Who Is Responsible for Stress at Workplace - Assignment Example

Who is Responsible for Stress at Workplace? Stress at workplace comes about due to the fault of a number of people within the organization. Needless to state, stress is indeed all within the mind but its ramifications seem to come out in a very physical as well as mental way. The workplace dynamics ask of the employees to manifest their truest selves in a way that stress does not take place within their personality regimes. However it happens due to a host of issues and reasons which could be mentioned here. The most significant and pressing reason for workplace stress lies in the fact that workers are unable to follow a certain schedule and hence they fall within the domains of stress for all the wrong reasons. Then there is the discussion of employers putting in work on the heads of the employees who would not be able to solve the issues that remain a vital part of this work ethos. The sharing of responsibility is also a very important point which could tackle the negativities attached with stressful measures. However this is a given that stress come about due to a person’s ability to take it within his stride, and this indeed is a very negative connotation so to speak. It would be wise on the employee’s part to understand the intricacies involved with stress and as to how he could keep himself at a distance from things which put him under stress in the first place. Stress is defined as that element within an employee’s undertakings which has a huge say in putting off his work, procrastination, laziness and all such measures which limit his confidence in completing his office chores in a diligent way. Another definition of stress is that activity which limits his active state and puts all of his energy into a negative zone, wholly and solely for the wrongful notions that come attached with it. This paper takes a keen look at the workplace stress discussions as well as finds the actual culprit who begins the stressful exercise in entirety. One should believe that stress takes its toll on the employees when they are late with regards to the completion of their activities, incapable of handling their daily affairs within the workplace, unable to meet deadlines and so on. There could be a number of reasons which could be mentioned as to why stress is the single most destructive epidemic in the organizations of present times. There is direct evidence available which suggests that stress is harmful for the long term productivity levels of the organization and hence there is a dire need to have the house in order as far as the organizational undertakings are concerned. The role of the top management is also immensely significant because it needs to pave the way for building the level of trust and confidence amongst the employees so that they can manifest their truest selves towards the workplace undertakings. They must understand that the employees need time and space to get their jobs done and that it is very vital to comprehend the various factors which play a significant role in keeping away an individual from the stressful regimes. The responsibility lies both on the shoulders of the top management as well as the employees since this indeed is a two-way symbiotic relationship – each helping the other one out in one way or the other. But then again the responsibility needs to be shared since the organization has individuals who work in the form of teams more than anything else (Kompier & Cooper 1999). The industrial standards of work domains have a very important role to play within the understanding levels reached upon in the wake of stress and its different implications at the workplace. It must be understood that stress is not the end result of an employee’s behavior with regards to his work. It is the leading angle which forces him into entering a negative zone that essentially kills the very basis of his work regimes. His vibes start acting in the wrong manner and he encounters serious issues at the hands of the people with whom he has to carry out his business undertakings. He pays little heed to what his bosses have to say and concentrates more on getting the job done either by speeding it up or by the proverbial copy-paste mechanism. The requirement is to remain pretty head on with regards to whatever this employee is doing. He wants to finish off his business and shows little interest in the organizational undertakings as a result of the stressful issues that he is engulfed with. He wants to take his mind off work and concentrate on something else – something which would put him at ease and relieve his mind. An effort should be made by the human resources management department to tackle such issues and take into account how the employees who suffer enormously from stress are taken care of in a quick and direct way. Medical conditioning for these employees could also be seen as an alternative since they are known to suffer from stress time and again. A prior knowledge of their health conditions would also be a good thing as this will find out the exact ways with regards to their stress taking measures. Indeed the role of the human resources department is one of significance. This is so said because the human resources department involves itself with the understanding and analysis of each and every employee at the workplace. Its main responsibility is to look after the rights and work domains of the employees and give them equal ground to show their true mettle. Their strengths could only be put on the canvass when the human resources department is loyal towards their needs and requirements. The stress issues need to be solved by the human resources department since it has the duty to look after the rights of the employees from a correctional standpoint. This means that the aspects of stress need to be touched upon in detail in order to rectify the problems which ail the organizational domains. The workplace must be a place that instills confidence and renewed energy levels at all times possible. It must not demonstrate lazy and clumsy looking individuals who are sitting on their workstations and yawning all day long. The need is to have activity and that too from a positive standpoint (Cooper & Williams 2002). This will mean success for one and all within the organizational regimes as well as give them the encouragement which they so dearly need. Also the human resources department would feel that the employees are more loyal towards the organizational objectives and goals when they are under no stress at all. The duty of the human resources department is thus very significant, to understand from a general standpoint. The human resources department construct will have a huge say in devising future strategies which could deal with the doing away of stressful exercises at work as well as set a good precedent of being on board with the employees all the time. It will gauge the exact reasons as to why the employees are undergoing periods of stress and what best could be done to keep away the very same, within the organizational boundaries. However the personal issues could best be settled by the counselors but the professional undertakings should most definitely be resolved in an amicable way by the human resources department as this is its utmost responsibility. If it fails to do so, there could be serious consequences for all and sundry at the workplace. Different workshops and seminars are held under the aegis of the human resources department within the organization which more or less target the exact ways under which stress could be kept away from the domains of the employees. These seminars and workshops propose ideas which could form the essence of removing stress from the employees in a fair enough way. However the