As hinted in our last article, articles that follow will be dedicated to stress manifestation and stressor in major parts in our lives.
We chose to occupy ourselves with work as the first station on this part of our journey.
There is a lot of talk about work in general these days.
Regarding employment and security of the workers there is much discussion about what post COVID era will bring.
It is almost like „how many experts, that many forecasts“.
At least, vaccination is on the way.
It has come to my notice that many governments accross the world leave their citizens the free will to chose whether they would like to vaccinate or not.
But, at the same time there are discussions going on about the restrictions which may be imposed to those who choose not to vaccinate.
On one hand, that only shows to measure of caution that governments show in this situation.
On the other hand, however, such new acts may seriously harm the sound mental health of their citizens.
This is so because this talks are directed to limiting the social inclusion of those who do not vaccinate.
A normal amount of social interaction is a very important feature in keeping the mental health of an individual on a satisfactory level.
Most people still follow the mainstream thought that work, in the way globally practised, is still necessary to support ourselves, our families and through the tax system the entire society of a political unit.
Because of that, we will devote ourselves completely to this subject.
We have experienced that many private web sites and printed books of the so called gurus in this area tend to put a large number of items under the term major stressors at work.
We are of an opinion that this is faulty and leads to wrong conclusions.
Just to name a few, we saw that things like family problems, eating disorders, weight issues and personal inecurities were stuffed into this category.
We oppose to such entries and indications.
Our opinion is that such quotes just have the purpose of filling the lines without adding real value to the subject.
We may, however, upfront agree that some of this thing may present major stressors in life, in general, or connected with work, but not at work.
This claim, although it may seem to come from a very arrogant persons, actually represents the miror of a modest fact.
That fact consists in the following.
One of the creators of this blog is a person with more than 40 years experience on the labor market, academically educated and perfected his knowledge at the University of Cambridge.
The other one has over that the originator has over ten years of experience in working with people who acted against the law and were tried for a misdemeanor or a criminal offence.
Many of these people unfortunately have some mental issues relating to social insecurity, sheer survival and the inability to satisfy the basic human needs in the amount anybody in Europe thesedays should be able to.
This is alltogether very sad.
Therefore, we believe we are qualified to make the aforementioned statement and we have a lot to substantiate it with.
That said, this article will deal only with the topic in the main headline and that is major stressors at work.
Workplace, especially the one that makes you to enter on a daily basis in some heavy social interaction represent one of the main places where stress is present.
It is smart to equip yourself with gadgets that may relieve you of stress on the workplace, especially if your time to relax is scarce.
Click here to get your anti-stress mobile app.
There is one important issue to discuss before going forward.
It relates to the question does any job cause stress.
We will cover the issue in the following paragraphs.
Major stressors at work – are they present with every job?
Not necessary.
With this hint we will again take a step backwards and perhaps even retreat ourselves for a moment just to let sink that in.
…
We will not take it serious if you had some negative comments or even harsh words regarding our statement.
We are aware there are many people who for a certain reason are tied to thier workplace and cannot leave although it gives them a lot of stress.
The situation is well known to us and we speak that from our own experience.
However, what we will be taking serious are the experts in this area.
They concluded that there really are jobs which do not have any or little stress embedded within.
Therefore, it is time to introduce a new category.
A healthy job
We are aware that some believe that we are making things up.
For your comfort, we also were of the same impression when we stumbled upon this notion.
However, we took a little dive and were surprised when we found out where and by whom this notion was coined.
But, before continuing further on, we shall relax over a cup of tea to relieve ourselves of stress. Get yours here.
What is a healthy job?
For the unbelievers, there really is a topic regarding healthy jobs.
It is discussed on the official web site of the World Health Organisation (hereinafter reffered to as WHO) that has an Office at the United Nations Organisation.
So, that gives some authority to our claims.
As we outlined in our last article, WHO has its own definition of health, which incorporates sound mental health.
Like we argued, WHO takes an interesting approach.
It states that sound mental health must not be considered just as a state where there is no presence of disease or infirmity.
We don’t like the notion that are not wide known, so instead of infirmity remember weakness, frailty, faintness.
During my studies one of the older ages professors told me that an expert always speaks in a way that everybody is able to understand.
This has been my benchmark in assessing if someone is for real or a fake.
Therefore, a health cannot be considered just as the absence of something.
It requires an affirmation.
