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Work Stress Report

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Abstract
The report highlights the case of a company operating in the telecommunication sector. The
report presents the issues of work stress as faced by the workers of the company. The report
further discusses the issue in detail by linking it with literature and also provides some of the
key recommendation in order to address the issue.
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Contents
Abstract ...................................................................................................................................... 1

Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 4

Overview of the company .......................................................................................................... 4

Statement of issue ...................................................................................................................... 5

Recommendation ....................................................................................................................... 7

Conclusion ................................................................................................................................. 9

References ................................................................................................................................ 10
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Introduction
Workplace wellbeing is a broad concept where it deals with the various aspects which are a
part of the quality and safety of the workers, the way in which the workers feel at work, the
working life and working environment (Combs & Milosevic, 2016). Through the use of
workplace wellbeing, companies ensure that the workers are satisfied, engaged and safe at all
times during their stay in the company. Major companies of the world have recognised the
importance of work and wellbeing for the long term effectiveness of the firm and also the
employees (Leiter & Cooper, 2017). Many researchers have been successful in establishing a
direct link that exists between general health and safety of the workers or the employees and
the productivity levels of such workers and employees. The benefits as linked with the
workers wellbeing is being realised by more and more companies where these companies are
aiming to devise such strategies which are able to ensure that the workers are engaged, safe
and satisfied at all times (Day& Penney, 2017). These companies are therefore aiming to
ensure higher work life balance with reduced work stress and safety of the workers when they
are performing tough organisational tasks as a part of their job roles. The aim of the report is
to highlight the case of a company to depict the aspect of work and wellbeing. The following
paragraphs will highlight the issues which will be followed by the presentation of the
recommendation.

Overview of the company

ABC Company is a large telecommunication company where the company provides the
country with infrastructure that is used to facilitate the services for communication. In this
respect, the company caters a wide range of mobile phone infrastructure along with the
broadband networks. The company has an estimate of 4000 employees along with 4000
contractors with technical support that operates through road vans and connections. The
company has recently restructured itself where the restructuring has resulted in losing up of
jobs of an estimate of 1000 people where they have been redundant. This restructuring has
further resulted in a number of changes. Firstly, the restructuring has led to the redistribution
of task where the workloads on the left employees have increased resulting in work stress.
Along with this, the restructuring has also created a situation where the number of manager
left to manage people is few and thus leading to bigger span of control. In addition to this, the
managing director who brought about the change left the company within a period of three
months which led to change in the senior leadership team (as per the case study).
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Statement of issue
The restructuring as highlighted in the above section has led to some of the key issues in
respect to workers and their wellbeing. The list of issues includes mental health at work,
work stress, worker safety, work life conflict and work transitions that are taking place due to
the changing roles and responsibilities. Among the issues that the company is facing, the
report will discuss the issue of work stress where the restructuring has led to a large amount
of organisation change. The existing staff members of the company have to perform extra
work to compensate the work that was earlier assigned to 1000 people who have been
redundant. The employees working in the company has highlighted that they are feeling
under pressure to perform along with which they are frustrated and are about to quit the
company in the next 12 months (as per the case study).

The restructuring has thus led to the situation of stress for the employees. The potential
sources of stress for the employees are the change on their roles and responsibilities where
they have to do more work in the event of redundancy of the workers. Along with this,
another source of the work stress is the changing management which has added to change in
leadership. The changing leadership linked to the new management has also added to the
stress of the employees as they have to deal with the new ways of doing similar things. In
addition to this, the rise in the span of control has further added to the responsibility of the
employees on the fewer managers.

Along with this, the remaining employees would be subjected to more supervision and
control after 1000 employees are made redundant. This is because, the reduction in the
workforce will put on more pressure on the remaining employees to perform better than
before so that the company can achieve its organisational objectives. The company in
addition to this has focused on the aspect of training and development and has therefore
incorporating training sessions as a part of the daily routine. This has further created stress on
the employees as they are required to meet their daily target along with which they are also
required to be a part of the training session organised for them. This way, it is one of other
sources of stress for the employees working in the company where they have to perform their
best at work and also aims to learn more and more from the training facilities as provided by
the company.