innate drive for putting off stress must essentially come from the employees themselves as these are the people who can and will bring a difference upon their own selves. If they set their respective house in order, it is a given that the organizational undertakings and tasks would be resolved in a very amicable way (Tehrani 2004). The people will assert themselves in line with the needs and requirements of the organization and would not backtrack on the mistakes that they have already committed, intentionally or otherwise. There would be a sense of accountability and honest dealings within the employees who are free of stress within their personal and professional lives. A stressful experience means that the employees will view the professional undertakings as burdensome and thus make the whole effort of resolving the issues at the workplace as an exercise that has little or absolutely no motivation at all, from their respective standpoints. This would mean a scenario of laziness will creep in within the related equation and essentially mar the very basis of oneness within the organization. The workplace must manifest its real basis through sheer relaxation of mind and the body. There has to be found a middle ground between the stress regimes and relaxation, as this is indeed very quintessential. Once again, the importance within this discussion centers on the premise of having an environment which does not negatively inculcate a sense of stress within the employees at the workplace. The measures that the employees undertake are a direct result of how things will shape up within the future and the organization has a great amount of influence within the shaping up of things, as far as the employees are concerned. It is a need to properly address the requirements of the employees so that responsibility for the stressful regimes could be shared amongst the people who are indeed carrying out the wrongful things at the workplace and thus putting all and sundry under serious stress. The organizational environment decides for it own self as to how an employee would view the workplace around him. He would either get stressed due to the physical issues at the workplace or be emotionally altered by the different nuances and viewpoints of the people with whom he gets in touch with, on a constant basis (Clements, Sacks & Fay-Hillier 2001). Thus the need is to have such an environment in place which gives importance to the individual rights of the employees, no matter how difficult they are to achieve at the end of the day. This will solve half of the issues which crop up under the heading of stress, undoubtedly. An environment which relieves the employees of stress is appreciated all around and such regimes cultivate growth and productivity at all times. The industrial standards usually echo such organizations’ undertakings and steps that they have taken within the stress management measures. An environment which has no stress is usually the one that shows the best productivity levels and that too on a consistent basis. This indeed is a win-win situation for any business entity and such organizations usually prosper with the passage of time. These kinds of workplace environments must be replicated so that growth and productivity is achieved in entirety. Managing stress is thus one of the primary responsibilities of the organization. The workplace needs to be a place where the employees could feel a sense of openness and liberalism. They must not be allowed to work under stressful measures as this will limit their growth and productivity levels as well as ask of them to give up trying for the sake of achieving extra for the sake of the organization. Under such scenarios it is best to outline the philosophy of the organization so that managing stress does not become a huge problem. This will also ask of the employees to give in their much valuable input so that issues that need sound handling within the relevant quarters are given significance all around. The employees generally appreciate any such measures which are taken to thwart the stressful regimes that are in place within the workplace environments. They always look up to their bosses whenever there are certain issues that need proper handling and direct interference by the authorities at the helm of affairs (Menzel 1993). Thus there is a dire need to understand the psyche of the employees more than anything else as these people expand the business domains of an organization in an exponential way. It would be appropriate if the stress elements are handled in a very open and direct fashion, so that creativity and adherence to work standards could be seen as the order of the day. The work standards would always be followed when the employees know what to expect from their bosses and how their top management would react in the event of a stressful experience at the workplace. There must be proper understanding achieved amongst the employees, the top management and the human resources department so that the end result is one that benefits the organization in the long run scheme of things. It will give the employees room to maneuver their activities as well as support their own selves whilst undergoing serious stressful regimes. This is important as no organization can work in isolation and the employees need to show humanly attributes more than anything else. In the end, one must comprehend here that responsibility must stem from the top. This is because the employees look up to their bosses whenever they see that stress is posing as a huge problem in the workplace domains. This debate is dependent on the role of the top management as well as the inputs that are offered by the human resources department. Without these functions doing their respective jobs diligently, it would be an uphill task to relieve a workplace environment of stress in entirety. It is therefore advisable to have workload distributed in such a manner that the employees do not feel stressed about completing the activities and meeting the strict deadlines that are on offer most of the times. However the responsibility also lies on the shoulders of the employees themselves as they are the best judge to understand and analyze how much work they can do and at what rate they would be able to solve the anomalies within the organizational system. Additionally, these employees must know where they have gone wrong and what steps need to be undertaken in order to solve the problems which are related with stress. Merely taking stress is one thing, putting off work or compromising on work ethos within the workplace domains is another and quite significance aspect altogether. Without a doubt, stress is an epidemic and needs to be treated as such. An aggressive mechanism must be in place to keep away the regimes which create stress within the workplace and a countering policy should be proactively ready to gauge the negative results of such stressful undertakings. This would outline the need for having peace and sanity within the workplace as stress is a slow but steady killer for any organization. Bibliography CLEMENTS, Paul T., Sacks, Susan B. & Fay-Hillier, T. (2001). Care after Chaos: Use of Critical Incident Stress Debriefing after Traumatic Workplace Events. Perspectives in Psychiatric Care, Vol. 37 COOPER, Lesley & Williams, Stephen. (2002). Managing Workplace Stress: A Best Practice Blueprint. John Wiley & Sons KOMPIER, Michiel & Cooper, Cary. (1999). Preventing Stress, Improving Productivity: European Case Studies in the Workplace. Routledge MENZEL, Donald C. (1993). Ethics Induced Stress in the Local Government Workplace. Public Personnel Management, Vol. 22 TEHRANI, Noreen. (2004). Workplace Trauma: Concepts, Assessment, and Interventions. Brunner-Routledge Word Count: 2,523 Read More