Stress at workplace

Minal Waghchoure
 Stress @ work
• “Stress is a physiological abnormality at the
structural or bio-chemical level caused by
overloading experiences.”
• “Stress is an adaptive response to an external
situation that results in physical, psychological
and or behavioural deviations for
organisational participants..”
 Is All Stress Bad?
• Moderate levels of stress may actually improve
performance and efficiency

• Too little stress may result in boredom

• Too much stress may cause an unproductive

anxiety level
 Identifying Stressors

Situations, activities, and relationships

that cause ‘trauma’ to one’s physical,
emotional, or psychological self
 Stressors
• School
• Work
• Family
• Relationships
• Legal
• Finances
• Health/illness
• Environment
• Living Situation
Stress is said by some to be a good thing, for themselves
or others, that it promotes excitement and positive
feelings. If these are the effects then it's not stress as
defined here. It's the excitement and stimulus derived
(by one who wants these feelings and can handle them)
from working hard in a controlled and manageable way
towards an achievable and realistic aim, which for sure
can be very exciting, but it ain't stress. Stress is bad for
people and organisations, it's a threat and a health risk,
and it needs to be recognised and dealt with, not
dismissed as something good, or welcomed as a badge
of machismo - you might as well stick pins in your
eyes.
 Causes of stress at work
• bullying or harassment, by anyone, not necessarily a person's
manager
• feeling powerless and uninvolved in determining one's own
responsibilities
• continuous unreasonable performance demands
• lack of effective communication and conflict resolution
• lack of job security
• long working hours
• excessive time away from home and family
• office politics and conflict among staff
• a feeling that one's reward reward is not commensurate with one's
responsibility
• working hours, responsibilities and pressures disrupting life-balance
(diet, exercise, sleep and rest, play, family-time, etc)
 Introduction
Many people consider stress to be something that
happens to them, an event such as an injury or
a job loss. Others think that stress is what
happens to our body, mind, and behavior in
response to an event (E.g. heart pounding,
anxiety, or nail biting). While stress does
involve events and our response to then, these
are not the most important factors. Our
thoughts about the situations in which we find
ourselves are the critical factor.
When something happens to us, we automatically
evaluate the situation mentally. We decide if it is
threatening to us, how we need to deal with the
situation, and what skills we can use. If we decide
that the demands of the situation outweigh the
skills we have, then we label the situation as
“stressful” and react with the classic “stress
response.” If we decide that our coping skills
outweigh the demands of the situation, then we
don’t see it as “stressful.”
Stress can come from any situation or thought that makes
you feel frustrated, angry, or anxious. Everyone sees
situations differently and has different coping skills.
For this reason, no two people will respond exactly the
same way to a given situation.
Additionally, not all situations that are labeled “stressful”
are negative. The birth of a child, being promoted at
work, or moving to a new home may not be perceived
as threatening. However, we may feel that situations are
“stressful” because we don’t feel fully prepared to deal
with them.
Stress is a normal part of life. In small quantities,
stress is good; it can motivate you and help you
become more productive. However, too much
stress, or a strong response to stress can be
harmful. How we perceive a stress provoking
event and how we react to it determines its impact
on our health. We may be motivated and
invigorated by the events in our lives, or we may
see some as “stressful” and respond in a manner
that may have a negative effect on our physical,
mental, and social well-being.
• If we always respond in a negative way, our health and
happiness may suffer. By understanding ourselves and
our reaction to stress-provoking situations, we can learn
to handle stress more effectively. In the most accurate
meaning, stress management is not about learning how
to avoid or escape the pressures and turbulence of
modern living; it is about learning to appreciate how
the body reacts to these pressures, and about learning
how to develop skills which enhance the body’s
adjustment. To learn stress management is to learn
about the mind-body connection and to the degree to
which we can control our health in a positive sense.
According to Dr. Pestonji of I.I.M. Ahmedabad, the stress
can be categorised as under:

