Stress in the workplace is bad news for everyone. By everyone, that includes those within the organization and those on the outside as well. Customers, suppliers, and even random visitors will experience some of the negative effects of stress that affects staff. It can drive away customers, tarnish the organization’s reputation, and lead to high employee turnover. It affects the bottom line of the business and can spell disaster in the long run. While stress is sometimes a good thing, long-term stress on employees needs to be reduced to minimal levels in order for productivity, morale, and job satisfaction to be high. In this article we look into areas of business operations that need scrutiny and how to reduce stress in the workplace.
Table of Contents
Understanding stress
Dealing with workplace stress falls under the category of risk management. Aside from all of the negative effects of stress, there are certain legal obligations of the company to reduce workplace stress in order to prevent stress-related accidents. While many organizations employ people who work in potentially hazardous conditions, there are also many organizations that have staff working in seemingly safe, low-risk working environments such as office buildings and retail stores.
Workplace stress can degrade the quality of the office environment. Clutter, electrical and chemical hazards, and even biological hazards from unsanitary kitchens and bathrooms can lead to injury or illness. When the pressure rises, so does the potential for carelessness and inattentiveness to these areas. Worker’s compensation and legal action against a business due to accidents from these cases cost businesses a lot of money and for many small and medium businesses, are often ignored until it is too late.
Aside from these physical risks are the mental risks. In many countries, it is the responsibility of the employer to provide a healthy working environment which includes considerations for mental health. The effects of stress on a person’s mental health leads to workers taking more days off, increased sensitivity to workplace pressure, and an increase in harassment and bullying claims against an employer.
One thing to note is that the incidence of mental illness in employees is a lot higher than one might expect. In fact, almost a quarter of Americans will experience mental illness in any given year. Stress on those who are experiencing a mental ailment will have much more impact and could greatly jeopardize their safety and performance.
Over a long period stress can result in devastating effects such as coronary heart disease and mental illness. No organization wants to see that.
Causes of stress
Stress comes from a variety of sources. Some of it is from work some of it is from home. Managing employee stress no matter where the source is still in the best interests of the organization. Since outside sources of stress are uncontrollable, we will focus on sources of stress within the organization. Communication, performance, career, responsibilities, physical risks, organizational environment and boredom are causes of stress in the workplace.
Communication stress
One of the most common causes of stress is due to communication problems between managers and employees. Misunderstandings, one-size-fits-all approaches, overpowering or excessive criticizing of employees, and even lack of communication will cause unnecessary stress for people. Much of this can be prevented or minimized.
In the case of misunderstandings, it is important for communication points to be confirmed by all parties and have plenty of clear instructions in writing that is easily accessible. Follow up communication should be standard routine for any work assignments. In many cases, entanglements experienced by employees wouldn’t be communicated and it can delay work progress. If these simple steps are followed, employees will not feel stress related to uncertainty or ambiguity and the need to communicate issues which might make them look incompetent to their employer.
A one-size-fits-all approach to communication is another common mistake. As we have discussed in other posts, everyone has a different behavioral style which makes communication effective only if communication is adapted to each person’s style. Without this approach, employees will face stress from conflicts in behavior style. For example, if one person is focused on tasks rather than people, communication can come across as blunt. Another example, is if a manager has a low tolerance for slow paced communication and tries to rush through things when the employee has a communication style that requires thorough communication and reassurances.
Another cause of stress is from a management style which is overpowering or excessive in criticism. When employees face this, it creates tension in their work environment which makes them more susceptible to stress and the related hazards. The distraction from having to worry about their managers leads to lower performance and a desire to change employers. It is essential that management knows how to control their communication. Criticism, while necessary at times, should be constructive and should not be personal. It must include steps for employees to take that will put them back on the right path.
Finally, one not to be ignored is a lack of communication. Stress related to uncertainty and ambiguity occurs when management fails to communicate important items to employees. Crises, mysterious or unusual events, and changes in management need to be communicated adequately to staff. Many people are sensitive to sudden changes in the work environment and if people are left to their own devices, it is easy for rumors to spread and get out of control. Communication must be free flowing from the top down and back up.
Performance stress
High job performance benefits the organization, but in many cases, it also benefits the employee too. It leads to increased sales commissions, opportunities for promotion, and high job satisfaction. When an employee is not performing well it leads to stress due to the lack of the aforementioned benefits. On top of that stress is when the management starts criticizing and threatening action. It is important for managers to be accountable for employee job performance, but also for them to create steps that lead to improvement. Monitoring performance is a given for managers. Doing it the right way isn’t always so obvious. A plan for increasing job performance should be included every organization’s SOP.
