Study of Workplace Stress Factors

Stress in the Workplace

The research topic under discussion is Stress at Workplace. Stress comes with different definitions, one of which is that stress is a 'physical, chemical or emotional factor that causes bodily or mental tension.' Emotional stress relates to job burnout, tension and strain and many scholars have called it a psychological process and linked it with the individual and the situation that he is in (American Psychological Association, 2009). The global economy has become very competitive and demands a lot of work from the employees which puts a lot of pressure on them. These increased expansions and demands of the traditional workplace have put a lot more pressure on the workers (Lokk & Arnetz, 1997; Soylu and Campbell, 2012).

The International Labor Organization and World Health Organization have recognized many different effects of stress that are harmful to the person. These effects include physical problems, psychological problems, withdrawal behaviors, lack of self-awareness etc. (Harrison 2000). The yearly costs that absenteeism causes due to stress have been estimated around 300 billion dollars (American Psychological Association Practice Organization, 2010). 550 million days of work are lost yearly due to the emotional and physical stress in the U.S. (American Psychological Association Practice Organization, 2010). Many researchers argue that the different levels of emotional stress when reach the excessive stage, results in the origination of many mental and physical problems (Herbert, 1997). Emotional stress is defined as external and internal forces between an individual and his environment which mentally or physically impair him or her (Jacqueline, 2008). Physical problems like scoliosis and fibromyalgia create pain for the person who has to stand or sit for long periods. Typing during work is a serious physical problem as the posture one sits while typing strains the tendons, muscles and bones. Physical stress has been defined as an 'external force in a person's environment that manifests a permanent or temporary physical problem' (American Psychological Association Practice Organization, 2010; Soylu and Campbell, 2012).

There have been several incidents of stress reported among the workers in the past years and it has had a huge impact on the companies whose workers are suffering from stress. The firms are starting to make urgent business strategies in order to overcome the problem (Swanson, 2000). In 2007, a survey by the American workers showed that workers were experiencing a lot of physical symptoms due to stress at work (International Labor Organization, 2009; Soylu and Campbell, 2012). The statistics of American Psychological Association state the main source of stress in people's lives is due to work. 15% of the people surveyed ranked stress at work to be the main problem in their lives (Rosch, 2001). The unbalance economy and low incomes is also one of the problems of stress at work (Michie, 2002).

The work stressors range from unclear expectations at work to noisy stations and time pressure. One of the most important sources of work stress is the unbalance between personal life and work which adds to stress. Women suffer mostly from this because they also have to look after their children and home (Yerks, Robert & John, 1908). People suffering from stress at work are more likely to be absent from their job. As a consequence of this, the people suffering from stress face many health problems and their costs of healthcare doubles. The cost of illnesses range from 200 to 300 billion dollars annually (American Psychological Association Practice Organization, 2010). A lot of workers are starting to realize the consequences of stress and taking actions for it now. As time passes, stress is going to increase and so will the healthcare costs so the organizations are working hard on developing strategies that prevents stress at work (American Psychological Association, 2008).

Management Dilemma

Management dilemma is linked with combating stress and keeping negative attitude away. The stress signs can be clearly seen in the behaviors of the people. Severe problems resulting from stress can be in the areas of feeling like fatigue, irritability, depression, anxiety etc. behavior like unmotivated, tearful, aggressive, being withdrawn etc. thinking like problem solving, difficulties in concentration etc. Or physical symptoms like headaches, nausea, palpitations etc. (Pfeifer, 2008) With persistence of stress, changes in immunological functioning, autonomic, cardiovascular and neuroendocrine which will lead to physical and mental illnesses like heart diseases, depression and anxiety etc. (Tudu & Pathak, 2013).

The resources which will help to meet the demands and pressures that are faced at work involve the personal traits like coping skills and improving the situation of work by creating a good environment (Lluminari, Inc. 2004) These resources can be increased by investing in training, infrastructure, employment practices and good management (American Psychological Association Practice Organization, 2010). A better practice of employment involves keeping in mind the risks of stress among the workers. This includes:

Deciding who is harmed by it

Searching or work pressures that cause illnesses and are long lasting

Deciding the actions that should be taken in order to avoid any harm (Hurley, 2007)

A lot of precautions that decrease the risk of illnesses due to stress include both organizational and individual approaches. The individual approach includes psychological services and training, counseling, health and clinical facilities. The management and prevention of stress requires organizational interventions because an organization is the main source of stress (Stress in the Workplace, 2009).

Research Question

The research question is "How does work related stress affect the society at a different levels? Stress is being studied in a lot of work areas but it is not getting enough attention regarding the serious damages that it can cause.

