The Negative Impacts Of Workplace Stress On Employees

Impacts of Workplace Stress on Time Management

A workplace is known to be an environment that constitutes a wide range of individuals originating from different backgrounds. Normally, quite a number of activities takes place within different working environments where people normally relate with one another in different ways (Khamisa et al. 2015). Stress is one of the major issues that has caused various impacts in the lives of different people. It is normally experienced in different ways depending on the situation which an individual is subjected to.  Stress, has always been given a different meaning in the initial years where different individuals have been able to come on board with different perceptions regarding what it entails under various circumstances. Originally, stress was known to be a form of pressure from the surrounding environment that led to the straining effects within a particular individual. The widely accepted definitions in this current world are one of some known forms of interaction that takes place between the situation and a particular individual. On the other hand, it is the psychological together with the physical state that normally comes on board when the resources that belong to a given individual are not sufficient enough to cope up with the required demands and even pressure that is related to the entire situation (Abbas, Raja 2015). Due to this, stress is a condition that is likely to come on board inform of different ways among various personalities. One of the adverse issues related to it is that it can undermine the achievement of various types of goals that have been set by either an organization or an individual (Marine et al. 2006). Stress can be caused by a variety of ways depending on the situation that both the organization and the individuals working within it are going through.

Aforementioned, stress is known to cause a lot of impacts within a workplace thus affecting the lives of various individuals in a negative way. the following are some of the impacts that are associated with stress within any given workplace;

Poor time management- The positive outcome attached to stress is that it has the capability of jumpstarting the adrenalin of a given personality thereby motivating him or her to carry out different tasks within the shortest time possible in relation to the impending deadlines that are yet to be attained (Yu et al. 2015). On the other hand, any situation that involves an overwhelming condition of workload, lack of appropriate and reliable support together with too many demands that might occur at once are known to be capable of contributing various frustrating conditions and panicking among the workers who are assigned different tasks within a particular working environment, this normally comes as a result of insufficient time to complete the provided work in real time (McCraty, Atkinson and Tomasino 2007). The stress of not being able to manage a given time frame in an appropriate manner will always lead to the fueling of employees’ resentment most so towards their respective companies and at the same time will be able to negatively influence their respective commitments and loyalty in their daily lives and experiences (DeFrank and Cooper 2008).

• Strained relationships- Stress is one of the major factors that contribute to burning out in various jobs together with strained interactions that normally occur with peers and different supervisors. These forms of strained relationships tend to weaken the bonds that exist between different workers within a given organization. This further reduces their performance (Scott et al. 2015).
• Lack of focus among the workers- Once stress is experienced within a workplace, lack of focus will automatically emerge among the employees and employers within the working environment. It affects the ability of an individual to remember different things taking place within the surrounding most so those issues that they already know in their mind (Chaudhuri et al. 2015). In order to efficiently process new information, one is normally expected to perfectly apply both the analytical together with a variety of the physical tasks that require higher levels of concentration (Leung, Liang and Olomolaiye 2015). When an individual is mentally exhausted and at the same time is going through conditions of tension and anxieties that occur as a result of a stressful environment, there is a high probability that the individual is likely to make quite a number of mistakes that can affect both the individuals and the entire organization in a negative way.
• Negative health conditions- In addition to sleep disorders, problems associated with vision and even headache, stress has gone further to affect the cardiovascular together with several other systems that are present within the body (Aizer, Stroud and Buka 2016). This is when the health of a particular individual starts to deteriorate compared to their initial conditions.

Impacts of Workplace Stress on Health

The current workplaces that are found in this modern society are known to be stressing us out and even go as far as negatively impacting on our health conditions. Employees have been among those who have been working for too many hours where such like working conditions have been highlighted to be the major causes of high blood pressure together with being a host of different other health-related diseases (Goldhagen et al. 2015). The absence of job control plus the economic conditions of insecurity has got the capability of contributing to stress-related conditions. A combination of working for a long period and at the same time having high levels of stress can literally lead to the loss of life of a given individual. Quite a number of researchers have been able to come on board to show some of the negative impacts of workplace stress that a number of individuals normally experience within their respective work environments (Meyer 2015). As far a research is concerned, the mortality rate that deals with excess stress can only be compared to some of the major causes of death which includes heart disease and even accidents (Kushlev and Dunn 2015).

