A Study on Workplace Stress Among Women Working

Abstract

Women in India have served a lot after independence. From just a experienced homemaker, women today have gained skills and potential of not just being a homemaker but being at parity with their male counterpart. Moreover, varying roles of working women, they have preserved the conventional work culture of household. Now a day the companies are thriving towards high rate that the women have to work for longer hours to sustain the standard of living and accomplish their basic needs.

In spite of having the recent technologies and services, women feel to be work loaded and stressed. The abstract literature on stress recommends that working women are lying on to the same face stressors practiced by working men. So far, women are also confronting with possibly exceptional stressors such as inequality, social disconnection, and work/home classes. Stress arises because of many causes which are emphasized in the research paper. The research paper also contains reasons of stress and how to ease the stress and rise above such problems by the working women at their workplace.

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Introduction

Know About Stress Stress is a mood that is formed when we respond to particular events. It is the body's manner of growing to a challenge and getting ready to meet a strong situation with focal point, power, energy, and sensitive alertness. [9] Stress is a normal physical reaction to actions that make you feel endanger and disturb your balance in some way. Fortunately, research shows that lifestyles vary and stress-reduction techniques can facilitate people learn to cope up with stress. 1] Stress refers to the tension from the argument between external environment and internal environment, guiding towards emotional and bodily pressure. [9] In this fast moving world, it is not viable to live without stress, whether it is a student or working women. There is both constructive and destructive stress, depending on each individual’s exclusive observation of the force between the two factors. Not all stress is terrible. For instance, constructive stress, also known as eustress, [17] can assist a person to perform a task at best efficacy and effectiveness.

Therefore, it is clear that some form of constructive stress can adjoin more shades and enthusiasm to lives. The presence of a target, for example, can drive to make the most of the moment pleasurable and generate enhanced value. It is considerable to keep this in mind, as stress management signify to use stress to our benefit, and not on eliminating the occurrence of stress in our lives. [8] I. 4. Present Status Psychological Well Being The present status of women in the current working environment can be demonstrated using some current data on the working women culture. [11] FIG 1.

Psychological Well Being

Source [11] DIFFERENT TYPES OF STRESS: External and Internal Stressors [1] People can get known with stress from outer or inner causes. Outer stressors include adverse physical state or distressing psychological atmosphere (such as poor working conditions or unpleasant relationships). [9] Inner stressors can also be physical (viruses and other diseases, irritation) or psychosomatic (such as deep worry about a destructive event that may or may not occur). [9] Severe or Unrelieved Stress Stressors can also be defined as temporary (severe) or lasting (unrelieved). Severe Stress.

Severe stress is the reaction to an instantaneous threat, usually known as the fight response. The threat can be any circumstances that are supposed, even subconsciously or incorrectly, as a threat. Common severe stressors include:

• Noise (which can cause a stress answer even during sleep)
• Crowding
• Isolation
•  Starvation
• Danger
•  Illness
• Hi-tech equipment effects (playing videotape ,playoffs, regularly buzzing mobile phones)
• Visualizing the threat or detection of a precarious incident Under most conditions, once the severe threat has agreed, stages of stress hormones come back to normal.

This is known as the repose reaction. Unrelieved Stress. Often, up to date life poses ongoing stressful conditions that are not short-lived. The recommendation to take action (to fight or flee) must thus be cautiously handled. Stress, after that, turns into unrelieved. Common unrelieved stressors contain:

1. Ongoing extremely pressured work
2. Long-term relationship problems
3. Lonesomeness
4. Constant financial worries

Work Place Stress

Stress at work is quite a new perceptible fact of contemporary lifestyles. Occupational stress adds a load to physical health.

Work related stress in the life of controlled workers, thus, have an effect on the wellbeing of organizations. Stress, either fast or steady, can bring risky body-mind disorders. Instant disorders such as nervousness attacks, worry, sleeplessness, tenseness and muscle pain can all result in unrelieved health problems. It has an effect on immune system, cardiovascular and nervous systems and direct individuals to regular addictions. Like "stress reactions", "relaxation responses" and stress management techniques are some of the important built-in response systems.

