Think work stress is no big deal? Better think again! 

 

Employee: Workplace stress can have a negative impact on your psychological, physiological and psychosocial health.   

 

Employer: Stress related to work has important practical and economic consequences for organizations, including lost work days, and lost revenue.  

 

Researchers have repeatedly found that stress at work has negative consequences practically, as well as, economically. These consequences are particularly concerning given findings that between 26 and 40% of workers have viewed their work as being very stressful. In the U.S. and England alone, approximately half of all lost work days are estimated to be a result of issues relating to workplace stress. Additionally, the financial costs of employee stress are estimated to be in the billions in places like the United States, Japan and the United Kingdom. For employees themselves, work stress has been associated with many serious psychological, physiological and psychosocial outcomes. Short-term and long-term psychological outcomes include things such as mood disturbances, depressive symptoms, reduced working memory capacity, reduced performance accuracy, psychosomatic complaints and burnout. In terms of physiological outcomes, work stress has also been associated with high blood pressure, high cholesterol levels, musculoskeletal problems, reduced immune system functioning, and coronary heart disease. Regarding psychosocial outcomes, work stress has been associated with interpersonal aggression, reduced organizational commitment, employee turnover, and work-family problems. Due to the prevalence and seriousness of these outcomes, work stress is a topic that both the employer and employee must consider seriously working together to reduce experienced work stress.