Causes and effects of work-related stress
 Stress is a disorder biopsychosocial currently affecting the world’s population, which is immersed in a globalized society requires and demands every day qualified and skilled individuals to confront and solve each of the employment, social and emotional problems that submitted.
The causes and effects of stress in the labor area are varied, however importantly motivate and prepare the members of labor organizations to meet the challenges posed in the workplace, without neglecting its occupational health to achieve excellent results in the achievement of goals proposed with tenacity and courage.
Keywords: stress, work-related stress, agent estresor, response to stress, phases of stress, causes of stress, effects of stress,
Modern society lives and develops quickly faced heavy demands imposed by the medium, from flows as consumerism and globalization, which lead individuals to change their rhythm of life every day, generating a series of reactions and tense emotional States, which impede the realization of specific task which can be summarized in a short word: stress.
“The term stress is an adaptation to the Castellan of the English voice stress”. “This word appeared in the English medieval in the form of distress, which in turn came from the old French desstrese”. (Melgosa, 1999,19)
The concept of stress was introduced for the first time in the field of health in 1926 by Hans Selye, who defined stress, as the overall response of the body before any stimulus estresor or stressful situation. (SATSE, evolution of the stress concept, 1).
It is this response of individuals to different situations that occur, which leads to a series of physical, biological and hormonal changes, and at the same time allows you to respond appropriately to the external demands.
“Has been defined stress as exhausting effort to maintain essential functions to the required level, as information that the subject interprets, Horn threat of danger (…)” “or as inability to predict the future”. (Peiró, 1992)
But the stress disorder can be generated not only by emotional or spiritual aspects but by social demands and threats in the environment of the individual require adaptive capacity and rapid response to problems.
Peiró (1992) notes that stress is an Adaptive phenomenon of human beings which contributes largely to its survival, to an adequate performance in their activities and an effective performance in many areas of life.
In all areas of life, are generated tensions and when someone tries to eliminate them altogether, it is very likely that all get is stressed even more so as rational human beings as intelligent and positive is to know to control tensions in order to channel them after positively.
Pose defined the eustrés as a State in which an individual to external demands responses are adapted to the physiological rules of the same.
The esutrés is the phenomenon that occurs when people react in a positive, creative and Yes to a particular circumstance allowing them to objectively resolve the difficulties that arise in life and thus develop their capacities and skills.
According to Pose when the environment demands are excessive, prolonged and/or intense, and are beyond the capacity of resistance and adaptation of the body of an individual, is passed to the State of distress or bad stress.
We can say that stress can be seen as a phenomenon of adaptation in individuals that depends on each person and situation to submit the type of response to provide to their environment and this may benefit you or not in your personal and/or professional growth.
DEFINITION AND AN OVERVIEW OF STRESS
From the definitions above, the stress is a set of physiological and psychological reactions experienced by the Agency when undergo you strong demand and according Melgosa (1999), this phenomenon has two basic components:
Stressful agents or stressors and The stress response
Agents stressors are those circumstances found in the environment surrounding people and that produce stress. The stressors can be of individual, group and organizational nature.
Saints (2004) notes that they are called stressors to the factors that cause stress and emphasizes that the level of activation or alertness of the individual is estimated as the initial status of stress level.
The stress response is the reaction of the individual before the factors that cause and the types of response which can provide with a stressful situation are two:
- Â Response in harmony adequate demand that occurs
- Negative, insufficient or excessive in relation to the raised demand answers inadaptation which generates.
At this point you can notice significant individual differences, experiences while people are exhausting, difficult or with a strong negative effect on the body, for others these experiences are only slightly endorsed and does not cause damage to the nervous system and in any part of the body.
Man was created by God with the ability to detect signals indicating danger and has the option of approaching situations that generate threats or avoid them and move away from them.
“Stress occurs not in a sudden way, and takes over the people as if it were an ambush.”
Stress since that it appears until it reaches its maximum effect goes through a series of stages, during which can stop the action generates this disorder or allow that this is fully developed until you get to the last consequences.
Melgosa (1999), explains that the stress goes through three stages:
- Alarm stage
- Phase resistance
- Exhaustion phase
According to Melgosa (1999), the phase of alarm is clear notice the presence of an agent estresor which is followed by the phase of resistance when the presence of stress exceeds the first.