Literature Review

Disability and Accidents, Workers' compensation claims

Stress is a built in condition and the individuals are bound to have psychological and physical reactions to stress when they are faced with a theat. Sleepiness and distraction related to stress has recorded up to sixty to eighty percent of the accidents during work (Hurley, 2007). Compensation claim by the workers have increased which is causing the system to go bankrupt in a lot of states (Galinsky et al., 2005). Around one million employers miss work every day due to stress which costs the company around 602 dollars of each employee every year (Jadwiga, 2009). The employees who are present at work do not perform up to their capabilities and do not fulfill their responsibilities properly. Sixty percent of the employees have lost their productivity because of stress in the recent years (Galinsky et al., 2005).

Physical and psychological effects

The health care costs of the workers in stress are forty six percent higher than the workers who are not under stress (NIOSH, 1999). Around sixty to ninety percent doctors receive patients who are under stress and are suffering from stress related problems. Prolong stress if not treated properly can heighten the risk of cancer, heart disease, diabetes etc. (DeNavas-Walt, Proctor, & Smith,2009). Diabetes cost around fifty eight billion dollars in 2007 (Randstad, 2007). Stress can lower the immune system of an individual which can increase their risks of catching flu, cold, and other diseases (Haefner, 2008). People suffering from stress can cause painful illnesses like fatigue. According to a survey of APA, fifty three percent of the employees suffered from stress at work (Shuttleworth, 2004).

Stress condition that the workers are suffering from includes low morale, job dissatisfaction, short temper, and poor concentration (Jadwiga, 2009). The employees facing stress have a high risk of physical and mental problems which range from abuse, anxiety, and depression. According to the National Institutes of Mental Health, depression has caused twenty three billion dollars annual absenteeism (Hurley, 2007).

Unhealthy Coping Habits

According to a survey, 40% of the people smoke, 41% of the people gamble, 35% of the people shop and 27% of the people drink alcohol in order to cope with stress (National Safety Council, 2010). A lot of people start overeating which can result in obesity and causes the businesses to cost thirteen billion dollars every year in lost productivity and medical costs. In a survey in careerbuilding.com, around 26% workers gained ten pounds while 12% of the workers gained 20 pounds at work (CareerBuilder Inc. 2010).

Causes of Workplace Stress on and Off the Job

Job stressors are defined as harmful emotional and physical response that occurs with the rise in demands at work. A lot of studies report that the people who think that they do not have any control over their work report high levels of stress. The top stressors for people at work according to APA are;

Lack of prospect for improvement and expansion -- 43%

Intense workload -- 43%

Low-end income and salaries -- 43%

Impractical job prospects -- 40%

Job safety -- 34% (National Business Group on Health & Strategy One, 2007)

Job stressors include ineffective communication and management styles, lack of participation in decision making and disturbing environments at work. Around 60% employees reported noise as an added stressor and distraction (International Labor Organization, 2007). Long working hours is also one of the cause of stress as a lot of workers have reported long hours at the office to cause stress because it intervenes with their family life (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2010). Overtime work can also result in poor mental performances and other illnesses. The economic downturn, personal lives, low income and huge amount of workload have added to stress at job (Jadwiga, 2009).

When a person is experiencing stress, his hormones are released which included cortisol and catecholamines (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2003). The prolong activation of stress related illnesses can cause the system to disrupt the processes of the body and increase various problems related to health (APA, 2014). One of the illnesses is allostatic load which is a biological burden that is exacted on the body through regular adaptation of emotional and physical stress (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2003). This also results in autoimmune and inflammatory disorders, cognitive impairment, depression, diabetes, obesity, and coronary vascular disease. Individual's age faster as a result of stress and their immune system weakens which enhances illnesses (Shuttleworth, 2004; APA, 2014).

Hypothesis

Stress at work has a lot of serious effects in the society and if ignored by the individual for a long time can result in several illnesses. It is not considered a serious health issue in society because the entire focus has been on the physical safety and other issues like discrimination and harassment which has caused the society to overlook the stress symptoms. There has been a of work on the causes, results and management of stress in workplace, but the other common issues have over-taken the significance of health issues as a result of stress. Promotion of issues like saving yourself from a fellow employee who harasses or gender issues in workplace are more in focus and ample studies are being done on them. It is to be noted that extreme stress can also affect the person physically as well as psychologically and for this reason, stress in workplace will be the focus of the project.