Unfortunately, at present, don't get peaceful and calming situations without asking. For relaxation one has to struggle to create such circumstances. [19] This study is carried out to investigate that how much the women workforce of the banks are strained and how do the pressure of work influence their occupation life, societal life, productivity etc. In order to do so a sample of 10 women employees are selected from each of the three banks for the research of workplace stress among them. Symptoms of Work Stress

It is no surreptitious that stress and associated disarray is being considered as generally regular cause of employee disability. Managing of workplace stress is leadership accountability. Good leaders who are familiar with the symptoms of stress can manage situations to create more pleasing workplaces and to improve both efficiency and the bottom line. Corporate women who have served in all conditions distinguish stress when they monitor symptoms such as: [7]

• Nervousness
• Indecisiveness
• Petulance
• Complaining
• Forgetfulness Loss of self confidence
• Sleeplessness
• Physical tiredness

Working Women

This is the fresh generation of women, who needs to chase their dream career. But this life is not a couch of roses for everyone. Waken up at sharp 6 in the morning after retiring to bed late at night, crackling up an delicious breakfast for each one while getting the children all dress up for school, taking care of the sundry house needs that require her consideration that's the average working woman's home schedule for all. Things are not easy for her on the work frontage either.

The collective-roles that women are have to play these days, bring about energy leak both at the bodily as well as mental level. [16]

Objectives of the Study

The study on the workplace stress among women is conducted with the following objectives: * To determine the major causes of workplace stress. * To find the steps to reduce work place stress among women. * To find the measures to reduce workplace stress.The questionnaires were filled by 30 women those who are working in three major Banks of Bhopal i. e. Axis Bank, HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank, so the reach of sample findings was less. 0 women employees of different designations filled the questionnaires. Due to this the opinion of employees differs as they are from different levels/designation. Data are collected from various sources, current articles like from online services, the Internet, and public libraries. The research describes the factors causing stress in the workplace and its impact on women. An effective method of coping with stress is given, but limited to ones examined in the primary and secondary resources.

Literature Review

Stress at work, the stress of lifting up children, the stresses that come with growing old parents, some of these circumstances could offer a fairly high sum of stress [12]. When women are faced with collective roles, all of which carry serious demands, they face stages of stress that are high enough to add to fitness problem, neglected work, and a reduced ability to obtain on additional. ACCOUNTABILITY AT OFFICE ACCOUNTABILITY AT HOME Source: [5] An environment with little flexibility or option would be a bigger risk of agony than an atmosphere of no-voice for a working woman.

Interestingly, women’s stress matters do not deviate considerably. Women are all-rounder by character and include responsibilities inside responsibilities. [3] Job, relations and dwelling are not detached and the subjects around balance surmount in spite of working for yourself or someone else. The new study from University of Melbourne has publicized that almost 1 in every 5 Victorians working women undergo depression[23] that can be attributed to job stress and more than one in eight or 13 per cent of the working men with depression have trouble due to job stress. 3] The literature on work-related stress has made known many different courses of job related stressors and linked them to such matters as job pleasure and worker yield (Beehr & Bhaget, 1985) [6]. One of the major causes of workplace stress is whether the person is satisfied with the job or not. Many researchers found that job related stress issues are related to role ambiguity, role conflict, employee performance and satisfaction, over work load, need for achievement and organizational effectiveness.

In 1976 Research [6] conducted in the financial services sector recognized that stress can also increase the probability of errors and arguments as workers cut corners to achieve targets – 81% believe irritation in the workplace has pessimistic effect on spirits, 74% are less dynamic when in a bad frame of mind, and 15% work slower (in fear of making a mistake) when their boss is angry. Fear of aggression is often on the minds of individuals who handle cash on a regular basis, and can be a major cause of mental and physical distress (Violence and stress in financial services, 2003).