Health, including sound mental health is comprised of comprehensive physical, mental and social well-being.
We like the way that WHO builds a solid ground on which it is able to draw near to and construct the healthy job definition.
In accordance with this elaboration we would like you to notice something.
But, before that, we invite you to grab your sample of anti-stress mobile app.
Pay attention that a healthy job doesn’t mean just the non existence or scarcity of common stressors at work.
Many of these stressors are usually of a risk to our health.
After all, we confront them on a daily basis.
Just take in account that most of us go to every day minus weekends.
Becuase of the frequency by which they may occur and the possible damage they may do it is of utter importance to find a proper mechanisam to combat them.
Such mechanisms are often absent on a workplace.
Opposite to searching that the workplace be clean from stressors, an accents must be put on something else.
This is the presence of the factors that contribute to the enhancement of our mental health at the workplace.
What we want to say is that major stressors at work will always be present.
However, it is up to the other factors we dispose with to confront them in a proper way.
To say it in a simpler language, this would imply that the employees will always be faced with some sort of a demand.
But, a healthy job guarantees that they may, taken their abilities and disposable resources successfully overcome this demands.
Disposable resources imply the possibility to make decisions according to their position and to ask guidance of help of their superiors and other colleagues.
Again, we are aware that many of you never had the opportunity to expereience such a scenario.
Despite that, to any of you who plan to work for an undefined period further in the future, this can be a goal you wish to strive to and hope for.
We can only wish you good luck to in such an intention and that you achieve your goal as soon as possible.
And know, after covering what a healthy job looks like, back to reality for most of the class.
Major stressors at work and consequences of work related stress
There are many stressful situations in a workplace that you may experience.
It also implies that that are many stressors in the workplace.
Many of these are relative stressors.
To repeat, what means that the occurence of stress is dependable on the person that encountered such stressors.
On the other hand, there is a hand of stressor that are common to many (and perhaps any) jobs, exposure to which has a high chance to develop into stress.
They are commonly denominated as the major stressors at work.
Major stressors at work, due to their power to cause stress in employees, may be also denominated as or at least be close to absolute stressors.
In one of our previous article we discussed that absolute stressors get their name due to the fact that are likely to cause stress in all population.
We believe that you, the reader, already experienced some of these stressors.
For that, we are sorry.
However, we also believe in the ability to learn from experience.
Moreover, we believe in the ability to prepare mentally for the known forecoming stressors and in the ability to handle stress properly if prevention wasn’t (for any given reason) successful and to heal if necessary.
Any stressor is potentialy dangerous due to the damage that stress can do to our body.
Major stressors at work carry even more significant and certain danger, becuase of the probability to cause stress.
Work related stress may cause many unwanted consequences.
These consequences may even reach far outside the workplace and considerably affect other areas of our life.
We will however stick to the ones that pertain strictly to the workplace, for the purpose of not deviating from the main subject.
Undermined productivity that leads to poor performance
First and very probable consequence of the work related stress that can occur due to the exposure to major stressors at work is the blow to the productivity of employees.
Have in mind that such a situation, especially in companies which heavily rely on their staff, their qualities and talent, can lead to an unwelcome business result for the company.
Therefore, if the company lets such a situation to occur, this is equal to doing yourself an ill turn.
It is only a natural reaction of a certain worker to stop being productive as usual when confronted with a major stressor.
Namely, when stress develops there are a few likely outcomes regarding the way it will affect productivity, two being the most frequent. Unfortunately, we had experience with both of them. We can even observe them as instances.
The first outcome that threatens to occur is temporary paralysis.
Temporary paralysis in this context means that we are unable to start, continue working on of finish a cetain task due to stress.
It happens as a result of being engulfed into a problem, challenge or demand in a way that scrambles our thoughts and thus the ability to work in a normal way.
A positive thing is that this usually does not last for a longer period of time.
It may be dealt just by leaving the workplace at the end of the day and stepping into more comfortable surrounding or by sleeping it over.
The major problem is if we are confronted with a deadline.
This is especially so if we are expected to finish the task which gave brith to a stressor the same day.
Also, a similar problem may arise if we are expected to swiftly perform some other tasks.
Already crippled by previous stressful situation, it is unrealistic to expect that the work which needs to be performed afterwards will be of same quality.
Sadly, we are from our own experience able to tell that such situations have a potential of causing trauma.
Frequent repetition of these situation may be very hazardous to one’s health and well-being.
