Stress in the Workplace

Work-related stress is one of the growing issues around Australia and particularly in Northern Territory Australia. It affects the health and safety of employees as much as the productivity and success of any organisation. Work-related stress occurred when work demands exceed an employee’s capability and capacity through various types of tasks and workloads. Each person might perceive the different level of stress that associate with their general health and personal life. The common symptoms of work-stress-related appear through a variety of forms from physical, behavioural to psychological:

-          Physical symptoms include headaches, sleeping difficulties, diarrhoea, constipation, muscular tension, fatigue, heart palpitations, dermatological and gastrointestinal upsets.

-          Psychological symptoms include anxiety, irritability, depression, discouragement, pessimism, overwhelmed feelings, unable to be concentrate or struggle in decision making.

-          Behavioural symptoms include absenteeism, disinterest, isolation, interpersonal relationship problems, irritability and mood swings, impatience, lower tolerance of frustration, decrease in work-performance, lower creativity and initiative, aggression.

There are many issues that cause work-related stressed such as:

-Organisation culture, discrimination, changes of duties and within the organisation.

-Job demands, long hours, heavy workload, job insecurity

-Relationship at work, over supervision, boring work types.

-Role conflict

-Trauma, harassment, crisis incidents

-Lack of support, equipment and inadequate working environment

-Bad Management practices

 

Therefore, preventing work-related stress is necessary for any organisation to maintain safety and healthy work environment for everyone. There are some effective solutions that could be applied to minimise or even eliminate the work-related stress including:

-Think about the changes that could manage by yourself.

-Speak up your concern to someone who has a power like a manager, owner or WHS committee.

-Ensure tasks are well-organised and can always meet the deadline.

-Take care of your health through a healthy diet and regular health check-up.

-Consider entertaining and relaxing through vacation and exercise activities.

-Consider career changes if necessary.   

 

Manage work-related stress is a significant health and safety issue, an organisation must ensure employees are not subjected to irrelevant stress through:

-Ensure a safe working environment for all employees

-Ensure training progress are correct

-Discuss the issue and resolve it with appropriate actions.

-Encourage employees with opportunities and celebrating differences.

-Seek advice from a health professor.