Methodology

Keywords like 'stress at workplace' 'symptoms of stress' 'causes of stress' 'statistics of stress' 'health problems of stress' 'reasons of stress at work' ' organizational strategies for stress' were used in order to search the articles in the university library. The search was limited to secondary database which were published between the years 2000 to 2013.There was a large amount of secondary data were available for analyses on the topic. The large number of data made it difficult to select the literature; however it required inclusion and exclusion criteria which were used in this research. A systematic search of literature was used to study the evidence that was presented in the secondary data. After the systematic search was done, the study became a systematic review which means that all the references were read. Quantitative method in which a survey was also carried out with a sample size of 15 was held. Secondary sources were used in this research and the study presents a complete reference list, detailed results and a discussion are also given in the report. Areas like newspaper articles or textbooks are reviewed in the secondary source. During the conduction of literature review, it was kept in mind that the studies should point to the hypothesis or the research question.

Results

Almost 72% mortality within America can be attributed to lifelong ailments. Majority of the adults residing within America have been informed by health specialists that they are suffering from either one or more than one chronic ailment (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2003). The expenditure of chronic ailments constitutes nearly 80% from the two trillion dollar health expenditure within America. More than sixty percent Americans are either overweight or obese (Gallup, 2010). Nearly half of the American workforce has put on weight during their working hours and almost thirty percent assume that stress in their workplace has been a major factor for their weight gain (Shuttleworth, 2004).

The organizations are developing new health plans for their customers which increase the responsibilities of the employees relating to the costs of their health care (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2001). The firms must develop better insurance policies so that the health costs of the workers are covered without any burden on the employees. The insurance offices must be opened during the working hours as it will increase the productivity cause when the workers know that their health costs will be covered without any problem (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2001). 69% of the workers state that their main source of stress is their work and 41% of the workers feel stressed out because of their work (American Psychological Association, 2009). 51% employees state that their productivity had suffered because of stress while 52% of the employees state that they have considered changing their jobs, and declining a promotion as well (American Psychological Association, 2009). The median number of days that individuals were absent from work were 25 in 2001 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2001). In the companies that had a large number of employees and were placed in multiple areas had high levels of stress in the employees which is 46% (Tudu & Pathak, 2013). Work stress has been estimated to cost 300 billion dollars every year with large number of absenteeism, decrease in turnout, less productivity and insurance, legal and medical costs (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2001).

Employers cited in the National Business Group on Health/Watson Wyatt Survey (2009) that the 'underuse of preventative services' and 'employee's poor health habits' were the two challenges in the maintenance of an affordable benefit coverage (Shuttleword, 2004). According to 52% of the employees, the company does not fulfill its responsibility of promoting health of employees (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2003). According to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2009), only 2% of the employers offer comprehensive cessation benefits of smoking. The American employees survey stated that only 42% of the employees have reported that their organization offer options for healthy food (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2003). 46 million people in 2008 lacked health insurances which increased to 58.5% later that year (Tuda & Pathak, 2013). Between the years 2008 and 2009, the premiums for the health insurance for employees was increased to 5% for the families which bought the total to 4824$ for individual person and 13, 374$ for individuals ((National Business Group on Health & Strategy One, 2007)

In 2005, the mental health problems of the employees due to work, rose up to 156 million visits to the doctor's office, hospital and clinics (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 2008). This made stress one of the top reasons of people's visit to the doctor (Hurley, 2007). The individuals also suffer from mood disorders which costs up to 50 billion dollars every year and loss in high productivity resulting in 321.2 million absent workdays (Kessler et al., 2006). The mental health disorders in 1990 in American economy cost 79 billion dollars and loss in productivity (Shuttleworth, 2004). Around 15.3% or the workers are reported to have used alcohol, 19% got involved in alcohol monthly while 11% got involved weekly (Rice & Miller, 1996, as cited in U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1999). The workers using drugs cost twice as much in the compensation claims of the workers as compared to those who are free of drugs. A 0.4% of health premium plans will be raised by the Congressional Budget Office projects in Wellstone-Domenic Mental Health Parity Act. (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 2008).

Around 70% of deaths in America are caused by the chronic disease. 66% of the adults who are living in America have more than one chronic disease as told by the healthcare provider (Kaiser Family Foundation & Health Research and Educational Trust, 2009). The chronic disease costs more than 75% of 2 trillion dollars as the cost of health care cost. In 2009, out of every ten American, six adults were either obese (26%) or overweight (36%). 44% of the employees have gained a lot of weight during their work and around 32% state that their stress is due to weight gain during the working hours (Gallup Organization, 2010). The productivity loss which was related to family and personal health issues in American employers cost 1685 dollars per worker a year or 226 billion dollars annually. Injuries in workplace in 2008 resulted in 5214 deaths in America (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2003). Around 4.6 million cases regarding the non-fatal injuries were reported. More than half of the cases require job transfer, time away from job or job restrictions (Goetzel et al., 1998). In 2008, the total amount of occupational injuries and deaths was 183 billion dollar and in 2007, the compensation claims cost for the workers was estimated to be 85 billion dollars (Tudu & Pathak, 2013).