Quite a number of methods were brought into consideration by this research with an intention of coming up with the appropriate outcome. The following are some of the appropriate methods; the use of questionnaires, interviews, together with the use of focus groups.

• Questionnaires-Questionnaires were presented to different parties where they were supposed to provide appropriate answers regarding the impacts of stress at work. To come up with the appropriate conclusion, different working organizations were presented with the questionnaires where both their employees and employers were supposed to give their perspectives by responding to the questions in a reasonable manner. Additionally, the organizations that were subjected to the research questions were selected from different regions but not from one particular point. A total of ten questions were present in each questionnaire that perfectly described issues related to stress at work.
• Interviews- The research made sure that an interview was carried across different personalities in order to come up with a firsthand set of information. Some of the individuals that were fully involved in the whole interview process were the employees within the selected organizations, they were interviewed various issues pertaining their daily experiences with stress and how it has gone further to affect them in their work-related positions (Lipton et al. 20115). The interviews were made at different times probably when each and every individual was facing his or her stress-related condition.
• Observations- The use of observation techniques pertaining various scenarios is another technique that was employed by this research to extract the first-hand information from various employees and employers pertaining how work-related stress has impacted in their lives in one way or another. The observations were made at different working hours and appropriate information was recorded for further analysis of the whole situation. The above-mentioned research methods were carried out in a systematic manner without making any assumptions in order to bring on board appropriate information that is fir for analysis and come up with one of the relevant information so far.
• Implementation of focus groups- Different types of focus groups was also utilized by this research to bring out a clear meaning on the impacts that are likely to emerge as a result of stress being experienced in different working environments. the focus groups were put into groups of ten which included both the men and women where they were asked several questions regarding what they have felt and encountered in relation to tress in their respective work environments (Gunasingam et al. 2015). The information that was provided by each and every individual within the focus groups was properly documented to be used for further analysis in the research.

After carrying out the research through the aforementioned methods, there was a variety of findings that were obtained as a result of all the research methods. The research came up with a finding which clearly stated that the rate at which stress is impacting negatively in the lives of various workers and even employers in different work environments is increasing on a daily basis (Pransky, Robertson and Moon 2008). An approximated percentage of 70% of the individuals who were interviewed were able to clearly state that stress is become a major threat both in their lives and in the lives of their colleagues and is slowly replacing several other deadliest diseases that have endangered the lives of people of the past years. On the other hand, about 40% of the respondents who were subjected to interview questions clearly stated that the top management officials within their respective organizations play a crucial role when it comes to causing a lot of threat within the working environment. The worst situation is that this has even led to the quitting of jobs by various employees since it reaches a point where they can’t bear the situation anymore and the only option is to quit and look for conducive environments that tend to be friendly with what they deliver. As per the information collected by the above methods, an approximation of 10% of deaths are being experienced almost on a yearly basis in quite a number of working environments where this has mainly been caused by stress-related conditions (Tyssen et al. 2009). on the other hand, the poor performance of employees within their organizations is one of the major impacts that normally results from stress thereby this has led to the decline of almost 30% of different organizations over the past five years. A number of individuals who were interviewed, most of them being the employees of various chosen organizations were able to say that the bosses who appear to be the major cause of stress are sometimes not aware of what they are capable of causing. Apparently, various individuals who normally go through these impacts of stress are always afraid to stand out and speak for themselves in relation to the situation that they are always going through. This is why at some point; the issue tends to move to higher levels where it is not easy to deal with it.