Second outcome results in absenteeism, meaning over-absenteeism.
That means that an employee doesn’t show himself at work due to stress he suffered or that he leaves the workplace right after some major stressor ignited stress.
To clarify and to differentiate, absenteeism means missing from work for a certain legitimate reason.
It is well known that companies count on the fact that the work need to miss work a few days in a year for certain legimimate reason.
On the other hand, over-absenteeism is missing from work without a legitimate reason (reason is very well legitimate in this case, but not from the view of the company).
The period of being absent may reach from a day to an undefined period of time any carries with it a significant chance of being laid off.
Therefore, we can look at absenteeism as a paralysis to work that has a more permanent feature and may therefore be viewed as a second instance of the same problem.
If all of this is known to you, for getting out of stress in a short time, take the Anti-stress app.
Intra- and Interpersonal conflicts
Another possible outcome of the work related stress are possible conflicts that threaten to occur.
Intraconflict is the inner dialog and inner struggle within a person that may last for an extended period of time and even go to a loop without a clear resolve.
This may likely happen if a person is already unsatisfied with a current job at the moment when the stress occured or if the person sees a need to change a job.
However, she or he is unable to do that for any reason, including the personality of that person.
And the final step occurs if a person due to this situation replies to stress by retreating in her/himself.
However, the result of work related stress may be a burst of aggresion to other colleauges in a worplace environment.
This may happen if this person contributed to the origination of the stressor by their behaviour, which commonly implies the lack of organisation, negligence or just pure laziness.
Similar to the consequence of diminished productivity, interpersonal conflcts carry the danger for the normal functioning of the company, due to lack of communication.
On the other hand, intrapersonal conflict may lead to employees’ and company’s performance below optimal levels.
Loss of motivation and morale
There are multiple channels through which major stressors at work and work related stress caused by them can produce loss of motivation and morale.
As you might suggest, this consequence of work related stress is closely related to lower production and perfromance in general.
Namely, it is reasonable to presume that the absence of motivation leads to the diminishing of our potential achievements.
Overcrowded schedule, threatening deadlines, unsecurity and even hard and complex, time consuming tasks may lead to burn out and destroy the possibility of the employee to perform as usual.
Morale may drop and motivation may be lost also due to high expectations of the superiors.
It often happens is the superior staff is not competent and capable to communicate the way in which the tasks need to be done and the way progress is to be tracked.
Many are today aware that the lack of autonomy plants the seed of unhappiness at work.
Another angle of looking at the loss of motivation due to the presence of major stressors at work requires us to again fall back to the intraconflict as another consequence of work related stress.
Intraconflict focuses on the personal mindset of a certain employee.
Therefore, the occurence of loss of motivation and the drop of concentration are really highly dependable upon our own mindset, which may be programmed to make us self destruct.
It comes down to the fact that we may find ourselves in a situation where we are our own greatest enemies.
To evade such a situation, we invite you to get your Anti-stress app.
Drop of concentration
We cannot accent enough how important concentration is to for our well being.
It makes us save time by doing things more effectively.
It provides us with better insight due to successful absorption of information from our surroundings.
Moreover, it may prove very useful when there is a need for exit from an unpleasant or even dangerous situation.
All of this is also important at the workplace.
In general, concentration issues may occur due to psychological, medical or cognitive problems.
The loss of concentration due to the presence of work related stress is predominately a psychological issue.
Unfortunately, from our own experience we may explain how this plays out.
We must say that this is one of the most unpleasant feelings.
It we were to picture it, we would have described it as being confused along with a free fall of intelligence.
It is actually a pretty frigthening feeling.
Having a normal concentration is a basic prerquisite to enter in a relationship with anything and anyone.
Therefore, we advise you to check the Concentration boost app.
Conclusion
We could have done this differently.
We could have done it the easy way.
But, we do not believe in throwing in a list of major stressors and in giving them a company of some meaningless lines with an ambition to call that accomplishment.
Instead, our interest reaches in the honey pot of context.
To us, it is of utmost importance to give a broader picture of this topic.
This is beacuse we are very well aware of the numerous issues and complications may arise from these situations.
Have in mind that an ordinary is coerced to be at the workplace for a minimum od eight hours, which may more than not seem like a battleground.
We are now ready for our cup of tea to relief ourselves of stress. Take one yourself.
We are open for your questions, opinions and suggestions.
Feel free to leave them below.