Symptoms and causes of stress related to work
Symptoms of stress
Stress can damage physical health, social relationships and the way we function at work and at home. It is important to remember that the following symptoms may have nothing to do with stress but they are often danger signals which should not be ignored:
- physical signs like headaches, insomnia, indigestion, high blood pressure
- behaviour aspects such as poor work performance, accidents, poor relationships at home and work, dependence on tobacco, drugs and alcohol
- emotional factors such as irritability, lack of concentration, anxiety, depression.
Mental and physical ill health are a personal loss to your employees and a cost to your company whether they mean sick pay for those who stay home or poor performance from those who come to work. A quick response can prevent the situation deteriorating further and may well lead to considerable improvements for both you and your employees.
Causes of stress
Anyone can suffer the effects of
stress, whatever job they do. Mental well-being is not simply a matter of personality. Certain studies and reports suggest that stress at work is the product of the working environment and its effects on individual personalities. Others show that although some employees bring family problems to work, far more take work worries home with them, and that for the majority of employees work worries are increasing. Job security is an obvious source of
anxiety which is affected both by the employee's personal circumstances and by company culture. Anxiety can lead to
distress if the company has no clear communication with employees. Causes of stress vary from company to company, job to job and department to department but are likely to involve one or some of the following:
- working environment (physical surroundings, office/factory design and facilities)
- the job itself (too much/too little to do, conflicting roles and responsibilities, badly designed shifts and rotas)
- company culture (poor communication, unsupportive management, feeling of change, uncertainty, lack of control over workload and workplace)
- interpersonal relationships at work
- home/work interface (dual career problems, conflicting demands of work and home)
- role in organisation (role ambiguity, role conflict, high responsibility for people)
- career development (career uncertainty, stagnation, status, pay and conditions, insecurity and low social value of the work).
