Work stress is a condition that occurs in a working person with prolonged exposure to negative factors associated with their professional activity. Chronic stress is accompanied by physical fatigue, along with emotional and mental exhaustion. This is the emotional exhaustion syndrome, which is also called “manager syndrome”.
Particularly susceptible to work stress are people whose professions are associated with providing care to the sick or critically ill, teachers, police officers. Indeed, in the process of their work, conflict situations arise both with other colleagues and in professional tasks.
Characteristics of work stress
The development of stress reactions is possible even in organizations with a good reputation and progressive leadership. This is because professional stress is caused not only by work activity, but also by characteristic differences in work, relationships in the team, as well as the level of interactions between employees.
A stress response is also possible if:
- The person is overloaded with work.
- Their duties and powers are not clearly defined.
- Provocations and inappropriate behaviors are observed on the part of the colleagues, which indicates the persistence of bad relations in the team;
- Lack of professional opportunities.
- The employee is not loaded enough.
- Working conditions do not meet standards.
Possibility of an increased level of stress at work due to the severity of the psychological pressure on employees and their lack of freedom in decision-making. It also affects the low moral and material satisfaction of employees with their professional activities.
We can present the following classification of occupational stress:
- Informative: possible under conditions of strict time constraints.
- Emotional – with all kinds of dangers.
- Communicative: if there are problems in business communication.
Work stress: the main causes of appearance
Stress disorders at work are caused by objective factors that practically do not depend on the actions and facts of the worker himself and subjective, completely conditioned by the person.
Objective reasons include poor working conditions and the possibility of emergencies. In some companies, the stress-generating factors associated with the peculiarities of production are initially present. For example, in factories, in many production halls, it is quite noisy, in foundries, the air temperature is high.
“Lack of knowledge, inappropriateness of the position, and low pay for hard work can all lead to professional stress.”
Chronic diseases and the need for treatment sometimes exclude the worker from the work process, contribute to their low self-esteem, and also affect the appearance of the stress disorder.