Safety and Workplace Stress - Research Paper Example

Safety and Workplace Stress Abstract Stress at workplace is a phenomenon that is faced by all working professionals regardless of their designations. Employees at the top most position may face stress due to management styles and the decision making they have to make, employees at the lower level may face stress due to working conditions and other environmental factors. Relationships amongst the subordinates and with the management may also be one of the reasons for stress. Workplace stress can be avoided if certain factors such as empowerment, job description and job roles can be made clear to the employees. This paper discussed about the various causes of stress and how stress can be dealt with at workplace. Contents Introduction 3 What is Stress? 3 What is Workplace Stress? 4 Workplace Stress symptoms 4 Dealing with Stress 6 Effects of stress on employees and related outcomes 7 Workplace stress and work related accidents 8 Environmental factor and Occupational Safety 9 Stress - safety and health 10 Improved Workplace stress 11 Conclusion 12 References 14 Safety and Workplace Stress Introduction Stress is an issue that is vital for all individuals and professionals to understand and try to overcome stress as soon as possible due to the fact that stress may lead to physical and mental damages. It may harm the productivity of the organizations as stressful employees may not work according to the required standards and may also mess up work which may cause the organization to face heavy consequences. Stress may be caused by inappropriate environmental factors such as color of the walls and inappropriate lighting that may cause difficulties for the employees to work properly. This research paper discusses about the concept of work related stress and the factors that can be used for dealing with stress successfully. Work place stress, safety and health of the employees are also discussed in the paper. What is Stress? Stress can be defined as a state in which the individual has feelings that are negative and starts having symptoms such as heartbeat increases, mouth dries up palms become sweaty, headache, cramps and other such types of things. The individual under stress may go through psychological symptoms as well such as loss of self control, impulsive reactions, emotional breakdowns and so on. A person under stress may not behave in a normal manner and may have mood swings very often. People under stress may tend to be highly unrealistic at times and they may develop impatience in certain situations. In all the feelings of the person, the behavior, the reactions of the individual, all these elements are affected under stress. The individual has to undergo challenging situations when under stress and if the state of stress prolongs, the individual may be attacked with serious types of illness (Miller, Buckholdt and Shaw, 2008). What is Workplace Stress? Stress can be experienced by any individual at any time and the cause of stress may not be limited to any particular factor. Stress can be defined as a reaction adversely experienced by people due to different types of pressures and demands that are imposed on the individual during work. Stress can be due to demanding deadlines, work overload, meeting up with difficult clients, so and so forth (Hilton and Whiteford, 2010). The individual needs to let go of the stressful situation as early as can be done because prolonging a stressful situation may lead the individual to develop illness that can be mental and physical as well. Jobs that are designed well and have a clear and consisted description of the job is regarded as good for the employees but inadequate attention towards management and tasks may lead the individual to face work related stress. The main causes of work related stress are that the employees are unable to complete their work in the deadline given and they fear the accountability situation that they may have to face with their supervisor (Reed et al., 2005). Workplace Stress symptoms There are many symptoms and signs that may lead to workplace stress. The signs and symptoms may be related to the situations and events taking place at workplace. Stress may also be according to the way management behaves with the employees. Strict rules and policies, unwelcoming attitude, insulting remarks and other such factors may also cause stress. The causes of workplace stress are demands, control, support, relationships, role and change. Demands: Employees tend to panic when they are unable to meet the deadlines. Missing out deadlines leads towards piling of work and this means that a more demanding performance is required from the employees which causes them to undergo stress. Control: If employees have no control over their work such as if they are not allowed to decide when they have to complete their tasks and in what manner then this make the employees feel they are not in control of their work and may face stress. Constant reporting and asking the supervisor about how to proceed the task may annoy employees as well them give them stress because he task may be delayed by asking supervisor every time. Support: Employees may take up sick leaves if they feel they cannot clear issues with their managers and supervisors. Some aspects of work may trouble the employees and they may opt for sick absences rather than talking it over with their manager. To avoid facing the management with the problem, employees find a better option to be absent from the workplace. Relationships: If employees are unable to develop good loyal relationships with their colleagues and manager then they have to face situations such as bullying, overpowering by colleagues, and indiscipline at their workplace. Hence these situations may cause employees to