KALYAN CITY LIFE

Factors Deciding Stress Vulnerability of Employees

Some employees are more vulnerable to stress as compared to others. Stress Vulnerability of employees depends upon three main factors like stress threshold, type of person they are and their control on work methods.

Image Credits © Anhtu

1. Stress Threshold - Low and High ↓

Stressors are the factors that cause stress. Stress Threshold is the degree of stressors that a person can endure before stress related symptoms occur and adversely start affecting his or her performance.

Some people with a low threshold are unable to sustain even a small level of stress. They get easily distracted, stressed-out and lose their calmness due to any slightest change or disruption in their routine workflow.

On the other hand, there are also people with a high threshold who can tolerate a high level of stress. These people are able to stay calm, maintain their coolness, adjust to any new situation and yet remain productive. They are able to do so because of their experience and confidence on their skills and abilities. However, if people with high threshold experience prolonged stress then there are chances that their performance may decline.

Stress can be either helpful or harmful to job performance, depending upon its level. When stress is absent, it limits job challenges and performance becomes low. As stress increases gradually, job performance also tends to increase, because stress helps a person to gather and use resources to meet job requirements.

Image Credits © Wilson Banta

Constructive stress inculcates encouragement among employees and helps them to tackle various job challenges. Eventually, a time comes when stress reaches its maximum saturation point that corresponds approximately to the employee's day to day performance capability. Beyond this point, stress shows no signs of improvement in job performance.

Finally, if stress is too high, it turns into a damaging force. Job performance begins to decline at the same point because excessive stress interferes with performance. An employee lose the ability to cope, fails to make a decision and displays inconsistent behaviour. If stress continues to increase even further it reaches a breaking point. At this breaking stage, an employee is very upset and mentally devastated. Soon he/she completely breaks down. Performance becomes zero, no longer feels like working for their employer, absenteeism increases, eventually resulting into quitting of a job or getting fired.

Meaning of Frustration ↓

Frustration is one of the causes of stress. It arises when one's motivation to achieve a desired goal is blocked. For example, an employee wants to finish a report before the end of the day but finds that something or the others keep interrupting him at work. This can lead to his frustration.

Image Credits © Sybren A. Stüvel

Types of Reactions to Frustration ↓

The reactions to frustration are also known as Defense Mechanisms. These defense mechanisms are so called as they try to defend individuals from the psychological effects of a blocked goal. When some employees get frustrated, they become tensed and irritable. They experience an uneasy feeling in their stomach and also show various other reactions of frustration.

What is Stress? Meaning

Stress is a general term applied to various psychologic (mental) and physiologic (bodily) pressures experienced or felt by people throughout their lives.

Image credits © Queen Roly

Definition of Stress

Stress is defined as “a state of psychological and physiological imbalance resulting from the disparity between situational demand and the individual's ability and motivation to meet those needs.”

Dr. Hans Selye, one of the leading authorities on the concept of stress, described stress as “the rate of all wear and tear caused by life.”

Stress can be positive or negative:

1. Stress is good when the situation offers an opportunity to a person to gain something. It acts as a motivator for peak performance.
2. Stress is negative when a person faces social, physical, organizational and emotional problems.

Factors that are responsible for causing stress are called stressors.