Stress is the most common term applied to various psychological and physiological pressures experienced or felt by people throughout their lives. There are many reasons for stress in the workplace like a lack of opportunity, work overload, poor work conditions, and many more. Generally, stress is the result of the imbalance from the disparity between the situational demand and the individual’s ability. The reason for work-related stress is, that people have to work demands and pressure which exceed their knowledge, ability and beyond their capacity to cope. A certain level of stress is acceptable physically and mentally by individuals. But when stress became unmanageable it can cause burnout and damage both an employee’s health and efficiency as well. Stress can be positive and negative as well. Stress is good when the situation offers an opportunity for a person to push to gain something. It acts as motivation for peak performance. Stress is negative when a person faces an emotional, social, physical, and organizational problem. It affects badly the health of a person. If we talk about work stress, it can be the cause of heavy loss for the organization. In this guide, we will discuss the causes of stress in the workplace.
Causes of stress in the workplace and the organization
There are several situations faced by employees who experience helpless stress in the workplace when their resources or capacity for work have exceeded the demand placed on them. Several other factors are responsible for causing stress in the workplace which is following.
The workload is one of the common causes of stress in the workplace. Several reports say more than 70 percent of managers and employees feel stressed out from excessive work at the workplace. The heavy workload in the workplace leads to a heavy toll on employees. Excessive workload effects include debilitating stress, mood disorders, illness, and many more. Heavy workload affects the talent of employees.
Career concern is one of the significant causes of stress. There are several reasons behind the stress that includes the employees are not performing well or underperforming, no self-growth, no opportunities for growth, and many more.
Poor communication is one of the common causes of stress in the workplace. It occurs when the person does not know what is supposed to do on the job. The employee’s tasks and responsibilities are not clear is an untold problem for the work. It creates confusion in the mind of the workers and the result is stress. There are many forms of poor communication like works are lee inform about the work, lack of clear instruction, and many more, but the result of poor communication is anxiety and stress.
Lack of opportunity
Every employee wants to feel valued and known for their progress. A job without any opportunity to grow can be a feeling of destruction. Every employee has many ambitions and dreams for their future but without any opportunity that can be the cause of the stress.
Changing the work sift
Stress may occur in those individuals who work on different work shifts. Employees may be expected to do work on a day someday and sometimes work night shifts. This situation can create problems in adjusting to shifting timings. It will affect not only the personal life but also work life as well.
Poor working conditions
The workplace should be stress-free for workers. In an office, the leader needs to provide a good facility to work like proper ventilation, ergonomic chair and desk, lights are proper, app plant for freshness, and many more. All these facilities are unpleasant conditional create a physiological and psychological imbalance in workers' life.
Poor management can be in different forms like unappreciative, manipulative, controlling, and many more. Several times employees are not able to perform in controlling management and this approach may be the reason for stress for employees.
There are numerous reasons for conflicts in the workplace. Most conflicts happen in the workplace because of a blame culture. If the leaders and employees are not working as a team then the conflicts will be obvious in the workplace. These situations create a toxic place for employees. The hostile behavior in the workplace can make simple tasks stressful for individuals.
Lack of participation in decision making
Many experienced employees feel that management should consult them on matters affecting their jobs. In reality, the superiors hardly ask the concerned employees before taking a decision. That develops a feeling of being neglected and will lead the stress.
Poor compensation is one of the common reasons for stress. The low salary is the most common cause of stress. Employees work hard the whole day after that they do not receive their rewards. They work hard but the compensation packages are not satisfying, which can be the cause the stress and kill morale as well.