Occupational stress is not new, studies indicate that the recent trends have made it increasingly difficult for employees to adequately balance the responsibility of their jobs and their families as employees are working longer hours and bringing more work at night.
Experts agree that work stress is a set of physical and mental reactions that an employee suffers when subjected to external factors. These reactions can be physiological, cognitive, behavioral or emotional, and they are usually accompanied by physical or mental exhaustion, anguish and feelings of impotence or frustration at the inability of the individual to cope with the situations that generate that stress.
The causes of this type of stress can be an excess of workload, also by the high level of responsibility that tests the worker and by bad relations in the work environment. These three causes alone are detrimental, but can sometimes combine and cause much more serious health damage.
There are 2 types of work stress:
1. EUSTRESS: This is the positive version of work stress, because when it appears it prepares the body to face situations of great pressure and responsibility. Its main function is to protect the body from all the threats that the work stress can provoke, achieving a balance and giving rise to some point to pleasurable sensations.
2. DISTRESS: This kind of stress can be identified because it reduces the capacity for attention, decision and action, modifying our mood and interpersonal relationships. This is the negative version of work stress, is given in response to excessive workload and is where we often see serious health symptoms. Workplace stress is bound to be the new epidemic of the 21st century.
In conclusion, work stress is not something that should be taken lightly for us in Kenya, it is really a disease to which attention must be paid and take action to be able to control it. It is true that we are all exposed to suffering it but we all have the ability to cope it. Consult an expert on the subject and put into practice some of the exercises that exist to achieve a balance.
