Don't let Stress Infection kill your business!

An organization with a high level of absenteeism, rapid staff turnover, a worsening safety record, poor quality control, deteriorating industrial or customer relations is suffering from a bad case of organizational stress infection.

The causes of burnout and organizational stress are numerous and reasonably well documented. Some people burn out because they are not adept at handling stress, some people burn out because their job is stressful due to unclear job descriptions, and others burn out because of poor working conditions or lack of communication. There are many ways the work environment can cause burnout. However, quite often burnout is the result of the persons own ability to cope with stress. This explains why two people, working under the same conditions, will disagree about how stressful their jobs are.

Recent researchers have discovered that chronic stress changes people emotions, their perceptions and their performance. Job satisfaction, customer satisfaction, days off work, employee health care expenditures, occupational errors and many other things are now seen to be directly related to stress.

The Institute of HeartMath in California has done much of the research you've just read about. And they've developed scientifically based, very easily learned tools to reverse stress in the moment, which is unique in that all of our other stress-breakers need to wait until later to be engaged in, leaving us to bathe in the stress response almost continually. Heartmath.com/personal-growth
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The organizational system is composed of:

* physical features,
* organizational structure and policies,
* work task factors,
* work climate.

Personal factors encompass characteristics of individual employees, such as their:

* job position and level of experience,
* socio-demographic background,
* personal resources such as self esteem,
* personal coping responses to stress and their expectations and preference about the workplace.

Stress always relates to an imbalance between demands made on an individual, which is generally from external sources, and the capabilities of an individual to meet these demands. Research has discovered that exposure to stressful working conditions can have a direct influence on employee safety and health. But individual and other situational factors can intervene to strengthen or weaken this influence. Examples of individual and situational factors that can help to reduce the effects of stressful working conditions include the following

* Balance between work and personal life
* A relaxed and positive outlook
* A support network of friends, family and co-workers

The stresses in business are only going to get worse. Teaching people in your organization to respond differently can lower absenteeism and healthcare costs, improve job satisfaction and performance, resulting in fewer errors, and creating more balance in their lives.

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http://www.heartmath.com/personal-growth/emwave-psr.html

1. Ineffective working.
During burnout, the person's energy turns into exhaustion, their involvement turns into cynicism, and their efficiency turns into ineffectiveness. They begin to care less and less about their job, may fail to meet deadlines, do a bad job of things, making lots of mistakes etc When such trends appear, stress raises it's ugly head.

2. Increased Health Problems.
As the burnout worsens, you can notice stress related symptoms increasing. These include moodiness, lots of ups and downs, quick to get irritated or frustrated, short tempered, headaches, muscle tension, and fatigue. These symptoms can lead to stress related disorders such as high blood pressure, migraine headaches, and gastrointestinal problems. The person may also appear anxious, depressed, and have trouble sleeping.

3. Poor interpersonal relations.
A stressed employee alienates colleagues, causes disputes, refuses to follow instructions and becomes irritable and unmanageable. There is a constant conflict and friction between the team members.

4. Poor time keeping and non attendance time
When employees report late at work or are absent for frequent and longer intervals, they exhibit overt signs of stress.

5. High labour turnover
A high rate of labour turnover indicates that employees are frustrated and feel discontentment in their job. This hints at the existence of stress in the organization. Stress in one of the major reasons which leads an employee to quit the organization.

Watch for the first signs of stress infection, including fatigue, lack of enthusiasm, and feelings of cynicism at work. People suffering from burnout tend to withdraw from their jobs and become cynical about what they do. They feel ineffective, powerless, and chronically exhausted. Use the following Stress Infection Early Warning Signs tool to assist in pinpointing stress infections.

At the individual level the following physical, behavioural, mental and emotional signs may be apparent:

* Irritability, impulsive behaviour, difficulty making decisions, sudden increase in smoking or alcohol use etc

* Excessive worrying, feeling of worthlessness, brooding, forgetfulness, easily startled etc

* Muscle pain, tension, headaches, indigestion, tics, insomnia, high blood pressure etc

At the organizational level the following signs may be associated with stress:

* High levels of absenteeism,

* High staff turnover,

* Work accidents (including minor accidents) and disabilities,

* Low productivity levels,

* Poor quality production, and

* Difficult interpersonal relationships in the workplace.

First, it is important to recognize that organizational stress is a major problem in today's society and your organization could also be affected by it. Occupational Health and Safety laws specify the obligation of employers to provide a safe and healthy work place for their staff.

As a first priority you must evaluate the condition of your organization to discover the extent to which occupational stress may be present. This may be accomplished through observation, employee questionnaires and surveys or through a formal feedback system. Opinions, input and suggestions from employees should be regarded as highly valuable. It is vital that employee's levels of occupational stress are monitored on a regular basis.

By using existing structures of OH&S practices to address the issue of organizational stress, you can begin to adopt creative strategies to improve working conditions.