Once perceived the situation causing stress, subjects can confront and resolve it satisfactorily and stress fails to materialize; but when the alarm stage is otherwise it continues decreasing its response capacity and the person just to reach the stage of depletion, which produced a progressive decrease in the body, which leads to a State of deterioration that is characterized by the presence of fatigue, anxiety and depression, symptoms that can appear either simultaneous or individual.
WORK-RELATED STRESS AND INDIVIDUAL CHARACTERISTICS
Work-related stress is one of the health problems more serious which nowadays affects society in general, since it not only hurts workers to cause them physical or mental disability in the development of their occupational activities, but also employers and Governments, as many researchers to study this problem have demonstrated effects on the economy that causes stress.
If the concept of stress is applied to the scope of the work, this can be set as an imbalance perceived between professional demands and the person’s ability to carry them out, which is generated by a series of phenomena that occur in the body of the worker with the participation of some stressors which can reach affect the health of the worker.
“The effects of stress vary according to individuals.” “The symptoms and even the consequences of stress are different in different people.” (Peiró, 1993, p.11)
Not all workers react in the same way, which is why it can be said that if the requirement presented at work is adequate to the ability, knowledge and State of health of a particular employee, the stress will tend to decrease and it may be encouraging signs, allowing you to make progress at work and have greater projection in the same.
Contrary to what was previously raised cause in the worker a debilitating stress of abilities and personal assessments which would lead it to frustration or apathy to work States that would prevent him to be integrally and obtain achievements in the professional field.
It exists in today’s literature which describes the study of the behavior of workers against stress, based on types of personality and thus it can be inferred about the attitude or response of these stressful circumstances and the possible effects of trying to improperly the situation which confronts.
Peiró (1993), points out that there are differences in personality characteristics, patterns of behaviour and relevant cognitive styles that allow to predict the consequences of certain stressors in the work environment in individuals.
The worker in a situation of stress trying to develop one or several coping strategies, which aim to eliminate the source of stress. You can also try to avoid experience focusing in the stressful situation, their own desires and including expectations regarding such a situation.
According to Slipack (1996, the types of work-related stress, 1) there are two types of work-related stress:
1.   The episodic:
- Inappropriate work environment.
- Work overload.
- Alteration of biological rhythms.
- Responsibilities and very important decisions
Episodic stress is one which occurs momentarily, is a situation that is not diverted for a long time and then faced or solve disappear all the symptoms that originated, an example of this type of stress is that occurs when a person is dismissed from his employment.
2.   chronic stress:
On the other hand chronic stress is the one that occurs on a recurring basis when a person is subjected to an estresor agent constantly, which is why the symptoms of stress appear each time the situation occurs, and while the individual not avoid this problem stress will not disappear.
The chronic, which can occur when the person is subject to the following situations:
Every day we have people who spend the most part of his time to work, living distressed and anguished to find perfection in the labor area, neglecting important aspects of life as family and friends. These situations are that often lead to individuals to be addicts for their employment and these same which generally cause work-related stress.
Stressful agents may appear in any workplace at any level and in any circumstance in which undergo an individual to a load which not can accommodate quickly, with which do not feel competent or on the contrary with which take responsibility too.
Work-related stress appears when by the intensity of the labour demands or problems of organizational nature, the worker begins to experience negative experiences associated with the labour context.
On the other hand it is necessary to take into account the origin of the work according to Melgosa stress (1999), can be considered external or internal in nature, so you can say that when external or environmental agents are too strong to better trained individuals can suffer from work-related stress and when a worker is very fragile psychologically even soft stressful agents they ocasionaran moderate disorders.
González Cabanach (1998 cited in Doval et al, 2004) distinguishes some of the stressors in the work context are:
- Factors intrinsic to the own work
- Factors associated with interpersonal relationships
- Factors associated with the development of professional career
- Factors related to the structure and organizational climate
Often work-related stress can be caused by several causes and one very important is the fear of the unknown, already many times the worker is facing uncertain situations that generate you mistrust and the feeling of not being prepared to deal with a problem in the Organization, so that such situations do not allow that there is a full development of the person by fear to be wrong. An example of described above occurs when there are changes at the level of management in an organization.