Eustress
This stress is because of the sudden overjoy. Fortunately this type of stress is not
longlasting. Furthermore it is a state of happiness. Eustress, therefore, is not
harmful, being occasional and fleeting.
Distress
This is anti-thesis of eustress. Distress is caused whenever a person is suddenly very sad
or angry. Distress is caused because of the demands of the modern life and anxiety
to cope with them. This results in feelings of inadequacy, anxiety, nervousness, loss
etc. This type of stress is harmful. It is this stress that has caused more havoc in the
executive life. It is this stress that justifies the saying “Ulcer is the surest sight of
executive success”.
Since it is distress that takes a heavy toll of executive efficiency, the organisations
should try to alleviate it. An atmosphere of objectivity and mutual trust would go a
long way in reducing distress.
Hyper Work Stress
This type of stress is caused because of the hyper activity and travails
of life to meet deadlines etc. Target mindedness and the eleventh
hour rush or continuous overwork cause hyper stress. The key
therefore, to deal with hyper stress lies in good planning.
Hypo Stress
This type of stress is the opposite of the hyper stress. This stress is
caused by less than optimum activity. The effects of hypo stress are
slower than other types but are more penetrating and longer lasting.
There are examples when the Organisation have deliberately created
hypo stress by denying legitimate work to their employees. Such
situations, beyond creating stress, deprive a person of the fulfillment
of self-esteem needs. More often the retired persons experience this
stress. For them it is a transition from hyper to hypo stress. This
underlines the necessity of planning the post-retirement period,
doing proper time management by planning activities so that an
individual remains optimally busy.
 The Stress Experience
Perception
Past experience
Social Support
Individual Differences

