STRESS IN THE UNITED STATES AND IN THE WORKPLACE

STRESS IN THE UNITED STATES AND IN THE WORKPLACE
Gloria Moore Grand Canyon University
PSY-660 Health Psychology Dr. Barbara Chappell
June 15, 2012.
Stress management in the United States workplaces between employees and employers briefed Existing literature on workplace stress. Stress in the workplaces is harmful considering emotional responses, physical responses and psychological responses entailing working environment. In the United States of America, although majority of adults are satisfied with their jobs, only a few report being satisfied with the opportunities for advancements, flexibility and employee recognition (Inretactive, 2011). More than one third of workers report being typically stressed out during their workday. Almost half say that low salary is significantly impacting their stress levels at work.
A good number say that the amount of stress they experience on a single day is an 8, 9 or 10 on a scale of 10 (Inretactive, 2011). There are several other factors that contribute to workplace stress of the employees identifying with inadequate means of meeting the workers’ needs, scarce resources and mismatch considering the capabilities and the demands brought forth by the job. There are other diverse factors influencing workplace stress, identifying with working long hours, isolation, autonomy lack, and negative attitude on the workload, dangerous working environment, poor relationships between management teams and the coworkers, harassment in the workplaces, bullying by supervisors and managers and poor motivated employees. Employers to some level also experience stress related to some of the above factors and also from pressure to succeed. We are going to look at some of these factors in details.
Causes of Stress in United States workplaces, according to the government report in nineteen ninety nine, the research indicated that working hours had increased over the years. The increment is estimated at eight percent reflecting on one generation. This increment was averaged to forty seven hours in one week. The report continued to assert that twenty percent of the hours spent at work reflected forty nine hours of working in one week. Workers in the United States according to researchers dedicate their efforts to the jobs more than any other industrial nation. This is no doubt, in that it affects the workers negatively. If not physical stress then definitely emotional stress as they have no time to themselves to work on their own issues.
A survey conducted in the United states considering input from eight hundred thousand workers, collected from more than three hundred companies asserted that employees absenteeism in the name of being sick tripled within a range of four years in year nineteen ninety six to year two thousand (Inretactive, 2011). The report has evidenced that that stress doesn’t only affect the individuals, but the company itself as a whole. Fear is also another very major cause of stress (Wood, 2003).The fear is brought about by job insecurity.
Studies continually to show job losses in companies have gone up in the last few years. Job losses have been experienced in companies collapsing, getting bankrupt and the downsizing leading to layoffs. More than two hundred companies have been affected by the global changes for the worse. Research has indicated that United States workers spend a lot of time stressing out on how to retain their jobs. Reflecting on the report done by United Nations (UN) in the year nineteen ninety two focusing on job stress, indicated that it’s the major disease in the twentieth century in the global context. The results were backed by the World Health Organization (WHO), citing that job stress is a global epidemic. Stress relating to occupation encompasses other issues not relating to the job. Life at home and workplaces has presented conflicting issues that are particularly demanding.
The recent years has seen an increment in stress relating to workplaces and private life at home. A survey done on the United States population, particularly from the labor department, indicated that more than ten percent of married people, with age below eighteen years and people with children have a history of severe conflicts in relating family issues and work issues. Twenty five percent of the respondents indicated moderate conflict levels.
A parent torn between fulfilling his or her duties in his or her workplaces and also to her or his children surely cannot have the best peace. The run from home to work would sure be exhausting to anyone and having a boss who does not understand the situation, and does not help either. Ways of Dealing with Workplace Stress, individuals can spend all of their time complaining about situations that are stressful or what causes stress but at the end of the day, what is important to know is how to deal with workplace related stress. There has been a lot of work put by experts from medical fields and also other related fields on some techniques of avoiding or treating workplace stress (Chung & Schneider, 2002). We are going to look at some of these models.
Dealing with the stress is a job for both the employees and the employers too, especially where the stress results to a bad relationship between the two. The very first step to dealing with stress is recognizing the signs and recognizing the presence of workplaces stress and the family stress. Stressed workers often get overwhelmed leading to lost confidence levels, such individuals becomes withdrawn and irritable. Poor productivity is realized as a result of stress.
Employees and workers fail to be effective and often feel that the work they do is not r...