Career stress
Career stress can be long term and it can affect both the individual employee and his or her family. This stress is due to a feeling of disillusionment coming when one’s career is not going to plan. It could mean a lack of promotion or a feeling of low job security. This stress is dangerous as it places a lot of pressure on an individual to change direction. It is up to the employer to recognize when this kind of stress is affecting performance. Giving opportunities for advancement or recognition is something that many new companies need to consider. Also, ensuring job security will be essential to keep people focused on the job on not on the potential for getting laid off.
Stress from responsibilities
Poor job fit is a source of stress. But, that aside let’s consider that an employee’s role will often come with a set of responsibilities. These responsibilities must be carefully selected and always reevaluated. One source of stress comes when responsibilities and their corresponding protocols are not well defined. This creates stress when people have no authoritative boundary set and they are clueless when it comes to what time or resources should be devoted towards each responsibility. Clear guidelines and ample communication should ease this. Another source of stress is when there is conflict over who is responsible for certain areas. It could be that two or more employees are a responsible for one area and a person could get stress when others are either not pulling their weight or making the person look bad when he or she is doing their job right. Disagreement can also arise when individuals have shared responsibilities. It is important to facilitate meetings and for managers to participate even if they have no active role in a meeting. Mediation is part of a manager’s duty to ensure productivity and individual performance.
For managers, their stress often comes from people and their responsibility over them. Managers can grow increasingly frustrated when their communication fails and their team is not performing well. Adapting their communication style and not becoming susceptible to the pitfalls is needed to alleviate stress from this source.
Physical risks
The environment often plays a big part of a person’s workday. If it is high-risk and has elements of threat of personal injury, it can cause a lot of long term stress and lead to big problems for the company. In industries that have employees constantly face hazards, it becomes important that safety measures are at a high standard. Management also must ensure that safety protocols are being followed by the entire team. One person’s lack of care may result in the injury of others and that possibility is a big source of stress. To best deal with stress management, there needs to be ample breaks, confidence in management to ensure a safe work environment, opportunities for safety training, adequate disciplinary measures for noncomplying people, and job rotations for the extremely high risk jobs. By job rotations, the concept is that employees are not constantly performing high risk tasks all the time. They should have other, safer tasks to do and if possible, have others perform the role as well so that each person faces less time in high-risk situations. Stress in this environment can cause fatal consequences so all considerations must be made.
Organizational stress
Stress can come from within the organization in the form of office politics, oppression, restrictions placed on participation or budgets or behaviors, lack of vision or direction, or even threats to the company’s health which might affect everyone’s job security. These sources of stress must be dealt with on a regular basis by the top management. Functional organizations will allow every voice to be heard, provide guidelines on appropriate behavior and communication, have clarity in an organization’s mission, have frequent reevaluations on rules and protocols or additional information for justifying their existence, and reassurance on job security.
Office politics can cause long term stress as it persists in the office on a constant basis. Dealing with office politics is extremely difficult as it involves employees who might not be completely honest or have good intentions towards others. It is a source of dissatisfaction and should be monitored and dealt with on an ongoing basis. Conversations in confidence with individuals could lead to clues which will help mitigate the effects of office politics. A focus on employee motivation and values will also become a big help towards lowering the cases of office politics.
Boredom
Boredom might not seem stressful, but it can be. While jobs aren’t meant to be a form of entertainment, there are a lot of positive aspects of a job which are derived from accomplishing tasks and overcoming challenges. Depending on the individual, challenges are needed for a person to feel satisfied. Boredom is one of the top reasons why someone would want to leave their job. It usually occurs from poor job fit. Boredom, believe it or not, is a cause of stress. In this case, employees should be provided with ample tasks or should be considered for reassignment with other responsibilities.
The good stress
Stress isn’t always bad. It is a natural response to threat and it tells the person that action must be taken to remove threats. There should always be some pressure for workers to perform. Deadlines should be given, though not too tight, and rules should be followed when it comes to safety and privacy. Stress, when channeled correctly can result in higher performance. It still must be controlled and should never be long term. Rewards for overcoming challenges and dealing with stressful situations can be a good experience.
Alleviating with long term stress
With all the negatives of stress, there comes a balance in the workplace that will help lessen the impact. One of the most obvious relievers is time off. Allowing people to have more flexibility with their time off will have a dramatic impact on their life. Some countries have common workplace policies which restricts time off and the productivity and satisfaction of employees are at the lowest levels. Another way is to provide better support for an individual to develop their skills and advance to higher positions. Communication should also be improved. Assessments of team member’s behavioral and motivational styles will reveal a lot and will lead to better communication. Adding clarity to an organizations actions and plans will help reduce stress for employees. Finally, adjusting the responsibilities of the job can improve job satisfaction. But to prevent this from happening in the first place, job benchmarking is needed.
Risk-management should always be looked at frequently and stress is one of the factors that must be given careful consideration. For growing companies it becomes a new responsibility to learn and adapt and for larger establish companies it becomes a challenge to improve.