undergo stress (Meglich-Sespico, Faley, and Knapp, 2007). Role: If employees are unclear on their job roles then they may develop anxiety in them about how they would perform and whether their performance would be accepted by organisation. Change: Change is a phenomenon that is constantly taking place and if employees are unable to cope up with the changes at workplace then they may have to face insecurity and uncertainty as well. This would cause the employees to be in a stressful situation as the change may not be acceptable to the employee. Dealing with Stress Demand: For dealing with the demand stress the employees should be made clear about the goals and objectives that need to be achieved from the job. The employees should be trained in areas where there is a requirement so that work produced may be effective and deadlines can be met successfully this way. The organization can also analyze whether flexible working hours would ease the task for the employee in accomplishing tasks timely (Hilton and Whiteford, 2010). Control: Employees can be asked for consent when the management makes decision so that employees know what is going on in the organization. The management can build teams of employees so that tasks can be divided amongst teams and each team can work in their manner of achieving the goals. Support: The management of the organization can have counseling sessions with the employees and discuss with them their reasons for stress at workplace. Such support will allow the employees to feel that the management is concerned about them and they ay share their problems and accordingly it may be dealt by the management (Bond, 2010). Relationships: The organization should have a systematic disciplinary code of conduct for employees at workplace so that any misconduct at workplace can be handled in an appropriate manner. All harassments and bullying cases should be dealt under proper procedures so that employees feel that they are given their due rights at workplace (Meglich-Sespico, Faley, and Knapp, 2007). Role: The employer needs to ensure that the employees are clear on the job roles from day 1 and they should keep a proper check and balance on whether employees are clear on everything and also clear any ambiguities that are in the mind of the employees. Change: Proper change management programs can be conducted by the management so that employees take the change easily and understand the benefits and advantages they may receive due to the change in the organization procedures and policies. Employees fear change due to a number of reasons and it is the management's duty to ensure that they remove this fear from the minds of the employees. Effects of stress on employees and related outcomes If employees feel that the management of the organization does not care for them, then this attitude leaves the employee in stress and this stress impacts the behavior, attitude and productivity level of the employee (Bond, 2010). Employees need to be valued under all circumstances as they are the building blocks of the organization. Absenteeism The impact of stress at workplace results in increase rate of absences from the employees end. The employee may tend to ignore even important job related matters and projects. When employees become absent then gradually the goals of the organization get affected as deadlines are being missed out. Performance of the employee also deteriorates and impacts the organization heavily. Turnover Stress is observed by all employees at any designation at one time or another and the employees that cannot handle the pressure of stress tend to quit their job. Such turnover in the middle of the year may impact the organization's performance and immediate replacements may be difficult as required skills and qualification may not be readily available in the candidates (Reed et al., 2005). Productivity Due to physical and mental strains by stress, the employee may not be performing their tasks up to the required standards. Forceful completion of tasks may have loopholes in the task completed and may at times be unacceptable to the management (Hilton and Whiteford, 2010). Workplace stress and work related accidents Workplace stress may lead to unintentional accidents that may prove to be highly serious. Even in organizations where high tech technology is used, there are chances that employees may mishandle the equipment and technology and hence accidents may occur. Working conditions can cause stress to the employees such as physical danger in performing the job role, coming across incident in the workplace such as robberies and fatalities at workplace. Working conditions that are not properly equipped may cause accidents at workplace (Cooper and Clarke, 2003). For preventing workplace accidents, the safety and health of the employees should be given due consideration by the management. Control measures should be implied so that all types of physical pressures can be avoided at workplace. Violent situations must be handled with support so that employees do not go off track. When restructuring takes place in the organization, the employees should be consulted so that they are well aware of the plans and the restructuring (Larzelere and Jones, 2008). Environmental factor and Occupational Safety The performances of the employees are affected by the environmental factors that are present at workplace. The environmental factors that affect the performance are the electric shocks that may take place unexpectedly, the noise and vibration due to the use of factory equipment, other environmental factors can be the color used at workplace and the illumination factor is related to the designing of the infrastructure of the workplace. The temperature and humidity at workplace may affect the health of the employees, cold