Past GT - Nowadays, many people have to work longer time, and they feel more stressful than before. What are the reasons? What can employers do to make their life easier?

Stress is a big problem in today’s workplace. While some stress is a normal part of the workplace, excessive stress can interfere with the employees’ productivity and reduce their physical and emotional health. This essay shall delve into some causes of workplace stress and also suggest some steps that employers can take to reduce it.

There are a plethora of causes of stress in the workplace. To begin with, excessively high workloads, with unrealistic deadlines making people feel pressurized. Similarly, insufficient workloads, making people feel that their skills are being underused may cause stress. Then there may be a lack of interpersonal support or poor working relationships leading to a sense of isolation. Moreover, there may be times when people are asked to do a job for which they have insufficient experience or training.

Furthermore, stress can be caused by lack of job security, lack of career opportunities, or level of pay. It may also be caused by bullying or harassment by management, which can leave employees feeling undervalued and affect their self-esteem. Last but not least a poor physical working environment such as excessive heat, cold or noise, inadequate lighting, uncomfortable seating and malfunctioning equipment may also lead to stress.

Employers can take a lot of steps to cope with workplace-stress. To begin with, they should diagnose what is causing stress. If overwork is causing stress in the business, then they should try to reduce people's workload. They should ensure that their employees' targets are challenging, but realistic, and make sure that employees take their full holiday entitlement. They should check that individuals are well-matched to the jobs they've got. From time to time they should review people's performance so that they know how they're doing. Then they would be able to get feedback from their staff about potential problems and identify any training they may need.

Employers should also consider whether the employee should work fewer hours, or otherwise vary their work. If any of the employees is sick, they should keep in touch. If their employee has experienced personal problems, such as a relationship break-up or an illness in the family, employers should take a sympathetic approach and if necessary, enable and encourage the employee to seek further help through their doctor or a counseling service.

To sum up, I pen down saying that, stress at the workplace is an issue of great concern. Unless the employers take some steps to reduce the problem, it can reduce the efficiency of workers which ultimately is detrimental for the company.