A survey of 1,299 employees from 37 organizations [6] recognized ten causes as the more important providers to employee stress. These were Employees not being free to converse with one another, individual disagreements on the job, Employees not being given charge over their work, insufficient employment or budget, Management and workers not talking frankly, Management supposed as being uncooperative, below average unwell and holiday benefit, lessening in employees profit, Lack of gratitude or return for doing a good job.

In one more research “Managing Stress at Work” by Kate Jenkins conducted in 2001 [6] drew number of factors which add to stress in work places, which are people are working longer hours, taking shorter or no breaks, with increase growth in IT and globalization, decrease in spare time and less sleep and there are more time and travel pressures. (Jenkins, 2001) [6] . Work stress sometimes affects organization by:

• Increased rate of absenteeism.
• Decreasing rate of dedication to work.
• Increasing rate of employees return.
• Increasing rate of grievances from clients and customers. Increasing rate of insecure working exercise.
• Negatively affecting staff recruitment.

With the rapid progression of technology, the rate of work load has increased and thus the stress among working women. To some extent there is the fright from being economized in awful times, leading to better job uncertainty on the part of those who stay [21]. Unquestionably, work-related stress is one of the most frequently quoted stressors faced by persons all over the world. The remarks reported by Lundberg offer some descriptions for why Luecken et l originate that women working in clerical and customer service place who had children at home reported greater than before strain at home, but no increase in strain on the job. [2] While some stress is good for inspiration and growing competence, stress after a limit can result in depressing crash such as reduced efficiency and effectiveness. Most of the people are feeling secluded and upset at work, and this has resulted to better work-related stress. Consulting experts and professionals are being consulted on ways to raise link and inspiration of their employees.

Few companies arrange parties and make their workforce feel appreciated at work. These are method to encourage employees and assist them to sense protected at their jobs, interpret into greater yield. On the other hand, not all companies have such method in place. Figure 2 : Model Of Causes And Consequences Of Work-Related Stress

Research Methodology

Research Design: This study includes exploratory research on the concerned areas relating to working women and the stress levels that are constantly being felt by them at their workplace.

I have tried to highlight the situation in context of such problem and tried to suggest some of them for correcting the situation.  Data Collection: primary Data was collected with the help of self-administered questionnaire which includes 15 items. Secondary data was gathered from newspapers, magazines and online sources such as websites. Some analytical graphs were also collected to support the research objectives. . Sample Size: I have taken the sample of 30 women employees from three different private banks of Bhopal named ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, AXIS Bank.

Discussion & Findings

The Major Causes of Work Place Stress among women are: In the Modern times stresses can take the form of financial needs, or emotional disturbance. Contest at work and an increased workload are also the root cause of greater levels of stress. The stress can be identified by the symptoms as mental symptoms usually experienced include sleeplessness, headaches and an incapability to focus. Physical symptoms like heart palpitations, breathlessness, excessive sweating and stomach-aches.

Reasons for stress are? There are many different reasons of stress which are also known as stressors, like Common lifestyle stressors include performance, intimidation, and demise stressors. Performance stressors are generated when a person is placed in a state where she feels a need to shine. This could be during performance evaluation, lunch with the boss, or delivering a speech. Threat stressors occur usually when the present situation poses a risky threat, such as a monetary recession, or from a misfortune.

Last but not least, demise stressors take place when there is a feeling of loss such as the fear of losing a loved one, or any other loss. Therefore, there are a variety of stressors, and even more diverse methods and ways of handling with pressure and turning it to our own advantages. The causes which are faced mostly by working women at their workplace in my study at Bank are:

•  Extended working hours
• Harder to balance work and home demands
• Under utilization of skills
•  Unreasonable demands for performance[17]
• Underpaid job
• Multiple tasks at work Deficient of maintaining interpersonal communication between the employer and the women employees. [15]
• Deficient of maintaining interpersonal relationship among the women employees
• The fright of losing one's work * Minimum time left to spend with the family [15]
• Treated substandard to your male contemporaries. [1]
• Experiencing sexually nagging funny story from your superior and male contemporaries. [4]
• Very few of the women employees feel that they are suffering from depression while most of the employees experience that that they are liberated from the despair.