Dhingra (2016) has highlighted the aspect of work stress where according to the author, work
stress creates environment where the employees faces certain kind of conflict between the
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demands of the company and own needs at work. The author has thus stated that work stress
level or poor satisfaction of the employees working in the company where they do not feel
happy to be a part often company. Jeanguenat and Dror (2018) has also cited similar
viewpoints where the author has further added that work stress lead to poor commitment of
the employees towards the company where the level of engagement of the employees with
the company is also low. According to the author, work stress is caused by a number of
factors that can include the nature of work, amount of work, manager and worker’s
relationship along with the conflicting ideas on some of the key aspects.

The workplace stress further impacts the employees in a number of ways. It has a direct
impact on the satisfaction level of the employees where it also influences the level of
retention and engagement (Tetrick & Winslow, 2015). With high level of stress at work, the
employees are not satisfied while working in the company. This is because they are not able
to cope up with the pressure that the increased work load creates on them. In order to meet
the increased work place such employees have to put in more and more efforts which in turn
impact their level of satisfaction at work. The employees are not able to meet the individual
goals while working in the company. The employees further perceive that the company is not
able to understand the expectation and hence the level of satisfaction is adversely affected
due to the rising level of work stress in the company (Eddy et al., 2016). In addition to this,
the high level of stress at work also impacts the level to which the employees are engaged
within the company and with its objectives. The work stress which has created the issues of
poor satisfaction among the employees in respect to the work further creates an environment
in the company where the employees do not feel themselves to be a vital part of the company
and instead perceive that the company wants to exploit them at any cost. This way the
employees start to move away from the organisational mission and vision and work less for
the betterment of the company. The lack of employee’s participation further adds to the low
level of engagement (Chao et al., 2015).

The work stress as experienced by the employees working in the company has further impact
on the level of retention of the employees. It is evident from the reporting of the existing
employee’s that they are planning to leave the company within the next 12 months. The
reasons linked to the poor retention in the company are the level of work stress that the
employees have to deal with after 1000 employees have been redundant. The employees are
not happy with their stay in the company and prefer to look for other employment
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opportunities outside the company which can offer them with reduced work stress and also
with improved satisfaction at work.

Recommendation
In order to reduce the stress that the employee working in the company are suffering after the
redundancy of 1000 employees, it is crucial that some of the key measures are taken so that
these are able to add to the level of satisfaction that the employees face during work. Along
with this, the measures would also be helpful for the company in improving the retention rate
and also the level to which the employees are currently engaged in the company. In this
respect the following are some of the key recommendations that would help the company in
reducing the level of work stress that the employees are facing in the company:

1. Improving communication network- the company is recommended to improve the

existing networks of communication that exists between the managers and the
employees working in the company. In this respect the company is suggested to
ensure an open dialogue between the two. This is important because this will help the
company in ensuring exchange of information, thoughts and ideas among them. The
exchange of ideas within the company will promote better creativity and innovation
which in turn will be valued by the managers. This way the employees will be
recognised for their ideas and thoughts and in turn add to the level of satisfaction as
help by the employees at work (Nabie & Ome, 2016). Along with this, it will also
help in adding to the degree of employee engagement at work which will further help
in reducing employee turnover.
2. Diving work equally- another important recommendation to the leaders of the
company is to divide the work equally among the employees. This way each of the
employee would be given equal work which will promote an environment of non
discrimination and is unbiased. The equal division of work would add to the level of
satisfaction among the existing workers and this will also reduce the work load on
some of the employees. Therefore, all this would ultimately reduce the work stress
and promote and healthy work environment (Yao et al., 2015).
3. Recognising the employees- the leaders of the company are also recommended to
recognise the efforts of the employees. In this respect, the company is recommended
to provide both monetary and non monetary incentives to them. The outstanding
performance of the employees must be recognised among the others to make them
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motivated to perform even better and also promote others to work in the same
direction. This will help the employees in coping up with the high level of work stress
(Grawitch, Ballard & Erb, 2015). This is because the feeling of being recognised for
the best efforts in front of the other employees of the company would motivate a
worker to put more and more efforts while being satisfied at all times.
4. Organising recreational activities- another suggestion to the leaders of the company is
to organise recreational activities which help in promoting a lively environment
among the workers and also the managers. This would also help in improving the
interpersonal relationship that exists between the employees and also the managers.
Organising such recreational activities would further promote health and mental
wellbeing of the workers and give them a break from the busy daily routine (Miyata,
Arai & Suga, 2015). The leaders are further recommended that such recreational
activities should be organised once in every month so that the employees feel
motivated and excited for the same.

