Stress in the Workplace

STRESS AT WORK PLACE

We often here our doctors tell us to avoid stress because it is bad for our health, but the mere thinking of going to work and it’s uncertainty stresses us out. According to King (2008), “stress is the responds of individuals to stressors which are the circumstances and events that threaten them and tax their coping abilities” (p. 100). With today’s economy, work place stresses and stressors are at all time high. The fear of the economic unknown is stressing people out. Corporate downsizing, layoffs, mergers, bankruptcies, and family burden are all contributing to stressful uncomfortable situations in the work place.

Loss of income and earning potential is the most common of all the stressors on the job. According to the Austrian born founder of stress research Hans Seyle, “who defined stress as the wear and tear on the body due to demands placed on it, the financial uncertainty is placing undue burden on families and it shows on the job”. Even those who have jobs, always feel sense of powerlessness with new bosses on their backs, surveillance of there work output through the computer, high cost of health care and few retirement benefits. People tend to work longer hours and harder just to keep there jobs and tension is rising. Shifting job related tasks from familiar to unfamiliar ones within the company and the mind set of not knowing when one is going to loose what ever they have is placing heavy stress on most people at the workplace. There are a lot of job related illnesses among them are; migraine headaches, low immune system, depression, loss of appetite, anxiety, cardio vascular diseases, cancer, hypertension, ulcer, marital or family strain, muscular weakness and not having interest in anything. “Loss of a job affects every part of life, from what time you get up in the morning to whom you see and what you can afford to do. Until the transition is made to a new job, stress is chronic” (Middleton, 2008). Imagine joggling...