The Environment The Individual

Stressor Stress

Fig:- Relationship between Stressors and Stress

 here are three broad categories of
stressors. They are :
• Organizational stressors;
• Life stressors; and
• Personal stressors.
 Organisational stressors
Organisational membership is a dominant source of stress. The concept
of organizational stress was first evolved in the classic work of Kahn
et al. They were the earliest to draw attention to organisational stress
in general and role stress in particular.
Some of the organisational stressors are intrinsic to the job. They are
boredom, time pressures and deadliness, exorbitant work demands
and technical problems.
Some organisational stressors relate to the role in the Organisation.
They are role ambiguity, role conflict, role overload etc.
Some organisational stressors relate to the organizational structure and
the climate. They are lack of participation in the decision-making,
lack of responsiveness and appreciation, pressers towards
conformity etc.
 Albrecht's Four Types of Stress
Managing Common Pressures
Time Stress
• You experience time stress when you worry about time,
or the lack thereof. You worry about the number of
things that you have to do, and you fear that you'll fail
to achieve something important. You might feel
trapped, unhappy, or even hopeless.
• Common examples of time stress include worrying
about deadlines or rushing to avoid being late for a
meeting.
 Managing Time Stress
• Time stress is one of the most common types of stress that we experience today. It is essential to learn
how to manage this type of stress if you're going to work productively in a busy organization.
• First, learn good time management skills. This can include using To-Do Lists or, if you have to
manage many simultaneous projects, Action Programs.
• Next, make sure that you're devoting enough time to your important priorities. Unfortunately, it's easy
to get caught up in seemingly urgent tasks which actually have little impact on your overall objectives.
This can leave you feeling exhausted, or feeling that you worked a full day yet accomplished nothing
meaningful.
• Your important tasks are usually the ones that will help you reach your goals, and working on these
projects is a better use of your time. Our article on Eisenhower's Urgent/Important
Principle explains how to balance urgent and important tasks, and our article on prioritization helps
you separate tasks that you need to focus on from those you can safely put off.
• If you often feel that you don't have enough time to complete all of your tasks, learn how to create
more time in your day. This might mean coming in early or working late, so that you have quiet time
to focus. You should also use your peak working time to concentrate on your most important tasks –
because you're working more efficiently, this helps you do more with the time you have.
• For instance, if you're a morning person, schedule the tasks that need the greatest concentration during
this time. Our article "Is This a Morning Task" helps you learn how to prioritize your tasks and
schedule them during your most productive times of day. You can leave less important tasks, like
checking email, for times when your energy levels drop.
• Also, make sure that you're polite but assertive about saying "no" to tasks that you don't have the
capacity to do.
 2. Anticipatory Stress
• Anticipatory stress describes stress that you
experience concerning the future. Sometimes
this stress can be focused on a specific event,
such as an upcoming presentation that you're
going to give. However, anticipatory stress can
also be vague and undefined, such as an
overall sense of dread about the future, or a
worry that "something will go wrong."
 Managing Anticipatory Stress
• Because anticipatory stress is future based, start
by recognizing that the event you're dreading
doesn't have to play out as you imagine.
Use positive visualization techniques to imagine
the situation going right.
• Research shows that your mind often can't tell
the difference, on a basic neurological level,
between a situation that you've visualized going
well repeatedly and one that's actually happened.
• Other techniques – like meditation – will help you develop focus
and the ability to concentrate on what's happening right now, rather
than on an imagined future. Consider setting aside time daily – even
if it's only five minutes – to meditate.
• Anticipatory stress can result from a lack of confidence. For
example, you might be stressing over a presentation that you're
giving next week, because you're afraid that your presentation won't
be interesting. Often, addressing these personal fears directly will
lower your stress. In this example, if you put in extra time to
practice and prepare for tough questions, you'll likely feel more
prepared for the event.
• Last, learn how to overcome a fear of failure: by making
contingency plans and analyzing all of the possible outcomes, you'll
get a clearer idea of what could happen in the future. This can help
diminish your fear of failure and give you a greater sense of control
over events.
 3. Situational Stress
• You experience situational stress when you're
in a scary situation that you have no control
over. This could be an emergency. More
commonly, however, it's a situation that
involves conflict, or a loss of status or
acceptance in the eyes of your group. For
instance, getting laid off or making a major
mistake in front of your team are examples of
events that can cause situational stress.
 Managing Situational Stress
• Situational stress often appears suddenly, for example, you might get caught in a
situation that you completely failed to anticipate. To manage situational stress
better, learn to be more self-aware. This means recognizing the "automatic"
physical and emotional signals that your body sends out when you're under
pressure.
• For example, imagine that the meeting you're in suddenly dissolves into a shouting
match between team members. Your automatic response is to feel a surge of
anxiety. Your stomach knots and feels bloated. You withdraw into yourself and, if
someone asks for your input, you have a difficult time knowing what to say.
• Conflict is a major source of situational stress. Learn effective conflict resolution
skills, so that you're well-prepared to handle the stress of conflict when it arises. It's
also important to learn how to manage conflict in meetings, since resolving group
conflict can be different from resolving individual issues.
• Everyone reacts to situational stress differently, and it's essential that you
understand both the physical and emotional symptoms of this stress, so that you can
manage them appropriately. For instance, if your natural tendency is to withdraw
emotionally, then learn how to think on your feet and communicate better during
these situations. If your natural response is to get angry and shout, then learn how
to manage your emotions.
 4. Encounter Stress
• Encounter stress revolves around people. You experience
encounter stress when you worry about interacting with a
certain person or group of people – you may not like them,
or you might think that they're unpredictable.
• Encounter stress can also occur if your role involves a lot of
personal interactions with customers or clients, especially if
those groups are in distress. For instance, physicians and
social workers have high rates of encounter stress, because
the people they work with routinely don't feel well, or are
deeply upset.
• This type of stress also occurs from "contact overload":
when you feel overwhelmed or drained from interacting
with too many people.
 Managing Encounter Stress
• Because encounter stress is focused entirely on people, you'll manage this type of
stress better by working on your people skills. To find out how good your people
skills are, take our quiz, and discover the areas that you need to develop.
• A good place to start is to develop greater emotional intelligence. Emotional
intelligence is the ability to recognize the emotions, wants, and needs of yourself
and of others. This is an important skill in interacting with others and in building
good relationships.
• It's also important to know when you're about to reach your limit for interactions in
the day. Everyone has different symptoms for encounter stress, but a common one
is withdrawing psychologically from others and working mechanically. Another
common symptom is getting cranky, cold, or impersonal with others in your
interactions. When you start to experience these symptoms, do whatever you can to
take a break. Go for a walk, drink water, and practice deep breathing exercises.
• Empathy is a valuable skill for coping with this type of stress, because it allows
you to see the situation from the other person's perspective. This gives you greater
understanding and helps you to structure your communications so that you address
the other person's feelings, wants, and needs.
While everyone experiences different physical
and emotional symptoms of stress, it's
important to understand how you respond to
each one. When you can recognize the type of
stress you're experiencing, you can take steps
to manage it more effectively.
 Managing Stress
Individual Strategies
Muscle Relaxation
Biofeedback
Meditation
Cognitive Restructuring
Time Management
 Muscle Relaxation
This involves slow and deep
breathing, a conscious effort to relieve muscle tension
and an altered state of consciousness. The technique is
inexpensive, may require a trained professional to
implement initially.
 Biofeedback
A biofeedback machine is used to train
people to detect and control stress-related symptoms
such as tense muscles and related blood pressure. The
Machine translates unconscious bodily signs into a
recognisable cue(flashing light or beeper). Muscle
relaxation and meditative techniques are then used to
alleviate the underlying stress.
 Meditation
Several meditation techniques are used with results
being positive and majority of them are derivatives of Eastern
philosophies. The most widely practised technique everywhere is
the transcendental meditation(TM) of Maharishi Mahesh
Yogi.TM practiced 20 minutes twice daily helps reduce stress
significantly.

