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Stress And Job Stress

Decent Essays

Work plays an important part in the lives of many human beings and it affects their everyday well-being. Working is a huge challenge for a majority of the American people. The workplace is a big contributing factor of job stress. Psychological ill health is related to the problem of job stress. There are interventions that can be implemented to prevent or at least to reduce psychological problems.
Stress can be defined as an interaction between people and any kind of demand within their environment. A stressor can be an event or an object which is harmful for an individual. Stress can happen when the demand outweighs a human's ability to deal. Factors that may cause job stress include long work hours, job insecurity, conflict among workers and supervisors, shift work, or hazards. Job stress can cause low productivity, low employee morale, high turnover, increased call ins, sickness and negative results. Aspects that need to be considered when diagnosing job stress include age, sex, race, income, education, marital status and personality.
It is vital to determine who is affected by job stress. It seems as though most people are affected by job stress at one time or another. Job stress is on the rise. People all over the world are beginning to suffer from job stress. Job stress doesn't occur in just one profession but it tends to occur more in streamlined countries. Job stress can affect an employee's personal life. Job stress can cause anxiety, depression, ulcers, chronic disease, and heart disease. In most job stress related cases, individuals are distressed by trying to combine occupational and family demands, such as caring for their children or sick and aging parents (Wiersma & Berg, 1991, p.1210). According to Lazarus (1991), employees who are not able to control their lives at their working place are more likely to suffer occupational stress and thus, can experience impaired health (p.4). Numerous studies have shown that low control, heavy job demands may cause mental strain, job dissatisfaction, cardiovascular disease, etc. (Locke & Taylor, 1990, p. 160). Family responsibilities also became a source of stress. It usually occurs in single parent families or in those which both parents work. This

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