The Official Blog of Benifys HR Solutions

What is it?

To quote Hans Selye, who is universally recognized as the founding father of stress research, “stress is not necessarily something bad – it all depends on how you take it. The stress of exhilarating, creative successful work is beneficial, while that of failure, humiliation or infection is detrimental.”

Some consider this to be a very optimistic way to look at stress, an ally of sorts that gives you a timely push to achieve something that seems difficult. At the same time, one fact that we all know and have perhaps experienced personally is that stress can very quickly turn into misery if not handled properly. The modern view of stress is that it is a ‘bad thing’, which is also supported by scientific studies claiming stress as a major factor contributing to long term negative health impacts.

So is stress a good or a bad thing? As it turns out, there is no right answer – it all depends on the situation. The same stress that helps athletes to achieve the unachievable can have significant adverse effects on the overall well-being of a working professional. There is a difference, though – you would perhaps have noticed that a short burst of stress helped you achieve a deadline that you thought was otherwise impossible, that stress helped you think of a creative way out of the problem. While there are natural advantages that some enjoy over others in terms of handling stress, an overwhelming specialist opinion now emphasizes on the fact that there are techniques that can be deployed to handle stress and come out on top. There is no denying, however, that the best of us crack in moments of extreme or periods of sustained stress.

Today, we’ll demystify the phenomenon of stress, and in the next issue of our monthly Newsletter, we’ll look at some techniques that we can utilize to manage stress better, in fact, utilize stress to become more effective and creative. Let’s look at some of the more common symptoms and causes of stress.


Symptoms

The degree of intensity with which the symptoms are manifested may vary based on factors like the duration to which the individual has been exposed to the stressors (yes, there is a word like this – stressors are stress inducers), the intensity of the stressors itself, the type of stressor, but since here we are concerned only about job related stressors – here is a list of the most typical symptoms:

Mental and behavioral symptoms

• Aggression
• Irritability
• Depression
• Absenteeism
• Insomnia
• Emotional instability
• Loss of concentration

Physical symptoms

• Diseases related to the heart
• Migraine/Headache
• Neck and back problems
• Perpetual exhaustion
• Digestive problems

If you display any or more of the above symptoms, there is a good chance that it’s induced by stress, and a good chance on top that it’s work related. How do you find out whether it’s a work related issue or something else that’s manifesting itself through the above symptoms?

Here’s an easy checklist – introspect deeply (be true to yourself), and see if you’re currently undergoing, or have been exposed to any of this for some time in the recent past. These are the most common causes of work related stress.


Causes

Job Insecurity – Some people are naturally more insecure about their jobs as compared to others, this puts them in a higher danger bracket of contracting stress related problems. Add to this the current economic scenario and mass layoffs, and the rumor mills that spare no-one, and you have the single biggest stress trigger for a working professional.

Work-life balance – It is often not easy to strike a good balance between one’s professional and personal life, and is again something that some people manage better than others naturally. For those who can’t, and if there is, unfortunately, a problem at home that’s always back-of-mind, it becomes difficult to concentrate on work, which inevitably leads to stress.

Work Culture – Moving into a new organization brings its own set of challenges of understanding and adapting to the corporate culture of the organization, e.g., communication, hierarchy, even behavioral patterns of the new boss. Sometimes the transition is not as smooth as it could be. Also, today’s work culture is extremely competitive and performance-centric with stiff deadlines and increased workload thrown in for good measure.

Feeling of losing control – Human beings have an inherent need to be in control of situations, most of us dislike being in a state of doubt or uncertainty. It makes people feel inadequate and vulnerable, this mostly happens when an individual has to deal with something which requires more knowledge or skills than the person possesses.

Difficult people – Regardless of how smart, knowledgeable or nice you are – there will always be people who will give you a hard time. Unfortunately, you can’t choose the people that you work with, or come in contact with, at the workplace, and we have the last of the most common causes of work related stress – people that you don’t like at the workplace.


Burnout

If a person is in a state of stress for a sustained period of time, it invariably leads to burnout. Burnout is the state of complete physical and/or emotional rundown where a person feels completely drained of energy. Needless to say this is a very serious disorder and you should be aware if you’re headed in this direction. Take this quick quiz to find out if you are at risk.

Related posts:

1. It’s Not About Why You Leave as Much as How You Leave
2. Stress Management – Part II
3. Dealing with Micromanagement
4. The five difficult types of people at work and how to deal with them
5. Why is HR Outsourcing not catching the fancy of organisations?