Occupational Stress and Ways to Cope With It
We hear about terms like Wellness and Fitness across the corridors of the business world. Health professionals are not only warning us about wellness of our body, but the corporate boardrooms are also discussing about it. And, employees worry about it every day.
The interest for this subject is not without good cause. A recent study by Harvard researchers who reviewed 36 studies of corporate wellness programs have found out something interesting. The researchers reported that for every dollar large employers spent on wellness programs, they saw company medical costs fall about $3.27. But even beyond that payoff in health, the study found a comparable payoff in productivity: For every dollar spent on wellness programs, the companies’ absenteeism-related costs fell about $2.73 (1). The costs to companies because of stress and ill-health, especially in terms of absenteeism and low productivity, are huge. Why do companies need to look into stress related illnesses? Studies have proved that occupational stress can have a major effect on the bottom-line of company’s performance. So, let’s try to understand more about occupational stress and the ways to overcome it.
Workplace Stress Or Occupational Stress
The corporate wellness industry is evolving on a regular basis and wellness professionals have to stay on top of emerging trends to ensure their employee wellness program continues to advance. On the other hand, employees also believe that employers must take an active part in reducing the amount of stress in their lives and the workplace is capable of reducing the stress levels from their lives. The advent of mobile technology among other things have made most workers accessible to their offices. This leads to a lot of stress and the employee in turn finds it difficult to create a proper balance between work and personal life, leading to illnesses and decreased life satisfaction.
Workplace or Occupational stress, a term commonly used in the professional business industry, refers to the ongoing stress an employee experiences due to the responsibilities, conditions, environment, or other work related pressures. There are several types of occupational stress, depending on the individual employee, their job role, the company culture, and many other depending factors. This kind of stress accounts for much of the physical illness, substance abuse, and family problems experienced by thousands of workers of all classes, specially white and blue-collared workers. Any stressful working conditions have been linked to low productivity, absenteeism, and increased rates of accidents on and off the job.
Workplace stress has substantial health consequences on employees, and this range from the relatively benign—more colds and flu—to the more serious, like heart disease and metabolic syndrome. However, now-a-day, stress at work is so common, getting a low-stress job is very difficult or almost impossible for many people. A more realistic choice would be to simply adopt more effective strategies to reduce stress at work and create a proper work life balance.
With the advent of new technologies many jobs have become more fragmented and job tasks have been narrowed, leaving workers more disconnected from the final product. This process of “deskilling” has created increased levels of boredom, making work less challenging and less satisfying for many workers. Offices are becoming factories with rows of workers connected to computers that are capable of monitoring every key punched. The knowledge that every minute of one’s working day is being recorded has intensified the pressure of the job, which, in turn, has led to an increased rate of cardiovascular health problems/heart disease among office and clerical workers.
Coping with Occupational Stress
There are several ways employees can treat, cope with, and ward off occupational success. By maintaining a diligent, reasonable work pace, employees can prevent procrastination and consistently finish the tasks they begin. Additionally, employees should place importance on things like punctuality, regularity, time management, honesty, diligence, and discipline, as these characteristics help promote a positive, professional attitude that’s often recognized and rewarded by upper management personnel. But the most important of these all is to create a proper work life balance, regular exercises and positive thoughts. If the stress related to work is making you depressed try various physio-wellness exercises.
We at Kainos Global have created various physio-wellness programs for corporate houses and their employees. These physio-wellness sessions are based on Oriental Thermal Healing. Our certified healing practitioners teach you the best way to deal with work-related stress. Productivity through Wellness (PTW) is a Corporate Wellness Program and Solution by Kainos Global for corporate and businesses of all types and sizes. Under the PTW project, Kainos Global sets up Corporate Physio-Wellness Centers, within the work space of Corporate and Businesses who wish to avail preventive health and wellness benefits for their employees and increase their productivity at work at the same time.
For more details, please contact us