 Cognitive Restructuring
It involves two steps. First, irrational or
maladaptive thought processes that create stress are identified.
One such thought is entertaining a premonition that something
evil is going to befall on you. The second step consists of
replacing these irrational thoughts with more rational ones. The
fear of evil befalling can be overcome by reasoning and
rationalizing events and their consequences. Cognitive
restructuring would alleviate stress by encouraging a person to
adopt a more reasonable belief about the outcomes associated
with events.
Time Management
Most of us are poor in time
management. The result is feeling of overload,
skipped schedules and attendant tension. The
truth is, if one can manage time effectively, he or
she can accomplish twice as much as the person
who is poorly organized.
 Organizational Strategies
• Besides individual practising coping strategies,
organisations too have been developing and
implementing stress-reduction strategies. Some
of these programmes focus on a specific issue or
a problem, such as alcohol or drug abuse, career
counseling, job allocation or burnout.
• Organisational coping strategies help reduce the
harmful effects of stress in three ways:-
1. Identify and then modify or eliminate woer
stressors
2. Help employees modify their perception and
understanding of work stress.
3. Help employees cope more effectively with the
consequences of stress.
 Organizational Strategies
Organizational Stress
Management
Programmes

Targeted at

Work Stressors
Work load
Job Conditions Outcomes of Stress
Employee
Role conflict & ambiguity Physiological
perceptions/Experience of
Career development Emotional
Stress
Interpersonal relations Behavioural
Aggressive behaviour
Conflict between work
and other roles

Fig: Targets of Organizational Stress Management

Programmes
• Organisational strategies aimed at eliminating stress often
include:-

 Improvements in the physical work

 Job design to eliminate stressors
 Changes in workloads and deadlines
 Structural reorganization
 Changes in work schedules, more flexible hours and
sabbaticals
 Management by objectives or other goal-setting programmes
 Greater levels of employee participation, particularly in
planning changes that affect them
 Workshops dealing with role clarity and role analysis.
Stress as a Motivator
Following are the positive effects of stress:

