Various Sources of Strain in the Workplace - Essay Example

The Workplace: Stress, Causes, and Effects In the workplace, there are various sources of strain and all of them affect the employees, as well as employers, who are – most often, under less tension of the sort. Because the various jobs require that certain expectations be met, workers must deal with deadlines and other characteristics of their work, in order to utilize their chosen, or forced, professions. Such conditions serve as a base for the existence of stress, which quite often results in worse conditions of the kind of depression. In order to lessen relativity on the matter, it is important to firstly discuss the viewpoints regarding the nature of stress. Stress, as a term, has been – and still is – an issue of diverse opinions. In the past, defining stress was an effort, mainly concentrated on the physiological side of the problem. However; stress in nowadays’ terms can be expanded to a notion covering a much wider range of mental and physical reactions to various stimuli. According to sources of the American Stress Association (AIS), stress could be defined as “a condition or feeling, experienced when a person perceives that demands exceed the personal and social resources the individual is able to mobilize”. Also listed are other classifications, defining stress as "the non-specific response of the body to any demand for change," as well as “the sense of having little or no control.” A common idea of the aforesaid information is the mention of a feeling or experience (positive or negative), caused by a reaction to outside good or bad factors, respectively. So, in order to proceed with the term, having a domain that is adequately large, stress shall be thus generalized. On with its analysis, a further look at causes of stress, or specifically distress, would be of significance. In the conditions of a lifestyle, so rapid as it is today, stress is simply inevitable. The jobs of people quite often require them to meet deadlines, push for higher productivity, compete with other businesses or employees, and “increasing pressure on the individual worker to constantly operate at peak performance,” among a number of other things which produce an effect on anyone’s nervous system, namely stress (Stress at Work). In addition, the current economic recession ads heat to the situation at the job. “Reorganizations, takeovers, mergers, downsizing and other changes have become major stressors for employees,” which is now common, regardless of profession and age. Of course, there are supplementary factors, such as adjusting toward work environments, the attitude of colleagues, and the management style. Furthermore, psychologists warn that when all stressors at the workplace and those surrounding it combine, they are probable to escalate together with one’s proneness to becoming depressed. Since long, interest in the relation between stress and depression have promoted discussions. As is well known, depression is a dark state of mind, deprived of positive emotions, au contraire to the intense, continuous feelings of sadness, loneliness, etc.. The answer to the question of how does mental and physical strain create a psychological environment for depression is not obvious, nonetheless reasonable. Under the conditions of stress, and especially continuous stress, the psychological and physiological reactions that take place prepare a person for action. That is why a certain amount of stress may actually increase concentration and other abilities. But when the amount of stress increases to the point where one is overwhelmed by attempting to achieve a better hold of the situation, a person starts to wear out. This process eventually leads to negative emotions and an inability to change, or internally adapt to the circumstances. As this condition deepens, sooner or later isolation and despair cause further stress. The circle expands to a point, called depression. When it happens, depression does not stay unnoticed. The problem of depression and its effects at the workplace is becoming more frequent than it used to be. Rising economic pressure accounts for the increasing number of depressed individuals, as more symptoms of depression occur. The people who are affected by this type of illness exhibit common behaviours, as they are “liable to be slow and less productive, to be indecisive and uncertain, and to make more mistakes” (Web4Health). Besides, the nature of depression shows that “with increasing symptoms, performance of social, work and domestic activities becomes possible only with significantly greater effort.” Logically, the aforementioned negative state of mind would be impermeable to positive thoughts, for it is propulsive to itself. Individuals who are depressed cannot but negatively influence the people who surround them, thus enclosing themselves into a magic circle, which requires professional help, as well as the attention of family and significant to the individual figures, such as colleagues and managers. On the job, depression takes its toll. Various statistics show, that people suffering depression cannot work at an efficient pace and consequently businesses are affected. Some of the causes are that depression could “impair judgment,” and in effect “can lead to injuries, mistakes, and accidents” (Goff 1). Moreover, the mistakes of employees on responsible positions may be grounds of significant losses to a business. Other reaches of the condition go to a point where “people with depression… have more sick days than people suffering from other conditions” (Managed Care Magazine 2). Thus, it is not difficult to see that productivity of depressed individuals is lower than average, where such a decline indirectly proves to be of weight to the economy as a whole. In consideration of that, depression has its statistical indications. A closer look at more specific data would be more capable of giving a better idea of the actual impact of depression. There is a good amount of information, coming from the U.S. as a nation where much attention has been paid to the problem. One indication shows that “depression affects approximately 19 million Americans, or 9.5% of the population in any given one-year period” (What is Depression?). Again in the United States “estimates of the total cost of depression… in 1990 range from $30 – $44 billion.