Posts Tagged ‘stress factor’
Stress Reducers in the Workplace
July 18th, 2008 | 
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Stress is a regular part of life and any job. Without stress, workers cannot meet deadlines, strive to achieve required sells required for the job, or meet satisfaction of the clients. Meeting the demands of a job makes the work interesting and satisfying and often allows people to develop their skills and achieve promotion. People regularly experience stress-causing situations in the workplace. They react to these events with tension and then come back to a more relaxed condition when it is over.
Stressors In The Workplace
In the workplace, stress can usually cross from normal to excessive. Excessive stress can activate physical and emotional reactions that can be detrimental to employees and business alike.
Some jobs especially those that include physical strength like firefighting or those involve in maintaining justice are very stressful. Other jobs like teaching or social work that are physiologically demanding can also be stressful and even people who crunch numbers or stamp metal can experience stress.
Workplace stress can be caused by several factors, some of which may include: unsupportive working environment, high demands of the job, or poor organizational communication.
Sudden change in the workplace can cause employees develop a fear of being fired. Frequent personnel turnover, poor chances of promotion, lack of preparation for technological changes can also become the stress factor for the employees.
Some work stress factors may include: too much workload, dull or worthless tasks, lengthy hours of work and small pay, unreasonable performance demands and rare rest breaks. However the physical environment of the workplace like noise and overcrowding, poor air quality, health and safety risks can also cause stress to the workers.
Supervisors that are distant and uncommunicative are walking stressors. Meager performance from subordinates can also cause stress to supervisors. Staff members also create their own stress by developing office politics, competition, bullying or harassment.
Health Risks Of Stress In The Workplace
A link between workplace stress and physical or emotional problems exist. Early signs of job stress include: sleep disturbances, stomach problems, trouble in concentration, irritability, headache, low morale, and poor affairs with family members and friends. These signs are simple to distinguish, but without proper management, they can develop into severe health risks like cardiovascular disease, musculoskeletal conditions and psychological disorders.
Work Stress Reduction
Managers and employers can reduce stress at work by providing stress management programs and training for workers and improvement in the working conditions.
There are programs that are intended to aid employees with personal problems that may be disturbing their job performance. Also, they may consist of counseling, mental health assessments, workshops on managing their time, ways of relaxing and assistance both legally and financially. The relief provided by these programs may be shallow and brief if the roots of stress in the work setting are not tackled.
Creating a healthy working environment can create a lasting stress relief of the workers. Encouraging employee participation, implementation of policies that includes the needs of the workers are some of the ways to provide a better working environment.
Employees can also reduce their job stress by getting a job description. A specific job description provided by the employer provides the basic guidelines and expectations for the performance of the employee. If the is becoming too stressful, maybe it is time for the employee to look for a more suitable job or ask if the company could modify the job to suit the employee?s skill.
Getting support from the local, state or federal agencies can lessen work stress by providing the employees the backing they need to keep them from hazardous situations in the workplace.
Tags: emotional reactions, excessive stress, experience stress, office politics, organizational communication, performance demands, personnel turnover, poor air quality, safety risks, stress factor, stress factors, work stress, workplace stressRelated posts
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Teenage Stress Management
Stress can affect anyone from children to adults. In between this age gap are the adolescents or teenagers. The cause of teenage stress is different from adult stress but the symptoms remain the same. Due to the difference of teen stress from adult stress, a different approach in tackling their stress is important.
The total population consists of an estimation of 20% teens. Yet teens are sometimes that neglected group of the population. Teenage or adolescent is the intermediate group between dependent childhood to independent adulthood and this transition is never easy. The teenage group is very vulnerable to physical and emotional stress.
Their stress may come from everywhere around them from their families, peers to their education. They may be compelled to follow the footsteps of an elder sibling to avoid comparison from their parents, or teens can be stressed from determining their role and image to the society.
Molding And Stress
The teenage or adolescent stage of life can cause major changes both in the physical and mental aspect of a person. These changes are significant in molding and shaping a person.
Physical changes in a person during adolescence include; increase in weight and height, change in voice, the development of secondary sexual characteristics, and for girls the menarche or the beginning of menstruation. On the other hand mental changes may involve; attraction towards the opposite sex, the feeling of independence, aggressiveness, experimentation.
All of these changes can cause stress to teenagers. It was surveyed that one third of teenagers undergo at least one episode of stress every week. The stress factor or stressors are different for teens and it may be due to; puberty, peer pressure, school demands, safety issues within the community, family responsibilities, negative feelings or thoughts, divorce or separation of parents, holidays, financial problems, or a death of a loved one.
The fact is that teenage girls are more affected or prone to stress than boys. Teenage girls tends to seek help from others for help with their stress while boys respond to stress by dealing with it alone and refuse help from others or by engaging themselves in activities that would help them focus on things other than the stressor.
The family members and friends are usually both the cause and support for teens. Without proper guidance, teenagers use healthy and unhealthy ways to cope with their stress.
Tackling Teenage Stress
Teenage stress can be handled both inside and outside of house. The first step in tackling teenage stress is to identify what caused their stress. The notion that there is no earthly reason for teenage stress should be avoided.
The teens should be allows to talk freely about their problems and they should be supported. Older people around them should help and teach the teens by teaching them stress relief methods and setting realistic goals for them in both curricular and extra curricular activities.
Parents or teachers must ask the teenager to define stress taking an example of an incident and ask them for their natural response to that stressful event. Advice about normal stress response and ways of tackling stress must be explained to the teens. Teach them that different stress can have different responses to different persons. Also, advise the teens to avoid unhealthy methods of relieving stress like aggression, alcohol or drug use.
During the time that a teenager feel stressed, full support must be given by the people around them. Teenagers, like children and some adults, are not ready to face major problems by themselves.
Tags: adolescent stage, death of a loved one, physical changes, school demands, stage of life, stress factor, stress management, teen stress, teenage girls, teenage group, teenage stress