Stress is the major
leading cause of lack of productivity among employees. Some of the factors that
are largely known to induce stress at work can be classified under the
following points: environmental factors, job organizational factors, work place
relationships, domestic situations or personality factors. Stress is majorly the failure to cope with
pressure and both the person and the management cannot overlook such symptoms
when they show up. Stress management at the work place can be looked at from
two ideal angles:
1. PERSONAL
STRATEGIES
Every employee is prone
to get stressed at the workplace once in a while but what matters most is how
you respond to the stress levels. Different people have different ways of
relieving or expressing stress and these may be through humor, talking to
someone, relaxation techniques like hitting the gym or going for a swim or even
taking some time off from what you consider stressing. These methods are
deployed to deal with external stress but a good deal of stress could be
avoided if employees paid more attention to their self concept and self esteem
issues.
The development of self confidence helps colleagues
or even the boss know your stand on
certain action, decisions and guides them to even understand your problem or even know ways in which to address it.
certain action, decisions and guides them to even understand your problem or even know ways in which to address it.
Personal conflict of interest should also be
addressed to reduce the stress levels as this ties one to a position where he
has to struggle to address both issues which might lead to break down. One
should allocate time for both activities if not forego one.
An employee should set achievable goals and targets
for himself to avoid the pressure that accrues with the trying to beat
unrealistic deadlines.
2. ORGANISATIONAL
STRATEGIES.
The stress levels at the work place can be reduced
by the organization through appropriate action that will see an increase in
productivity. Some of the strategies that can be employed to curb stress
include:
The organization can decide to increase or reduce an
individuals responsibility to enable him make full use of his potential or ease
his work load.
Managers should also agree now more than ever to
take counseling classes to enable them hear the employees’ situation and help
him out before it goes into a drift. Where he cannot address the issue he
should provide for counseling facilities in the organization.
The organization should have proper physical working
conditions and provide for fitness centers and programs for their employees.
It should permit flexible
working hours to allow employees spend some time with their families or
relocate them to branches near their homes if one exists.
SUMMARY
Stress management is a crucial key to the effectiveness and
efficiency of an employee which in turn leads to increased productivity of the
organization. Every organization bears a substantial amount of stress levels
among its employees which cannot be overlooked,
it is like a cloak we all wear at some point in time but what matters is
how fast and how effectively it is dealt wirh.