Work-related stress a major ailment: Study

dubai — Is the constant pressure at work pinning you down and forcing you to blow your top? Are you unable to shake off that job insecurity which continues to frustrate you at the workplace? Are you taking too many leaves to stay away from your office?

If your answer is ‘yes’, you might have fallen victim to ‘work stress’.

Work-related stress is the second most common ailment, revealed a recent study by the Federal Authority for Government Human Resources (FAFGHR). The occupational injuries that employees reel under in different workplaces are a growing cause for concern across the globe.

There are three kinds of symptoms of work-related stress: Physical, psychological and behavioural, the study pointed out. It attributes the ailment to 18 factors which could lead to exhaustion, mostly because of long hours at work, problems with colleagues or employers, continuous changes in the institution where you work, and lack of job security.

The FAFGHR defined work-related stress as a “growing problem all over the world which doesn’t negatively affect the health and the prosperity of the employees alone, but also affects the productivity of the establishments”.

“Work-related stress is the second most common disease, after structural muscular disorders,” the study said. Themed ‘Stress in work environment: Causes, symptoms and ways of prevention’, it pointed out that work-related stress differs from one individual to another. Some see it as a stress while others take it up as a challenge that must be faced. It depends on the psychological mindset of the person, and is influenced by one’s personal life and health.

According to the study published in the latest edition of ‘Human Resources Magazine’, “the physical symptoms include fatigue, muscular tension, headache, heart beatings, difficulty in sleeping (such as insomnia), digestive system disorders (such as diarrhoea and constipation) as well as skin disorders”.

Psychiatric symptoms, according to the study, include depression, anxiety, disappointment, short temperament, pessimism; feeling of incapable of not keeping in line with the mainstream and cognitive difficulties (such as inability to concentrate or taking decisions).

The behavioural symptoms include increasing sick leaves, absenteeism, aggressive attitude, lack of sense of innovation and initiative, poor work performance, frustration, impatience, indifference and seclusion.— reporters@khaleejtimes.com