Factors Contributing to the Emergence of Workplace Stress

Normally, the degree of stress that is experienced fully relies on the functioning associated with the two perspective psychological mechanisms (Giorgi et al. 2015). Alarm reaction is one of the first steps that clearly explains how stress is caused. This normally occurs during situations when an individual is confronted with different types of threats thereby leading to psychological arousal as one of the first response that is being encountered by a particular individual. This then leads to the tension that is transmitted to various muscles located within the body accompanied by a higher rate of breathing together with heat beat (Zander et al. 2015).  Adaptation is another mechanism as to how stress is caused, it normally allows us to try as much as possible to cease any kind of response most so when an individual learns that the stimuli that exist in the surrounding environment is no longer associated with any kind of threat to his or her safety (Blaze and Roth 2015). Conditions of stress are normally experienced when either of the above-mentioned mechanisms tends not to function in an appropriate manner or even when an individual finds it very difficult to switch from one condition to the other (Khoury et al. 2015). There are different types of workplace factors that are known to be causing stress among the workers or even the employers within an organization. Normally, any given workplace is presented as an important source that is associated with either demands or pressures that are likely to trigger the emergence of stress together with several other conditions of social resources specifically meant to counteract stress (Nielsen et al. 2015). Some of the workplace characteristics that have got the potential of leading to an emergence of stress within a given work place can always be categorized as those to clearly do with the content of a particular amount of work that a person is always subjected to and on the other hand, there are those that are related to both the social and organization condition within the workplace. some of the factors that are normally intrinsic to a particular type of job are known to include; an overloaded work condition, long periods of working hours and even pressure that is related to time. various tasks that are always unclear or even some of the conflicting roles together with various boundaries can lead to the emergence of stress (Kandola, Bowman and Birch?Machin 2015). The possibilities that are attached to any kind of job development play an essential role as some of the important buffers whereas on the other hand, specific issues like under promotion, lack of appropriate and reliable training and even different aspects of insecurities being recognized as some of the stressful conditions. In most circumstances, there are always two types of stress that mainly include the relationships that are being encountered within a given workplace and the culture towards which the organization operates (Cropanzano, et al. 2010). The managers and the top management officials who are always critical and even unsupportive in terms of their operations are known to be capable of catalyzing situations that are related to stress. An organizational culture most so the one that is associated with unpaid overtime situations are some of the major factors that cause stress within individuals (Luthar, Cicchetti and Becker 2009). On the other hand, a given culture that tends to involve a number of individuals when it comes to issues pertaining decision making, keeping them informed about each and every aspect that is happening within the organization together with the provision of appropriate amenities have got the potential of reducing levels of stress.

Over the past, a number of employees working for their respective organizations have tried their level best to come up with relevant bodies that have got the potential of championing for their rights when it comes to matters pertaining stress-related situations being caused by any member within the working environment, unfortunately, they have not been able to succeed due to lack of support and appropriate rules and regulations intended to govern the entire situation. Employees being part of the interview process of this research, more than 90% of them were able to support the implementation of new rules and regulations that will be able to prevent a good number of stress-related conditions within their working stations and at the same time offer high levels of motivation that will keep pushing them to higher levels of success.

Conclusion

In conclusion, it is beyond any reasonable doubt that the impact of stress at work is one of the current issues being faced by different people with a larger percentage of them being the employees. When this issue is not well addressed, it might end up affecting a large population of individuals thereby subjecting them to dangerous situations that might even end up impacting negatively as far as their health conditions are concerned. It is a high time the government together with individual organization clearly came on board to address this issue through the use of a number of essential strategies. What is disadvantageous about stress-related conditions is that apart from affecting people at an individual level, it has the potential of lowering the performance of an organization thus leading to huge amounts of losses. On the other hand, there should be the creation of awareness across different parties since this is the only way to clearly show them how stress is capable of causing quite a number of destructions specifically within a given individual. The awareness is likely to equip them with important aspects as to how best they can handle or even avoid any situation that might subject them to stress. This, on the other hand, will help to perfectly lower the number of victims being affected by stress on a daily basis. Appropriate rules and regulations should also be set on board to ensure that quite a number of issues are placed in order and even go ahead as motivating people within a particular working environment. These rules and regulations should work in such a way that they have all the capabilities of strongly supporting individuals who are going through stress by solving out their conditions in an advanced and appropriate manner. Additionally, there is the need to come up with accurate technological advancements that can be able to carry out the allocation of various parcels without even making a single error. Through this, any external influence from different personalities will be minimized thus avoiding situations related to unethical behavior. The technology should also be capable of being reliable whenever it is required to perform different tasks. Employers, on the other hand, should also learn some of the best ways through which they can perfectly relate with their employees in order to create a strong positive bond between them for an efficient and better performance within the organization. According to this research, it is clear that employers are the major cause of stress at work as a result of them subjecting their employees under various environmental conditions that are not favorable. For example, giving their employees a huge load of tasks to perform within the shortest time possible thereby leading to conditions that are related to tension and finally leading to the emergence of stress among the same employees. When employers realize the importance of being positive to their employees at work then a higher percentage of stress being experienced at different workplaces shall have been minimized as much as possible.

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