Stress at work: is it okay not to be okay?

 Work-related stress is a prevalent issue spread across sectors and levels of hierarchy that affects employees not only at work but after work extends to their personal lives as well. It affects the mental health of an individual and their productivity at work. Most of us at many times ignore or fail to detect the consequences at multiple levels. If you are one of those who feels even an ounce of stress at work, you need to question yourself: is it okay not to be okay?

In India or many other countries considering the fact that a large chunk of the workable population is unemployed it is a privilege to be employed in fixed salaried jobs. A large number of working people feel grateful to have a regular job and thus lose the capacity to complain and accept the stress as a part of the job and keep spiralling down in the whirl.

A LinkedIn report states that 55% of employees in India feel stress at work and another survey by Genius Consultants reports that 77% of Indian employees admit that work-related stress causes depression, anxiety and other mental health issues which directly affects productivity. A few major reasons mentioned by employees are work-life balance, insufficient earnings and slow career advancement. However, a few other factors such as poor management from companies at lower levels, poor time management and lack of awareness of their rights as an employee, ineffective or no implementation of workplace wellness, lack of personal touch to the employee from the company etc.

The situation intensified after covid-19 pandemic when people were forced to work from home. In India, work from home concept was new and most of the employees welcomed the move, especially a great number of migrated employees who left their homes for better jobs. In India where small cities don't have the privilege of MNCs or big companies, migration of employees to metro cities is common. Working from home allowed people to spend much time with their families but the fairy tales soon turned into a nightmare and according to a study around 30% of Indian employees experienced increased burnout due to longer workdays and the blurred boundaries between work and personal life. The advantages of the office environment were gone, working hours increased, physical activities were affected and thus more stress. Home which was your escape became your cage and stress which you at least pretended to leave at the office became your snuggle buddy.

Let’s discuss all major factors responsible for work-related stress:

Technological factor:

Constant connectivity: Do you have the Teams app on your phone, good! Now no matter how much you want you can not ignore pings and one message that you even did not want to check but eventually look at which may keep you up the whole night.

Economic factor:

Job insecurity: Should be grateful for the job you have or be complaining about the stress you get at work. Getting bad news every day about the job market makes you stressed about job instability and anxious about your future. Insecurity leads to fear which leads to the pressure of performing better than your peers which again leads to more stress.

Organizational factor:

Poor workload management and role ambiguity: At times one can expect a workload in an organization. However as a matter of fact workload is not proportional to stress, that’s okay we expect it but poor workload management is directly proportional to the square or cube of stress. Here comes the deadline to the picture which is carefully crafted by the management for the sake of their clients without giving an ounce of thought about their employees.

Also, many times employees have unclear roles or ambiguous instructions leading to confusion, less commitment and result: more stress.

Organizational culture:

• Poor micromanagement: Most organizations fail to provide micromanagement as most of the time they ignore the people at the bottom of the hierarchy for their needs and challenges create errors, failure and chaos which eventually encompass people ascending in the hierarchy.

• Negative culture: Lack of communication channels, lack of recognition, no appreciation or no rewards or insignificantly provided but high competition opens gates for more stress.
  

• Slow career advancement: Employees are often unsatisfied by the growth they are offered in an organization. Most of the time increment they get is even lesser than the rate of inflation or slightly better. Also, an unclear path of growth inside an organization leads only to distress among employees.

Let’s discuss how to deal with it:

First of all take a deep breath, yeah …one more time. Good. Now let's discuss some solutions:

• Prioritize self-care: Don't skip your meals for work or compromise with your diet plan. Don't skip exercises for work and more importantly don't compromise your sleep for work. Don't let your work invade your personal space. Learn to say no and set limits on your work hours. Give yourself and your hobbies some time. Work is for your livelihood but livelihood has no means if no life remains.

• Time management: Use technology to work in your favour and find out some tools to make your task easier. Make to-do lists and take regular breaks.

• Seek support: Talk to your friends, family and colleagues. They might help you make routines, and plans or maintain work-life balance. If you have ignored yourself long enough, family and friends might not help exterminate the stress. In such cases, you must seek professional help. Companies often have certain plans for wellness and their in-house counsellors as well. You can explore and seek the best support for you. This is your right.

Conclusion

In countries like India, laws defining working hours and pay scales for private companies don't exist and if some laws exist employees are not aware of those. Organizations are not focused on implementing wellness programs for employees and spreading awareness for mental health. A majority of employees at the bottom of the hierarchy have insignificant salaries and mostly they are not aware of their rights as employees. Organisations must develop concrete programs for mental wellness and employee satisfaction.