Stresses can create a release of Adrenalin

Stress creates Energy; Again the Adrenal
response causes a surge in energy levels.
With controlled stress perception levels increase
Knowledge or wisdom
Final benefit of stress is the warning signals.
 Work Life Balance
• Work-life balance is a term used for the idea that
you need time for both work and other aspects of
life, whether those are family-related or personal
interests. The saying goes that ‘all work and no
play makes Jack a dull boy’.
• But work, or at least some kind of contributory
effort, whether paid or voluntary, is often
recognised as being important for personal
satisfaction, so it seems likely that ‘all play’
would be dull too.
 Origin
• In the 1800s, during and following the industrial revolution, industrialists
and unions alike agreed that workers needed a day off. This later became a
two-day ‘weekend’. But in those days, ‘work’ was mostly manual, and
once workers left the site, they also left their work behind. They were
genuinely able to rest, away from work, without having to think about it or
worry about what might be going on in their absence.
Times have changed dramatically.
• The phrase ‘work-life balance’ is rather more recent in origin. It was
probably first used in the UK in the late 1970s, and in the US in the mid-
1980s. It has, however, taken on a new meaning with the recent
technological changes that have made it possible for workers to stay in
touch 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Smart phones, remote working
technology and the like have meant that, even on holiday, people find it
hard to ‘switch off’ and genuinely rest, and the complaint is often that
people are expected to be ‘on-call’ at all times, without being allowed to
have a life outside work.
 The Importance of Work-Life
Balance
It is well-documented that rest and, particularly, being
able to detach from work is vital for reducing stress.
• You can take control of your life, and make time for the
things that matter to you, but nobody else is going to do
that for you. If you want to spend more time out of
work, then you will have to start leaving work earlier or
arriving later.
• You may need to learn to be more assertive with your
colleagues, and particularly start to say ‘no’, if anyone
asks you to take on more. But once you start looking to
make changes, you may be surprised how easy it is to
achieve a better work-life balance.
 Why the emphasis on spirituality in
today’s organizations?
• Historical models of management had no room for
spirituality. These models typically focused on
organizations that were efficiently run without feelings
toward others. Similarly, concern about an employee’s inner
life had no role in managing organizations. But just as
we’ve come to realize that the study of emotions improves
our understanding of how and why people act the way they
do in organizations, an awareness of spirituality can help
one better understand employee work behavior in the
twenty first century organization.
• For example, The Indian self is found to have a significant
component of spirituality which has manifest implications
for their workplace performances moral decision making or
attitudes towards ethical issues.
What does a spiritual organization look
alike?
• Workplace spirituality is not about organized practices. It’s
not about theology of about one’s spiritual leader. Rather,
workplace spirituality is about recognizing that takes place
in the context of an organizational community.
Organizations that promote a spiritual culture recognize that
employees have both a mind and a spirit, seek to find
meaning and purpose in their work, and desire to connect
with other employees and be part of a community.
• The concept of spirituality draws on the ethics, values,
motivation, wok/life balance, and leadership elements of an
organization. Spiritual organizations are concerned with
helping employees develop and reach their potentials. They
are also concerned with addressing problems created by
work life conflicts.
Achieving a work-life balance can be a
challenge, but these ideas should help you to
make a start:
1. What is the nature and scale of the problem?
Before you can make things better, you have to understand
the problem.