Santos (2004) mentions that the technological advance in the industrial area has been incorporated as stressor monotony, emphasizing that this phenomenon is not noticeable easily by individuals in their work.
The routine life causes persisted anyway, apathy, fatigue, etc., individuals members of an organization and these are symptoms of the disorder called stress, so that persons being subjected to situations as this do not develop their full potential, which is limited to do only what they are ordered preventing in this way the full development in the workplace.
El Salvador is currently undergoing a severe economic crisis and this is a very important cause of generation of stress at the social level, which influences greatly the work environment, in first place because there job instability due to the emergence of regulations such as NAFTA and secondly because there is a high rate of unemployment, which leads to professional technicians to work in jobs that are not according to the degree of retrieved studies or the University studied, thus generating stress leading to frustrations of a different nature.
MAIN EFFECTS OF WORK-RELATED STRESS
Exposure to stressful situations is not in itself something “bad” or negative, only when stress responses are too intense, lasting and frequent can occur various disorders in the body.
In life all action is a specific reaction. To study the theme of stress not can overlooked that poorly managed stress causes effects in people, however now is this emphasizing the effects of physiological level stress that these are conducive to a great deterioration in individuals preventing them perform their daily activities.
Below is the main negative effects of work-related stress according to (Doval et al. 2004, negative effects of stress on the worker):
- Increase in heart rate
- muscle tension
- Shortness of breath
- Physiological effects:
- Cognitive effects:
- Concerns
- Difficulty making decisions
- Sense of confusion
- Cognitive effects:
         Motor effects:
- Fast talk
- Tremors
- Stuttering
Cognitive and motor effects are very important when referring to effects of stress on workers, as they are closely related and it could be said that many times these effects occur simultaneously, as a concerned person may show signs such as tremors in the hands or speak very fast, also the difficulty in decision-making and the feeling of confusion may be features such as stuttering or voice between cut.
Effects of occupational stress on health
Current lifestyles are increasingly demanding, which leads to the modern man to notably increase greatly its tension loads and this produces the appearance of various pathologies (Villalobos 1999 stress diseases, 1).
The pathologies that arise because of work-related stress can be assimilated in different ways by individuals, this level takes into account aspects such as individual differences reflected in the current state of health and medical history of the people, by which a certain effect of work-related stress is not present in the same way in all human beings and what may be harmful for some will be mild for another.
Santos (2005) makes reference to the weakening of the body’s defenses the activities of the body they slow and can stop completely, creating psychological problems, a physical illness or even death.
This been scientifically proven that stress produces a remarkable defenses decrease in the body, so a person that constantly suffers stress this exposed to suffer any kind of diseases caused by bacteria or viruses and this is more serious in societies as the Salvadoran, where the environment is vulnerable and is highly polluted, so it is frequently observed that the labour sector is generally affected by viral diseases that often need failure labour.
According to (Villalobos 1999 stress diseases, 2), diseases that come as a result of work-related stress can be classified into two large groups:
- Stress ulcer
- States of Shock
- Post traumatic neurosis
- Diseases by acute stress.
- Dyspepsia
- Gastritis
- Anxiety
- Accidents
- Frustration
The presence of diseases caused by stress in the Salvadoran labour sector leads to the inadequate realization of tasks at work, that a sick person is not necessary, so it is urgent to creating awareness among employers and employers when a person in your organization is ill and especially when the disease is generated by stressbe taken special care and if possible be provide disability that he restored the situation.
Effects of occupational stress on the Organization
Each person who suffers from stress is paying a high price for their personal health, but also pay a high cost the company for which he works bringing as a consequence (Villalobos 1999, effects of stress on the Organization, 1):
- Absenteeism.
- Rotation or fluctuation of personnel.
- Reduction of physical performance.
Companies should be aware that members of your organization are human beings who feel, suffer from diseases and have a limit, so it should get special attention to their demands and dissatisfactions and that this will improve the organizational climate and this will lead to better results in the social and economic aspects.
A worker that you meet their demands gives its best in his work, is responsible for their acts and works to improve the conditions of the organization by which you must always seek the satisfaction of workers and to promote initiatives aimed at the achievement of the same.
