More than thirty years ago, when the transformations in the economy began, employers did not pay attention to the problem of stress among employees. Over time, this approach began to change. However, are we aware of the serious health effects of chronic, severe stress? Are employers aware that stress causes serious financial losses, and not only due to absenteeism or accidents?

Stress is not an unambiguous concept. Traditionally, three categories of defining it are distinguished:

• as a stimulus in the environment
• as an individual’s response to the demands placed on it
• as the relationship of the individual with the environment.

In the first category, we should rather talk about stressors, i.e. stimuli (mental or physical) whose presence – objective or perceived – leads to stress. The second group of theories defines stress as an important factor in a more general phenomenon, i.e. psychosocial risk. Stress is defined as a psychophysiological reaction that occurs when the demands perceived by an individual (e.g. towards an employee in a company) exceed their ability to cope or make these possibilities „on the limit”. The most popular concept belongs to the third category – it defines stress as a special relationship between the individual and the environment, which in the opinion of the individual strains its resources and threatens well-being. Stress in the organization, according to this concept, will therefore be the result of constant interaction between the employee,

Regardless of the concept that will be adopted, the fact is that stress occurring in high intensity or chronically leads not only to negative psychological consequences, but also adversely affects social and biological functioning, causing somatic symptoms

Some researchers define stress as a factor affecting not only the health of the employee, but also the organization. The concept of „health” of an organization can be understood as the general condition of the company. Among the consequences of stress, researchers mention: changes in the hormonal balance, increase in blood pressure and cholesterol levels, lowering the body’s immunity, diseases of the cardiovascular and skeletal systems, distraction, alcohol and nicotine abuse, nervousness and professional burnout. There is no doubt that their widespread occurrence among employees will deteriorate the efficiency of the organization.

The reason why many organizations do not take any remedial action may be that it is easy to determine direct losses, but more difficult to determine indirect losses caused by stress among employees. Meanwhile, the losses resulting from absenteeism or high turnover are much lower than the losses resulting from reduced productivity, reduced team morale, or replacement of burnt out employees.

The most common actions aimed at reducing the effects of stress among employees are the organization of soft training on coping with stress, but the most effective is the elimination of stress-inducing factors.

Source: CIOP-PIB materials

Source:https://www.seka.pl/what-you-know-about-stresie/

Projekt otrzymał dofinansowanie z Norwegii poprzez Fundusze Norweskie 2014-2021, w ramach programu „Dialog społeczny – godna praca”.