Try keeping a diary for a week, and set out how much time
you spend on each activity, both at work and outside. That
will give you an idea of your current work-life balance. You
may also find it helpful to separate chores, including driving
children to activities, and ‘fun’. Once you can see how your
life separates into work and ‘other’, and into chores and fun,
you can start to work out how to make changes to improve
the balance.
 2. Identify the ideal scenario
• In many ways, this process is a bit
like strategic thinking.
• First you need to know where you are, then
where you want to be. Think about how you
would like your life to look.
• What would be the ideal balance between
work and home?
• How would you like to be spending your time?
 3. What changes do you need to
make to get from ‘now’ to ‘future’?
Look at your current situation and at your ideal scenario.
• Identify three to five key changes that will help you to move from ‘now’ to ‘future’. For example, if
you have identified that you want to confine weekend overtime to an hour in the evening on Sunday
night, then what do you need to do to achieve that?

Concrete steps that you could take include:

• Telling your colleagues that you will not be checking emails at the weekend;
• Putting an out-of-office notification on your email to remind people;
• Putting your work phone and computer away somewhere during the weekend. If your work emails
come to your personal smartphone, then remove the account, or get a dedicated phone for work; and
• Telling your family what you intend so that if they catch you checking emails they can remind you.

If you have enough time outside work, but you feel that it’s all swallowed by chores, then steps to take
might include:
• Working out whether you can afford to have a cleaner;
• Asking your spouse, and if appropriate, children, to do more chores, and agreeing a reasonable split
or rota; and
• Identifying one day per week which is ‘chore-free’.
 maintaining a healthy work-life balance
• Play to your strengths
• Prioritise your time
• Are you a morning person?
• Plot some personal time
• Have set work hours – and stick to them
• Find time for your finances
• Manage your time, long term
• Make your workspace work for you
• Tap into technology
• Make exercise a must-do, not a should-do
• Take time to make time
• Know and nurture your network
• Do what you love
• Be realistic
• Step out
• Get a business coach
• Meet clients halfway – literally
• Manage your mind
• Take a break
• Have that holiday
Workplace spirituality or spirituality in the
workplace is a movement that began in the early
1920s.[dubious – discuss] It emerged as a grassroots
movement with individuals seeking to live their
faith and/or spiritual values in the workplace.
Spiritual or spirit-centered leadership is a topic of
inquiry frequently associated with the workplace
spirituality movement (Benefiel, 2005; Biberman,
2000; Fry, 2005; Giacalone & Jurkiewicz, 2003;
Jue, 2006)
Spirituality is shown in a workplace when the
following activities are included:
• Bereavement programs.
• Wellness information displayed and distributed.
• Employee Assistance Programs.
• Programs that integrate work/family.
• Management systems that encourage personal and spiritual
transformation.
• Servant leadership – the desire to serve others first in preference to
self.
• Stewardship – leadership practices that support growth and well-
being of others.
• Diversity programs that create inclusive cultures.
• Integration of core values and core business decisions and practices.
• Leadership practices that support the growth and development of all
employees.
Characteristics of Spiritual Organizations:
• Strong sense of purpose: Organizational members know why the
organization exists and what it values.
• Focus on individual development: Employers are valuable and
need to be nurtured to help them grow. These characteristics also
include a sense of job security.
• Trust and openness: Organizational member relationships are
characterized by mutual trust, honesty and openness.
• Employee empowerment: Employees are allowed to a make work
related decisions that affect them, highlighting a strong sense of
delegation of authority.
• Toleration of employee expression: The organization culture
encourages employees to be themselves and to express their
moods and feelings without guilt or fear of reprimand.
• HRM and Spirituality: Ironically, introducing spirituality into the
organizations is nothing new for HR. In actuality, many of the areas
that HRM addresses, and has done so for many years. There are
many of the same things that support spirituality, For instance
matters such as work / life balances, proper selection of employees,
setting performance goals and rewarding people for the work they
do are all components of making the organization more spiritual. In
fact as you review the characteristics of a spiritual organization, in
every case, HRM is either the leader in making such things happen,
or is the vehicle by which the organization helps employees
understand their responsibilities and offers the requisite training to
make things happen. In the end, it’s HRM that will make the
workplace a supportive work environment, where communication
abounds and employees feel free to express themselves.
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