How to identify, prevent and manage stress at work.

Part 1:

In NT, Work health and safety include mental health.

Recognising and managing psychosocial hazards and associated risks in the workplace that may lead to psychological (mental) and physical injuries is an essential part of creating a safe, healthy and productive workplace in controlling the impacts on workers' health, safety and well-being.

A hazard is a situation or thing that can harm a person. Most people understand hazards that may include hazardous manual tasks, noisy machinery, a moving forklift, chemicals, electricity and working at heights. However, they have little understanding of psychosocial hazards.

Psychosocial hazards are factors in the design or management of work that increase the risk of work-related stress, potentially leading to psychological or physical harm.

Work-related psychosocial and physical hazards can be connected, and one can affect the other. Workers who do not feel safe at work due to psychosocial hazards can risk developing work-related stress. Stress workers have a higher risk of psychological injury, and their concentration and decision-making abilities can be affected, increasing the risk of mental and physical damage.

On average, work-related psychological injuries have longer recovery times, higher costs, and require more time away from work. For the 2020/2021 period, 11.2% of all worker's compensation claims across all industry sectors in the Northern Territory were for psychological injuries costing approximately eight million dollars.

Psychosocial hazards are often overlooked as they may not be as apparent as physical hazards. Some examples of psychosocial hazards leading to risks are:

Excessive workloads; Repetitive work; Conflicting demands and lack of role clarity; Aggressive or abusive behaviours, including bullying and violence at the workplace; Lack of involvement in making decisions that affect the worker and lack of influence over the way the job is done; Poorly managed organisational change, job insecurity. Poor work design; Ineffective communication, lack of support from management or colleagues; Poor management of return-to-work plans for injured workers

These risks may result in adverse psychological, physical and social outcomes such as work-related stress, burnout or depression.

Work-related stress is the physical, mental and emotional reactions that occur when a worker perceives the demands of their work exceed their ability or resources to cope. Work-related stress, prolonged and/or severe, can cause psychological and physical harm. The longer the work-related stresses continue unresolved, the higher the risk of a psychological injury.

Stress is not the same as pressure or workplace demands. Most job roles involve some degree of stress; however, when the worker feels unable to cope with repeated stressors, or there are no support mechanisms to manage the situation, stress can manifest in ways that become detrimental to the worker and the business. Stress is not an illness but can result in sickness or worsen existing issues.

Psychological risk and injury are cumulative. The likelihood of injury increases over time if the stakes are not controlled adequately.

Part 2:

What is Stress?

Indeed we all hear a lot about Stress or Stress, but what is it?

The Canadian Mental Health Association defines stress as a response to a situation – it is not about the actual situation. We often see stress when we think that the demands of a problem are more significant than our resources to deal with it. Example: "A person who is comfortable speaking in front of a large number of people may not be nervous about giving a presentation, whereas if a person is not confident in their presentation skills or experience in public speaking, they will feel stressed." about an upcoming presentation Common sources of stress can include significant life events (change of job, place of residence, divorce, etc.) or long-term worries (illness, parenting, etc.) children…), even daily troubles (weather, dealing with traffic…) can be a source of stress.

Workplace stress is an adverse physical and emotional response that can occur when there is a conflict between the job demands for an employee and the degree of control over which the employee can meet those needs. This bridge. In general, high demands on the job but low control over the situation can lead to stress.

Workplace stress can have multiple origins or come from a single event, impacting workers and employers. At work, pressure cannot help but appear; in some cases, stress is positive when promoting the ability to focus, stimulate, and excite needed to solve the tasks. However, if stress occurs with great frequency but cannot be handled by the individual, it will lead to prolonged stress and harmful mental and physical effects.

What Causes Workplace Stress?

There is no one fixed cause of workplace stress, every employee is an individual, and they have different factors that can affect their response to workplace conditions. However, some elements have been shown to affect workplace stress, including:

    Mission Design: 

Workload (overload); Speed/variety/meaning of work; Time to complete a task; Autonomy (e.g. the ability to make decisions about work or specific tasks on your own); Shifts/working hours; Skills/abilities that do not match job needs; Lack of training/or preparation (ability and social-emotional); Lack of positive reviews; Isolation at work (emotional or working alone).

    Role in the organisation:

Role conflict (contradictory job demands, too many roles, multiple supervisors/managers); Uncertain job expectations/role ambiguity (lack of clarity about responsibilities, expectations, etc.); Responsibility level.

    Career development:

Under/over demand, ability; Job security/insecurity (fear of redundancy or from the economy, or lack of tasks or work to do); Lack of opportunities for career development and promotion; Job satisfaction.

    Interpersonal relationship at work:

Supervisor (conflict or lack of support); Colleagues (conflict or lack of support); Threats of violence, harassment, etc. (threat to personal safety); Lack of trust; Lack of workplace systems in place to report and deal with unacceptable behaviour; Prejudice or discrimination.

    Organizational structure / working atmosphere / management style:

Participation (or non-participation) in decision-making; Communication model (poor communication/information flow); Few employees have good job performance; Lack of workplace systems in place to address concerns; There is no interest and support of employees when going through the process of organisational change; Lack of perceived fairness (who gets what when and the methods through which decisions are made). Feelings of injustice add to the health effects of stress; Lack of support (like family policy, employee assistance program, etc.).

    Balance in life and work:

Role/responsibility conflict; Family exposure to work-related hazards.

    Working Conditions / Concerns:

Exposure to unpleasant conditions (crowded, smelly, etc.); Exposure to hazards (chemicals, chemicals, noise, air quality, temperature, etc.).

(According to Murphy, LR, Occupational Stress Management: Current Situation and Future Directions in Trends in Organizational Behavior, 1995, Vol. 2, pp. 1-14, and Kingdom Health & Safety Operations. UK (HSE) "Management of work-related stressors: A step-by-step approach using Management Standards", 2007.)

Prevent and manage stress at work:

Preventing and managing stress at work is when the pressures on employees match their abilities and resources, the degree of control they have over the job, and the support they receive from management and colleagues with their work. Health is not merely the absence of disease but a state of positive and healthy physical and mental well-being (WHO, 1986). A healthy working environment is one that not only has stress and pressure to complete work but also an environment with sufficient conditions to take care of both physical and mental health.

These may include ongoing assessment of health risks, providing appropriate information and training support on health issues, particularly mental health care. A healthy work environment is when employees prioritise holistic health care as part of their working life.

So how about your ideas? Please comment and give me feedback. Thanks for your reading.