. They might also be observed to disregard different types of safety procedures as well as their company policies (bhui et al. 2016). This might result in the jeopardizing themselves in the workplace. The organization may also suffer from loss of revenues when customers stop frequenting the service of the organization when they are continuously getting exposed to adverse impacts of the workers’ stress.
In order to avoid stress of the employees it becomes very important for the organizations to provide the employees with the means and procedures for communication of the different issues that are bothering them. Researchers are of the opinion that regular performance reviews as well as options for career development can help in such scenarios. Questionnaire-based methods and surveys for knowing about the concerns of the employees can be considered and accordingly, the results would be analyses to understand the urgency of reforms and policies tor declares work related stress. In the case study also, such procedures would help the organization that demands of workload on the employees are high and accordingly they need to allocate new interventions (Kula et al. 2017). This method would also help to know about their concern of short staffing as well. Hence the HR should provide importance to intake of new employees to reduce the stress on existing employees. When the employees get a sense of autonomy in their job, it enables them to enjoy their work. Organization also set lifestyle coaching so that they can mitigate the onset of stress among the employees. Researchers are of the opinion that organization should influence a culture where everyone would be able to recognize an employee who is overburdened with work with the ongoing projects and accordingly arranging for assistance for such employees is a simple stress reduction procedure (Hassard et al. 2017). The employers should make sure that they are creating an enjoyable work environment as it would have positive impact on employee productivity and hence the business.
Conclusions:
Work related stress affects employees physically, mentally as well as socially. It is very important for organizations to identify the causes that are affecting the employees and making them stressed. This is extremely important not only to maintain the health of the employees but also to ensure productivity, profitability and brand reputation of the organizations.
References:
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Bhui, K., Dinos, S., Galant-Miecznikowska, M., de Jongh, B. and Stansfeld, S., 2016. Perceptions of work stress causes and effective interventions in employees working in public, private and non-governmental organisations: a qualitative study. BJPsych bulletin, 40(6), pp.318-325.
Harvey, S.B., Modini, M., Joyce, S., Milligan-Saville, J.S., Tan, L., Mykletun, A., Bryant, R.A., Christensen, H. and Mitchell, P.B., 2017. Can work make you mentally ill? A systematic meta-review of work-related risk factors for common mental health problems. Occup Environ Med, pp.oemed-2016.
Hassard, J., Teoh, K., Cox, T., Dewe, P., Cosmar, M., Gründler, R., Flemming, D., Cosemans, B. and Van den Broek, K., 2014. Calculating the cost of work-related stress and psychosocial risks.
Hassard, J., Teoh, K.R., Visockaite, G., Dewe, P. and Cox, T., 2017. The cost of work-related stress to society: A systematic review.
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Holmgren, K., Sandheimer, C., Mårdby, A.C., Larsson, M.E., Bültmann, U., Hange, D. and Hensing, G., 2016. Early identification in primary health care of people at risk for sick leave due to work-related stress–study protocol of a randomized controlled trial (RCT). BMC public health, 16(1), p.1193.
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Kula, S., 2017. Occupational stress, supervisor support, job satisfaction, and work-related burnout: Perceptions of Turkish National Police (TNP) members. Police Practice and Research, 18(2), pp.146-159.
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Widanarko, B., Legg, S., Devereux, J. and Stevenson, M., 2014. The combined effect of physical, psychosocial/organisational and/or environmental risk factors on the presence of work-related musculoskeletal symptoms and its consequences. Applied ergonomics, 45(6), pp.1610-1621.
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