by Stress can be either helpful or harmful to job performance, depending upon its level. When stress is absent, it limits job challenges and performance becomes low. As stress increases gradually, job performance also tends to increase, because stress helps a person to gather and use resources to meet job requirements.
Constructive stress inculcates encouragement among employees and helps them to tackle various job challenges. Eventually, a time comes when stress reaches its maximum saturation point that corresponds approximately to the employee’s day to day performance capability. Beyond this point, stress shows no signs of improvement in job performance.
Employees working in different sectors and organizations have to deal with stress. Bank workers are among the group of workers under a great deal of stress due to many antecedents of stress. Stress contributes to decreased organizational performance, decreased employee overall performance, high error rate and poor quality of work, high staff turnover, and absenteeism due to health problems such as anxiety, emotional disorder; work life imbalance; depression and other forms of ailments such as frequent headache; obesity and cardiac arrests.
Finally, if stress is too high, it turns into a damaging force. Job performance begins to decline at the same point because excessive stress interferes with performance. An employee lose the ability to cope, fails to make a decision and displays inconsistent behaviour. If stress continues to increase even further it reaches a breaking point. At this breaking stage, an employee is very upset and mentally devastated. Soon he/she completely breaks down. Performance becomes zero, no longer feels like working for their employer, absenteeism increases, eventually resulting into quitting of a job or getting fired.
Stress should not be very high nor too low. It must be within the range and limits of employee’s capacity to tolerate and his performance level. A controlled stress which is within limits is always beneficial and productive than an uncontrolled one.
Management of every organisation must always consider their employees as assets of their firm and not work slaves. Efforts should be made regularly to monitor and study stress levels in working environment. Necessary adjustments and arrangements should be made to control stress and its causes. Co-operation, Kindness, Respect, Good Manners and Discipline among members of an organisation always create a stress free, healthy, friendly and productive environment in a workplace.
Understanding emotional aspect of a human factor also plays a key role in determining the success prospect of an organisation. No matter how intelligent a work force is, it is emotions and not logic that drives them to give their best.
Effect on Health
In addition to headaches, sleep disorders, vision problems, weight loss/gain and blood pressure, stress affects cardiovascular, gastrointestinal and musculoskeletal systems, says Richard Weinstein, author of “The Stress Effect.” If you’re not feeling well, you’re not going to do your best work. Further, the amount of sick leave taken to rest and recuperate from stress-related illnesses often means that the work only accumulates during your absence and, thus, generates even more stress about how to catch up once you return.
Strained Interactions and Relationships
Stress is a major contributor to job burn-out and strained interactions with peers and supervisors, says Bob Losvyk, author of “Get a Grip“. Overcoming Stress and Thriving in the Workplace.” The combined feelings of helplessness and hopelessness generate heightened sensitivities to any and all forms of criticism, defensiveness, depression, paranoia about job security, jealousy and resentment toward co-workers who seem to have everything under control, short-fuse tempers, diminished self-esteem and withdrawal.
Lack of Focus
Stress affects your ability to remember things you already know, to process new information you are learning and to apply both to analytical situations and physical tasks that require concentration. When you are mentally exhausted from all of the worries, anxieties and tension brought on by a stressful environment or lifestyle, you are more easily distracted and prone to make costly, harmful or even fatal mistakes on the job.
Poor Time Management
The positive side of stress is that it can jump-start your adrenalin and motivate you to perform your tasks more quickly in response to impending deadlines. An overwhelming workload, lack of peer support and too many demands at once, however, contribute to a sense of frustration and panic that there isn’t enough time to complete the work. According to the authors of “Performance Under Pressure: Managing Stress in the Workplace,” if these conditions routinely result in overtime or having to take work home, the stress of being unable to manage time efficiently can fuel employees’ resentment toward the company as well as negatively influence their commitment and loyalty.
