How Does Employee Stress Affect the Organization?
- In high-stress work environments, employee health suffers. The brain responds to job stress defensively, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention explains. Muscles tense up, breathing deepens, senses get sharper and the heart rate increases. This fight-or-flight response is the body's normal reaction to stress, and poses few long-term health risks if you manage to get out of the high-pressure situation. If you can't alleviate your stress, though, the nervous system maintains a constant state of high arousal. The body becomes less capable of fighting off illness or repairing damage, increasing your risk of injury or illness. You experience chronic fatigue that makes it difficult to function at work. The CDC also reports links between workplace stress and heart disease, ulcers, cancer and psychological disorders. For an organization, those problems translate into high absenteeism and low productivity.
- An unhealthy workforce isn't the only problem stress produces. The World Health Organization says that employee stress can cause organizational image problems. When workers express their discontent outside of the workplace, word makes it into the media and finding top-tier recruits gets tougher. Because employees aren't as productive or engaged, clients and customers might start complaining, too. Workers let go from their jobs are more likely to launch lawsuits, which not only has a negative financial impact, but can also cause long-term damage to the company's reputation.
- Stress can have a snowball effect, causing employees to further disengage from their jobs. When workers get upset about increasing expectations and layoffs, they experience additional stress that comes with alienation. They want to be loyal to their organization, but they no longer feel that sense of unwavering commitment, producing additional stress. Although all workers can feel this cumulative stress effect, women tend to suffer the most. Statistics Canada reports that women have higher job stress in general. An article by Barbara Seibert for Forbes suggests that women's increased susceptibility to loyalty stress may partially explain the phenomenon.
- When loyalty crumbles, the result may be career apathy or complete burnout. Burnout happens whenever people don't see the point of their efforts. Overloaded workers get burned out because they don't see why they should work when the mountain of responsibilities never shrinks, no matter how many hours they put in at the office. Employees also get burned out when they don't feel that their work is meaningful. Feeling insignificant causes stress and makes workers throw up their hands in frustration. For a happy workplace, keep people busy, but not overtaxed. Communicate the importance of individual efforts and contributions.