The workplace is an important source of both demands and pressures causing stress, and structural and social resources to counteract stress. Long hours, tight deadlines, and ever-increasing demands can leave you feeling worried, drained, and overwhelmed. And when stress exceeds your ability to cope, it stops being helpful and starts causing damage to your mind and body as well as to your job satisfaction.
Pending work, target completion, tensions can cause stress. Job insecurity plays a major role. In Mumbai, there are many offices where there is a large number of politics. It is the politics which plays an important role. A little mistake, you are fired that is the only reason. Besides, there are two other sources of stress, or buffers against stress: relationships at work, and the organisational culture. Managers who are critical, demanding, unsupportive or bullying create stress, whereas a positive social dimension of work and good team work reduces it.
If stress on the job is interfering with your work performance, health, or personal life, it’s time to take action. No matter what you do for a living, or how stressful your job is, there are plenty of things you can do to reduce your overall stress levels and regain a sense of control at work.
Common causes of workplace stress include:
- Fear of being laid off
- More overtime due to staff cutbacks
- Pressure to perform to meet rising expectations but with no increase in job satisfaction
- Pressure to work at optimum levels.
- Lack of control over how you do your work
Reasons of Stress at Work Place
- Fear of being laid off: Due to heavy competition, it is very difficult to get a job who pays a good salary. However, once you are inside the organisation, the fear comes is the fear of being laid off? Every year, more than 57% of people in Mumbai are being laid off due to employee available in lesser pay and more qualified than the current employees, or being suppressed by the boss, or for some other reasons. Thus the stress amount increases of losing a job or just being laid off.
- More overtime due to staff cutbacks: Sometimes, due to shortage of staff, employees has to work more than their actual hours. Sitting in the front of the Computer for more than 9 hours not only give them the eye stress, but back pain, shoulder pain and tiredness where they cannot focus on their family life. In the end, whatever they earn in the month end, the expenses are more towards the medical bills then the investments.
- Pressure to perform to meet rising expectations but with no increase in job satisfaction: Sometimes to seek a promotion, an individual works 24*7 which not only decreases the promotion chances but also puts him to medical stress.
- Pressure to work at optimum level. There are hardly few organisations who has less stress load than the actual one. There are organisations who provide gym, indoor and outdoor games facilities, meditation rooms, etc. so that the employee should not feel stressed all the time. But when there is the time for appraisal, the pressure is always there to achieve the goal.
- Lack of control over how you do your work: Sometimes excessive work gives you more stress and due to which you feel irritation, suffocation and even isolation no matter you are with your family or friends. Thus planning is needed, exercise is in need as well as proper nutrition is expected to do proper and a productive work.
Stress at work warning signs
When you feel overwhelmed at work, you lose confidence and may become angry, irritable, or withdrawn. Other signs and symptoms of excessive stress at work include:
- Feeling anxious, irritable, or depressed
- Apathy, loss of interest in work
- Problems sleeping
- Fatigue
- Trouble concentrating
- Muscle tension or headaches
- Stomach problems
- Social withdrawal
- Loss of sex drive
- Using alcohol or drugs to cope
Beat workplace stress by reaching out
Sometimes the best stress-reducer is simply sharing your stress with someone close to you. The act of talking it out and getting support and sympathy bespecially face-to-face can be a highly-effective way of blowing off steam and regaining your sense of calm. The other person doesn’t have to “fix” your problems; they just need to be a good listener.
Turn to co-workers for support. Having a solid support system at work can help buffer you from the negative effects of job stress. Just remember to listen to them and offer support when they are in need as well. If you don’t have a close friend at work, you can take steps to be more social with your coworkers. When you take a break, for example, instead of directing your attention to your smartphone, try engaging your colleagues.
Lean on your friends and family members. As well as increasing social contact at work, having a strong network of supportive friends and family members is extremely important to managing stress in all areas of your life. On the flip side, the lonelier and more isolated you are, the greater your vulnerability to stress.
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