In addition to the above activities and suggestions that are recommended to the leader of the
company in order manage the work stress and thus ensure satisfaction, engagement and
retention of the employees, there are certain things that are not recommended to the leaders
so that the work stress of the employees can be reduced. The following are some of the key
points in this respect:

1. Pointing out of mistakes in front of others- the leaders should avoid pointing out the
mistakes or flaws in any of the workers among all the others. Pointing out the
mistakes of others in front of others demotivate the employees added to the level of
stress that such employee faces at work. The leaders should in turn ensure that such
mistakes should be addressed to the employees in isolation where the view point of
the worker should also be listened before reaching to a conclusion (Tetrick &
Winslow, 2015).
2. Reduce overloading of workers with work- the leaders of the company are further
recommended to avoid situations had leads to the overloading of the workers with
work. The leaders should ensure that the workers are given work according to their
capabilities. The situations in which workers might feel overburden with work should
be avoided by the leaders (Whitaker et al., 2015). The overburdening of the workers
would lead to low level of work satisfaction and high work stress.
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Conclusion
From the above discussion and explanation, it can be concluded that the aspect of workplace
wellbeing that deals with the various aspect which are a part of the quality and safety of the
workers, the way in which the workers feel at work, the working life and working
environment adds to the value of a company. In this respect, there are certain companies
which are not able to ensure wellbeing and safety of their workers at work. The above report
has discussed the case of one of such companies that has been operating in the
telecommunication sector. The report has illustrated the background of the case where the
details about the events taking place in the company in respect to the human resources have
been presented. Furthermore, the report has also highlighted the specific issues of work stress
that is encountered by the employees of the company after the event of redundancy of 1000
employees. This has in turn impacted the level of satisfaction of the workers along with the
engagement and the retention of such workers in the company. In addition to this, in the
above sections, the report has provided with certain recommendation on things and activities
that the leaders within the company should implement in order to reduce the work stress as
faced by the workers. Along with this, the report has also recommended the leaders with
certain things that should be avoided by them in order to add to the productivity of the
workers by ensuring that the work offer stress to such workers.
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References
Chao, M. C., Jou, R. C., Liao, C. C., & Kuo, C. W. (2015). Workplace stress, job satisfaction,
job performance, and turnover intention of health care workers in rural Taiwan. Asia Pacific
Journal of Public Health, 27(2), NP1827-NP1836.

Combs, G. M., & Milosevic, I. (2016). Workplace discrimination and the wellbeing of
minority women: Overview, prospects, and implications. Dordrecht: Springer.

Day, A., & Penney, S. A. (2017). Essential elements of organizational initiatives to improve
workplace wellbeing. New York: Routledge.

Dhingra, S. (2016). Relationship between workplace stress, marital adjustment and conflict
management in dual working couples. International Journal in Management & Social
Science, 4(9), 55-75.

Eddy, P., Heckenberg, R., Wertheim, E. H., Kent, S., & Wright, B. J. (2016). A systematic
review and meta-analysis of the effort-reward imbalance model of workplace stress with
indicators of immune function. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 91, 1-8.

Grawitch, M. J., Ballard, D. W., & Erb, K. R. (2015). To be or not to be (stressed): The
critical role of a psychologically healthy workplace in effective stress management. Stress
and Health, 31(4), 264-273.

Jeanguenat, A. M., & Dror, I. E. (2018). Human factors effecting forensic decision making:
Workplace stress and well‐being. Journal of Forensic Sciences, 63(1), 258-261.

Leiter, M. P., & Cooper, C. L. (2017). The state of the art of workplace wellbeing. New York:
Routledge.

Miyata, C., Arai, H., & Suga, S. (2015). Characteristics of the nurse manager's recognition
behavior and its relation to sense of coherence of staff nurses in Japan. Collegian, 22(1), 9-
17.

Nabie, A., & Ome, B. (2016). Effective communication: A key component to reduce
workplace stress. International Advanced Journal of Teaching and Learning, 2(5), 15-21.

Tetrick, L. E., & Winslow, C. J. (2015). Workplace stress management interventions and
health promotion. Annual Review of Organisational Psychology and Organisational.
Behavior, 2(1), 583-603.
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Whitaker, R. C., Dearth-Wesley, T., & Gooze, R. A. (2015). Workplace stress and the quality
of teacher–Children relationships in Head Start. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 30, 57-
69.

Yao, C., Thorn, K., Duan, Z., & Taskin, N. (2015). Workplace stress in a foreign
environment: Chinese migrants in New Zealand. Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An
International Journal, 34(7), 608-621.