We all experience stress in one way or the other in our day-to-day activities either knowingly or unknowingly. Our relationship with our spouses, supervisors, bosses,co-workers, subordinates, friends, and the likes, most time get us stressed.

Stress is regarded as the outcome of the adaptation of man’s body and mind to change that require physical, psychological, emotional, and / or behaviour efforts.

The term” Workplace stress”, “Work stress”, or “Job stress” (Often used interchangeably and synomymous) have been described as ” the harmful physical and emotional responses that can happen when the requirement of the job do not match the capabilities, resources, or need of the employee”. It occurs when there is a conflict between the job demands on the employee and the amount of control an employee has over meeting these demands. In general, the combination of high demands in a job and a low amount of control of control over the situation can lead to stress.

Disorder related to work stress encompass a broad array of conditions, including psychological disorders ( e.g., depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder) and other types of emotional strain (e.g., dissatisfaction, fatigue, boredon, tension, e.t.c.), maladaptive behaviours (e.g., aggression, substance abuse), and cognitive impairment (e.g., concentration and memory problems). In turn, these conditions may lead to poor work performance or even accident and injury. Job stress is also associated with various biological reactions that may lead ultimately to compromised health, such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, or in extreme case untimely death.

The workplace stress can have many origins or come from one single event. It can impact on both employees and employers alike. For Example, fear of job redundancy, layoffs due to an uncertain economy, increased demands for overtimes due to staff cutbacks act as negative stressors. Employees who start to feel the “pressure to perfom” can also get caught in a downward spiral of increasing effort to meet rising expectations with no increase job satisfaction. The relentless requirement to work at optimum performance often takes its toll in job dissatisfaction, employee turnover, reduced efficiency, illness, and even death. Absenteeism, illness, alcoholic, “petty internal politics”, bad or snap decisions, indifference and apathy, lack of motivation or creativity are all by-products of an over stressed workplace. All is not evil as a little stress is good for every worker and desirable for his optimal performance and health.

Watch out for: Is stress good or evil?

Akeem Gbadamosi, M.Sc Industrial Relations and Human Resource Management