Are Occupational Stress and Burnout the Key Influences

In these difficult times it’s not uncommon for someone to work at a second job or juggle multiple jobs to make ends meet. These days, even those of us with just one job to deal with work twice as hard in our current positions to avoid the fatal pink slip. Unless you have an emotional suit of armor, you may end up burning out. The consequences may be extremely serious for yourself and for your performance Stress, particularly work-related stress, has aroused growing interest across Europe in recent years.

The workplace has changed dramatically due to globalization of the economy, use of new information and communications, technology. Work-related stress is a pattern of reactions that occurs when workers are presented with work demands that are not matched to their knowledge, skills or abilities, and which challenge their ability to cope. Stress at work is the harmful physical and emotional response that occurs when there is a poor match between job demands and the capabilities, resources, or needs of the worker. Job burnout is happening more and more every day. You are expected to do more, in less time, often with fewer resources.

At the same time you are meant to have some work life balance. This may lead to you feel constantly tired and irritated by work. The causes of burnout and wide and varied, but often they come back to stress and time management. We regularly see that a feeling of not having enough time is an early sign of the stress that can lead to burnout. Some people get angry, some become quiet and introverted, while others overeat or abuse drugs and alcohol. Stress occurs in many different circumstances, but is particularly strong when a person’s ability to control the demands of work is threatened.

Insecurity about successful performance and fear of negative consequences resulting from performance failure may evoke powerful negative emotions of anxiety, anger and irritation. The stressful experience is intensified if no help is available from colleagues or supervisors at work. Therefore, social isolation and lack of cooperation increase the risk of prolonged stress at work. Conversely, work tasks with a high degree of personal control and skill variety, and a work environment with supportive social relationships, contribute to workers’ well-being and health.

Classical symptoms of occupational stress and burnout are (how stress affect human’s well-being): Emotional Exhaustion: You feel impatient, moody, inexplicably sad, or just get frustrated more easily than you normally would. You feel like you can’t deal with life as easily than you once could. Health Problems (increase in heart rate, blood pressure, hyperventilation) Lowered Immunity to Illness: When stress levels are high for a prolonged amount of time, your immune system does suffer.

People who are suffering from burnout usually get the message from their body that something needs to change, and that message comes in the form of increases susceptibility to colds, the flu, and other minor illnesses. Increasingly Pessimistic Outlook: When experiencing stress and burnout, it’s harder to get excited about life, harder to expect the best, harder to let things roll off your back. Depleted Physical Energy: Prolonged stress can be physically draining, causing you to feel tired much of the time, or no longer have the energy you once did. Sleep problems Anxiety disorders Depression

Inability to concentrate There are a number of ways to reduce the negative impact of stress. Most of these involve examining how you go about your work. One of the most important factors is managing your time more effectively. Prioritize tasks, delegate where you can and make sure you don’t take on more work than you can handle. Take regular breaks at work and try to finish one task before starting another. Learn to say “no”. Don’t work long hours – sometimes projects need extra time, but working long hours over many weeks or months doesn’t generally lead to more or better results at work.

Take a look at your relationships with your colleagues – do you treat each other with respect and consideration? If not, try to find a way to improve relationships with your colleagues. It’s important to talk directly to your manager about work-related stress. He or she has a duty to take reasonable steps to try to resolve the problem. Explain how you are feeling and discuss your workload. But the best way to relieve the stress is to find and restore the balance in your life.

I believe that workers must be provided with normal conditions and work under normal circumstances in order to find adequate responses in their reactions to new environment and situations. Work-related stress is one of the most significant hazards of working in the education sector. The level of reported stress in teaching is well above the average for other industries, services and society in general. Teachers are not the only workers in the education sector, but they are perhaps the most visible, and there is information on what causes their work-related stress.

One study ranked teachers highest among occupational groups in terms of chronic stress. In this study, the single most important stressor was “lack of discipline in pupils and disturbing behavior” There are various sources of teachers’ stress. Among those most commonly cited were problems arising from the organization of the school and work, lack of support and cooperation, lack of training and career development opportunities, and the nature of the work, including the classroom situation, heavy workloads and disruptive pupils.

A risk assessment should cover all workers at educational establishments, including teachers, administrative staff, facility management personnel and maintenance staff. Risk assessment should take account of differences in workers, such as by gender, age, or disability. For example, younger staff can be less experienced, which can be a contributor to work-related stress. Different prevention measures may be required for these worker groups. Work, its organization, and the equipment used, should be adapted to the worker, not the other way around.

This principle is enshrined in EU legislation. Another field that can be reasonably assumed as containing many stressful jobs is employment with a military force, especially if someone is on active duty. Given the high rate of personal risk and risk to fellow soldiers on a daily and sometimes hourly basis, this environment tends to breed stress related conditions like post traumatic stress syndrome. Following long engagement of a military in a war, many soldiers require treatment to help recover from continuing stress caused by this type of work.

In conclusion I would like to confirm that occupational stress and burnout are the key influences on employee well-being. Stress is defined in terms of its physical and physiological effects on a person, and can be a mental, physical or emotional strain. It can also be a tension or a situation or factor that can cause stress. Occupational stress occurs when there is a discrepancy between the demands of the environment/workplace and an individual’s ability to carry out and complete these demands.

Often a stressor can lead the body to have a physiological reaction which can strain a person physically as well as mentally. So, it is important for employers to recognize work-related stress as a significant health and safety issue. A company should take appropriate steps to ensure that employees are not subjected to unnecessary stress.