Most of the women employees worry about their contemporaries view about them whereas hardly any of the women employees are not concerned with the view about their colleague. Most of the women workforce of the bank talk about their difficulty and share their opinion with their other half or associates or others while very few of the women employees are not worried with it. Major part of the women employees job above 8 hours which is the starting point of the stress while few of the women employees don’t work for more than 8 hours.

Nearly 50% of the female employee spent regular time on leisure activities which assists them to stay stress free while 3/4th of the women employees don’t do that. Nearly half of the women employees find their social life to be even-handed whereas 2/5th of the women employees don’t have their social life balanced. Very few of the women employees remain silent. Most of the women employees fright the value of performance being offered by them whereas 15 % of the women employees don’t fear the quality of their work. Major part of the sample i. e. round 70 % women workforce try to find the key of their stress while 30% of them do not find any solution. 45% of the women employees try traditional exercises like meditation, naturopathy, yoga and other ancient medicinal methods to decrease their stress whereas 55 % of the women employees use other techniques to reduce stress like resorting to pastime, holiday. After analyzing the data of all the three banks, it is seen that the women employees working in AXIS bank are less stressed out when compared to other banks. It can be for the reason that it’s a brand name and believe in teamwork as their core values.

Steps To ease from Work Place Stress among Women: Management of Stress is the requirement of the hour. Though hard we try to go ahead of a stress situation, life appears to discover new behaviour of stressing us out and resulting with nervousness attacks. [18] Furthermore, be it our nervousness, mind-body tiredness or our erring outlooks, we tend to ignore causes of stress and the circumstances generated by those. In such disconcerting instants we often do not recall that stressors, if not avoidable, are reasonably manageable and treatable. [10] Unfortunately, today, they do not get peaceful and soothing situations without requesting.

To be stress-free one has to struggle to make such situations. The suggestions range from individually focused actions to broad based organizational policy changes. These include the following:

•  “Just smile away and forget everything” An employee of HDFC Bank
• “Talking to family members ,loved ones, Watching TV or listening good music, Going for a walk or long drive” An employee of HDFC Bank
•  “Working in environment benefits, lot of optimistic approach. Optimistic approach is only that reduces stress and achieves triumph. ” AXIS Bank employee. “Adjust with others, Find and spend time to go to temple, pray and talk to GOD, Study novels, All are the child of the supreme GOD” An employee of AXIS Bank
• “We should do such actions from which we get pleasure and also make people happy. Share your moments of life with your close friends and relatives. ” An employee of ICICI Bank.
•  Provide day care and substitute work preparation as resources for preventing stress.
•  Provide more job elasticity for women to better manage work home clashes. [22]
•  Deal with Finances and Treat physically in spa, massage centres in weekends. Get Help by a mate or servant so that time could be spent with family. [22] * Cook if you like it and serve by your hand to family members. [22]
• Dropping / Picking up Kids from School in your leave days and then go for a little walk. [22]
• When stressed at work for deadlines or otherwise, give priority to your “me” time first and maintaining home comes second. [13,20]

Conclusion

In recent years majority of the women discovered that their stress was essentially due to their idleness and also they were happy with fewer responsibilities.

Lack of loving behavior from their colleagues, scolding from boss, more working hours, under utilization of skill sets was reported as cause of stress always by maximum percentage of the women. Higher percentage of the respondent experienced stress always because of lack of their involvement in decision making in their organization that reduced their responsibilities on their shoulder and the participatory model followed in their organizational set up enhanced their responsibilities to the point of exhaustion. As women, they need to acknowledge what they have and can do for them to reduce stress.

All must remember that old saying, if you don’t look after yourself, no one else will look after you. Honour yourself! SCOPE FOR FUTURE WORK I know that the current level of research may not reveal the exact parameters of stress regarding the causes and suggestions. Therefore, exhaustive research shall be carried out in future research work in this particular field.

References

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10.  University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine (November, 2007) . “Brain Imaging Shows How Men And Women Cope Differently Under Stress: Science Daily”. Online] Available: http://www. sciencedaily. com
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