Stressing On Stress!

With the rat race of life continuing at a pace much faster than ever before, work stress has become a very real mental health issue that plagues society. We talk to Dr Eugene Tee about how stress doesnt just affect your productivity but other aspects of life too

What are some of the common stressors you notice in workplace scenarios?

Workplace stressors tend to stem from one of two broad factors. The fi rst relates to the nature and demands of the work itself, such as role ambiguity (unclear descriptions of expectations of one’s work) and work overload. Most of the time, however, I hear mention of stress resulting from interpersonal relationships—abusive leadership, toxic co-workers, incivility in the workplace and organisational politics, just to name a few. Situational stressors are another one—organisational change events such as mergers and acquisitions, alterations and reassignments are also typical sources of stress. Less mentioned, but also worth highlighting is stress resulting from a lack of growth opportunities. An employee may feel stressed, bored and frustrated when he or she perceives a lack of personal growth and development, or lack of mentoring and coaching on their jobs.

What are the worst possible outcomes, physical and mental, that you’ve come across due to work-related stressors?

For physical health, it’s not uncommon for individuals to report changes to their sleep or appetite, or even gastrointestinal diseases. Headaches and muscular tensions are also commonly-reported consequences of stress.

Stress also manifests itself as anxiety, depression, panic attacks, lack of engagement and lowered job satisfaction. Also commonly reported are helplessness (and hopelessness), which may lead to deviant acts at work (like behaving aggressively), all of which can be considered among the mental consequences of stress.