“ (The Effects of Depression in the Workplace). Hence, the data presented above is a combination of the direct and indirect costs. (which, in sign would be that “depression results in 400 million lost work days a year” (Sipkoff 4). Nevertheless, depression is not incurable, and if its increasing presence is respected, the National Institute of Mental health concludes that “in more than 80% of cases, treatment is effective.” However, before treatment becomes necessary, it is wise to consider the roots of depression. As an initial string of depression, stress and its general types have a function central enough for further consideration. The sorting of the types of stress may be expressed in the situations from which it occurs. Anyone is familiar with feelings of intense emotions, where they are either positive or negative. Thus, a major characteristic of the kind of stress would be the kind of emotions, produced by perception. In general, as Wright states in “The Different Types of Stress”, there are four ratified kinds of stress: Eustress, Distress, Hyperstress, and Hypostress. The first kind happens as a result to positive for the individual situations, where one gains something, or is in preparation to do so. The opposite to Eustress is Distress, which occurs on the basis of unhappiness due to loss and other reasons. Hyperstress and Hypostress are the types of stress caused by an overwhelming amount of duties and extreme boredom, respectively. Consequently, Eustress serves as a boost of performance (with a certain mental and physical drain, though), whereas Distress, Hyper-, and Hypostress are much more probable to result in commencing a state of depression. What’s more, it is not surprising that the foremost part of Hyperstress, and the resultant of inability to cope Distress, logically occur at the workplace. comparison, according to Managed Care Magazine, are heavily in favour of indirect costs in the specific case of depression, making it a disorder with difficult, in terms of classification, nature), where some factors may show ground for the calculated losses. Such a In view of the fact that pressure in the workplace can hardly be reduced, due to the continuous demand for productivity, perhaps finding ways to reduce the resultant stress and being able to better cope with it would be of profit to both employees and employers. Some of the techniques that would be of good use are improving organization and efficient exploitation of the capacity of workers. Managers ought to become aware of the borderline between motivational pushing and demanding too much. When the insistence on employees increases, at a certain level the incentive to complete projects and other work is halted, as mentioned above. Thus, flexibility and more freedom would give space for creativity and a better comprehension of duties on the job, which in turn would provide for lessening the negative stress and preventing negative and moreover, costly to the human resource and businesses in general psychological and physiological conditions. Seeing that technology and other factors are entering and growing in businesses at a fast rate, the qualified human resource in the economy grows in importance. Therefore, it is becoming ever-more important to recognize the factors of stress and depression, who influence workers and employers, and in turn the competitiveness and condition of the various businesses. For the time ahead, analyzing stress and its effects in the workplace will become an essential feature of economic development, as they are an issue –already present and calling for attention. Works Cited Goff, Christopher V. "The Toll of Depression." Depression in the Workplace 2006: 1.Managed Care Magazine. Web. 19 Jan. 2010. . "Effects of Depression." www.web4Health.com. European Commission; The Royal Institute of Technology, n.d. Web. 19 Jan. 2010. . Marcille, John A. "Actual Cost of Depression Is Not Obvious." Depression in the Workplace 2006: 2. Managed Care Magazine. Web. 19 Jan. 2010. . Sipkoff, Martin. "Depression Is Prevalent and Pernicious, Costing Employers Billions Each Year." Depression in the Workplace. Managed Care Magazine, 2006. Web. 19 Jan. 2010. . "Stress at Work." www.lifepositive.com. Everyone.Net; Google.com, n.d. Web. 19 Jan. 2010. . "Stress, Definition of Stress, Stressor, What is Stress?, Eustress?." www.stress.org. The American Institute of Stress, n.d. Web. 19 Jan. 2010. . “The Effects of Depression in the Workplace." All About Depression. National Institute of Mental Health, n.d. Web. 19 Jan. 2010. . “What is Depression?." All About Depression. National Institute of Mental Health, n.d. Web. 19 Jan. 2010. . Wright, Michael. "The Different Types of Stress." Blog. Health. Hub Pages. Hubpages Inc., Mar. 2009. Web. 19 Jan. 2010. . Read More