Question

Business 110(human relations), Chapter 16 outlined the causes of stress at work and how to successfully manage these in order to be productive. List some of the major symptoms and consequences of stress, including burnout. Describe some personality and job factors that contribute to stress. And lastly, identify attitudes, values, work habits and skills that will enhance your productivity.

essay

Answer 1

The major symptoms of stress at work are decline in productivity and efficiency levels, inability to cope up with high pressure situations or periods of hectic schedules and constantly making errors at work. There are several physical symptoms of stress at work which are headaches, high blood pressure, irritability, loss of appetite etc.

There are several significant consequences of stress and can be physiological consequences and psychological consequences. Prolonged stress will have negative consequences on both mind and body. There will be consequences both at the individual level as well as the organizational level. At the individual level the main consequences will be in the form of detrimental behavioral outcomes, physical disease outcomes like hypertension and stroke, poor psychological and mental health outcomes like depression, anxiety etc. Consequences at the organizational level will consist of poor psychological and emotional outcomes like job dissatisfaction; and work related behavioral impairment like poor job performance.

Personality factors that contribute to stress are personality traits like the habit of doing several things at once, the personality trait of over-planning, an aggressive personality trait in which success and the need to win is very high, trait of not being able to relax without feeling guilty and lastly the trait of being impatient. All these traits will drive a person to work more, crave to achieve more and will develop a chronic sense of urgency and need to overwork, thus leading to stress. Job factors that contribute to stress are factors like existence of high workloads and unrealistic deadlines at work, not giving proper control to employees at workplace, existence of an ineffective management, presence of a bullying and harassing culture and workplace etc.

In terms of attitudes, values, work habits and skills that will enhance productivity a person should start by focusing on being punctual. Being always on time will make a significant difference to enhance productivity. Secondly a person should have the habit and the ethos to keep things organized properly and ensure that work station is neat and clean. This will enable you to become more focused and more systematic in your approach to work and will lead to higher efficiency in the long run. A person should develop a problem solving approach and should be open to ideas and suggestions from colleagues. All these attitudes, values, work habits and skills will lead to significant increase in productivity in the long run.