PAHS 309

Health and Safety

PRESENTATION OUTLINE
 Definition of stress and workplace stress.
 Causes of stress at the workplace.
 Effect of stress at the workplace.
 How to manage stress at the workplace.
OBJECTIVES
WHAT IS STRESS?
 Stressrefers to the feeling of being overwhelmed
or unable to cope with psychological or
emotional pressure.

 Itis often triggered when we experience

something new, unexpected or that threatens our
sense of self, or when we have little control over
a situation.
WORKPLACE STRESS.
WHAT IS WORKPLACE STRESS?

 Workplace stress is the harmful

physical, psychological and
emotional responses that can
happen when there is conflict
between job demands on
employees and the amount of
control employees have over
meeting these demands.
 CAUSES STRESS AT WORK.
Workplace stress is caused by a variety of factors. Every employee
is an individual with varied elements in their professional and
personal lives influencing their reactions to workplace situations.
Workplace factors, on the other hand, have been proven to have
impacts on stress. These factors are;
ss Task Demands-This
includes heavy workload,
long hours, skills that do
not match job demands and
pace of work among other
things.
 Roles in the organization- Conflicting job
demands, too many roles, multiple supervisors,
uncertain job expectations and role ambiguity are
all examples of organizational roles that can make
an employee stressed.

 Poor Interpersonal Relationship And Demands-

Interactions between employees and employers,
personal conflicts among workers, poor leadership,
emotional issues are all sources of stress in the
workplace.
 Poor Workplace Conditions/Concern- Another
leading cause of stress in the workplace is terrible
working conditions such as exposure to unpleasant
situations like over crowding, excessive noise,
unstructured working environment, high or low
temperatures etc.

 Lack Of Recognition- Employees

who do not feel engaged, recognized and
appreciated at work are more likely to be stressed.
EFFECTS OF STRESS AT THE WORK
WORKPLACE.
Where stress is not managed
and controlled, employees and
organizations suffer;

 Low concentration: Workplace stress

can cause workers to be momentarily
distracted leading to errors in
judgement, neglecting responsibilities
and increasing forgetfulness which in
turn may affect the productivity of
employees.
 Emotional and
Psychological effect:
Stress can lead to
psychological effect and
emotional damages like
depression, anxiety and
irritability and labile
emotions among others.
This will affect the
effectiveness of employees
at the workplace.
 Poor decision making:
People
who are stressed are
likely to make bad
decisions. These bad
decisions at the
workplace in the long
run will lead to poor
performance and
productivity.
 High absenteeism/ unpunctuality: Workers who are
stressed may feel reluctant to report to work
because of burnout, disengagement, mental illness
etc.

 Increased accidents and incidents reports at the

workplace: Workers experiencing high level of
stress may be more liable to commit errors in their
work ( whether slips, mistakes or violations) which
in turn can lead to accidents.
HOW TO MANAGE STRESS AT THE
WORKPLACE