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Work Related Stress
2004-10-01
Work related stress is becoming an epidemic in the workplace. Recent studies report that nearly half of Canadian employees feel moderate or high levels of stress, compared with only one-quarter of employees a decade earlier.
Canadian Heart and Stroke Foundation, reported that almost one-third of employees regularly has difficulty coping with the demands of their jobs.
People born after 1955 are up to three times as likely to experience stress-related disorders, as were their grandparents.
According to the Conference Board of Canada, work-related stress costs Canadian businesses more than $12 billion each year in lower productivity and higher absenteeism, turnover, alcoholism and medical costs.
A few years ago stress related claims made up 10 percent of total disability claims, now itÌs as high as 30 percent according to Sun Life of Canada.
In these instances stress is an individualÌs adaptive response to a situation that is perceived to be challenging or threatening to the personÌs well being.
| | | | SOME CAUSES OF STRESS | In some instances the physical environment such as excessive noise, poor lighting and safety hazards contribute to stress on the job. In other situations employees are uncertain about their job duties, performance expectations, level of authority and other job conditions. Workload is a common stressor these days where employees have too much to do in too little time or work too many long hours on the job.
Sexual harassment and workplace violence contribute to stress in the workplace. In a recent study, Canada has the fourth-highest incidence of workplace assault and sexual harassment among 32 countries studied. The report discovered that 1 percent of American women were assaulted in the workplace, compared to 4 percent of Canadian women. Canadian men had a slightly higher incidence of workplace assault than their U.S. counterparts.
| | | | MANAGING WORK-RELATED STRESS | The first thing to do is to try to identify the stressors in the workplace. Until the cause(s) of stress has been clearly identified it is difficult to address the situation.
An examination of employee workloads, attendance records, health & safety incidences, grievance records, short term and long- term disability claims and turnover statistics are all good places to commence the examination. Obviously the objective here is to remove the stressor, monitor the situation to determine whether there has been any change and proceed from there.
Another area to examine is the way in which the organization communicates with its employees. Do employees feel informed about what is going on? Do they have a good understanding of the strategic direction of the organization and in turn what is important? Is employee input sought on major initiatives and decisions being made?
Are the benefits that are being provided considered Ïfamily friendly?Ó In other words, do the benefits help the employees balance work and personal pressures? Examples of things that can be done here are providing flextime, job sharing, telecommuting, personal leave and child or elder care assistance.
Another area to examine is employee autonomy or freedom to act. Do employees have the authority to make decisions as well as to control the pace of their work?
As one can see work related stress is a very serious concern in the workplace. However, there are many ways to address the problem. Like so many other matters it first requires the recognition that there is a problem and a consistent committed approach to address the problem, which in turn will provide for a more productive, happier work environment, which in the long run will produce increased revenue while simultaneously reducing costs.
Source: Mc Shane, 4th Edition, Canadian Organizational Behaviour. |
Contact:
 | Paul R. Hawn, President, Hawn & Associates Inc. | | Suite 507, 421 Bay Street, Sault Ste. Marie, ON P6A 1X3 | | info@Hawn.ca | | http://www.Hawn.ca |
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