temperatures and hot temperatures may affect the employees in a negative way if the temperature is not in controlled according to standard temperatures (Cooper and Clarke, 2003). Electric shocks may cause burns in the body, contraction of muscles in the body and in severe cases may result in electrocution. These cases may result due to ungrounded wires or broken wires left unattended at workplace. Power cords not used properly may result in short circuits which need to be addressed by the organisation. Noise in the factory and vibrating tools may cause inconvenience to the employees. Noise factors may cause fatigue in the employees and some may even face hearing loss (Honkasalo, 2000). The color contrast and lighting of the infrastructure of the workplace affects the performance of the employees. If the lighting is not appropriate the employee may face problems in performing well. Improper lighting may cause distraction at workplace. If temperature at workplace is too hot and humid or too cold, then employees may become tired and may not feel like working and their performance may reduce drastically due to temperature conditions (Cooper and Clarke, 2003). Stress - safety and health The health factor of the employees may be affected due to stress. When employees are under stress, then there are immediate body changes faced such as heart rate fluctuations, tension in muscles, changes in rate of breathing, feelings of vomiting and nausea and other such types of distress. Concentration level of the employees reduce drastically, there is memory loss as well, coping up with peers and subordinates becomes difficult for the employees. Due to stress employees may also face insomnia that may lead to irritation in behavior and attitude at workplace. Coronary artery disease, Musculoskeletal disorders and other such types of illness may be incurred by the employees who are constantly under stress (Larzelere and Jones, 2008). Improved Workplace stress Stress in organizations can be improved both by the management and the way individuals perceive things. Mostly it is in the control of the management to foster the working environment for employees so that they can perform their job roles in a stress free mode. Workplace can be improved at workplace if the management considers improving the following factors (Steinman, 2003). Task Design: If the task of the job are designed with standard workloads, feasible working hours, and enough time provided for completing a certain task then the level of stress amongst employees can be controlled. Management Style: The management style should be such that employees should be empowered in certain matters so that they feel valued. Communication channels should be stronger amongst the management and the employees so that things are clear to all. Management should give recognition to employees on their good job performances so that they remain motivated at work. Interpersonal Relationships: Management should develop a positive organizational culture in which all employees maintain good working relationships with each other. There should be no discrimination of any sort amongst the workforce. Any conflicts that seem to emerge should be dealt in a suitable manner so that things remain in control without any undesirable behavior from any end. Work Roles: There can be some conflicts occurring in understanding the expectations of the job. Also if there is more than one boss in the organization than accountability issues may occur for the employees. Career Concerns: Employees should be given a proper career growth in the organization so that they have job security and growth opportunities to look forward to. When employees view their position after 5 years in the organization, then they may be motivated to reach that position with hard work and sincerity. Environmental Concerns: The physical conditions should be safe for the employees, there should be no air pollution or noise pollution so that stress related to such factors can be avoided. Employees should be avoided from chemicals that may be toxic to the employees. Conclusion It is fact that stress cannot be avoided entirely but when under stress, individuals can work upon a number of elements to reduce stress. Organizations need to ensure that they take care of the major factors that cause employees to go under stress and hence this way a large portion of stressful situations can be avoided by the management. Stress at workplace may cause accidents and these accidents may further lead to health and safety issues of the employees which is a serious concern. Hence, organizations should have proper health and safety rules at workplace and also ensure the employees enjoy their work in the organization without facing any type of stress. The working environment provided to employees should be stress free so that employees can prove to be highly innovative and creative in their job performances. References Bond, S., Tuckey. (2010). Psychosocial safety climate, workplace bullying, and symptoms of posttraumatic stress. Organization Development Journal, 28(1), 37-56.  Cooper, C. L., & Clarke, S. (2003). Managing the Safety Risk of Workplace Stress.  Management, 197. Routledge.  Hilton, M. F., & Whiteford, H. A. (2010). Associations between psychological distress, workplace accidents, workplace failures and workplace successes. International Archives of Occupational and Environmental Health, 83(8), 923-933. Honkasalo, A. (2000). Occupational health and safety and environmental management systems. Environmental Science Policy, 3(1), 39-45. Meglich-Sespico, P., Faley, R. H., & Knapp, D. E. (2007). Relief and Redress for Targets of Workplace Bullying. Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal, 19(1), 31-43. Miller, G. 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