PREVENTION AND MANAGEMENT OF WORK-RELATED STRESS
The best technique to avoid falling into stressful situations is to avoid effectively everything what us leading to emotional or labour imbalances in order to prevent acute effects caused by stress.
“The way in which each individual, each sector and in general society responds to stress, identifies the need for and the complexity of the phenomenon of (…)” raise before its effects strategies of confrontation in various instances (Santos, 2004, p. 19).
There are different ways to prevent stress but these can be applied differently to each individual, there is an aspect very import you must be mentioned which is the need to change the routine life styles and incorporate new habits, which many times are very simple but can solve important problems of physical and mental health caused by stressHowever these habits must be made on a recurring basis to obtain good results.
The treatment of diseases by work-related stress must be preventive and achieved exercise actions needed to modify the causal processes using organizational and personal criteria. Villalobos 1999, effects, management of work-related stress (1).
There is an old adage that says: “better safe than sorry”, so it is best to deal with value every day situations that generate us stress in the labor area to avoid falling into the vicious circle caused by the stress and avoid suffering the painful effects of this disorder triggers in individuals.
Individual attention to the problem
Individual care in workplace programmes provide for the dissemination of information on stress, their causes and how to control it through education for the health of workers. (Villalobos 1999, individual attention from the problem, 1).
It is very important that the Department of human resources of each organization count with a qualified professional who can provide assistance to employees but personalized in times of psychological, emotional and physical crisis and geared them to the achievement of a good employment performance.
It is important to improve the habits of the worker such as: adequate food, physical exercise moderate, gradual and progressive, adequate sleep rhythms, lead to recreational activities. (Villalobos 1999, individual attention from the problem, 3).
Described above is very important because most of the people who suffer from work-related stress, do not exercise or like to relax, which makes them fall in a vicious circle difficult to output, however it is necessary to raise awareness on workers, that everything at the beginning costs but once it is practiced frequently activities become pleasant, so exercise is the most effective way to break the circle that it originates the occupational stress that flow recuperator rest appears after this activity on a regular basis.
 Organizational measures to solve the work related stress problem
In the collective management of the causal factors of stress and the specific actions they are specifically directed towards the characteristics of structure of the Organization and their communication styles.
A technique that is currently being used in many job sites at the national level in both public and private, with height in the last, is to motivate employees by half talks of outreach on the subject of occupational health and motivation in which is explained the importance of having a good physical and emotional health for the good performance of the activities and such activities are carried out in what is It is called a field day, where takes the opportunity for coexistence among the members of the organization.
Any intervention or organizational change may influence the level of stress that workers may experience.Organizations should take into account aspects many times irrelevant for managers of it can have little meaning for employees is why it is important to take into account the opinion of the same at the time of making certain decisions and lead to situations of dialogue to meet their demands and needs.
Organizations must implement as part of its plan of action to promote a suitable organizational climate motivate employees in different ways such as: give bonds for implementation of activities to the best employee of the month, encourage workers through employment promotion according to the skills and abilities of the individual, promote wage increases every certain period of time to keep workers happy.
Keys to cope with the Work Related Stress
Unlike what happens in other areas of life, coping strategies considered in the workplace are not effective to reduce the relationships between stressors and their consequences. (Doval et. Al. 2004, coping with work-related stress, 5)
The coping with work-related stress lies often in the possibility of controlling the external stressors agents although generally these do not rely exclusively on a single individual so that the best way to deal with work-related stress requires a joint struggle between members of the organization which will allow the more rapid solution of this disorder of adaptation of individuals.
Scale (2004, as deal with work-related stress, 11) presents the following keys to deal with stress:
- Having a good physical form
- Carry a rate of adequate sleep and rest
- Have flexible working hours and leisure time
- Learn relaxation techniques
- Promote positive thinking
At any time in life, to achieve optimal performance, it is very important to strive and be persevering but at the same time it is necessary that any activity undertaken can be interrupted occasionally by periods of rest and relaxation which will result in amazing benefits to the body.
 CONCLUSION
In the different fields unfolds humans occur circumstances that generate stress, however one of the areas that currently is harmed by this phenomenon the air work, especially when individuals are not prepared to meet the demands of the environment, so it is urgent that organizations take into account that the best way to avoid the presence of work-related stress is to begin to implement and make life aimed at prevention methodologies and stress management such as does the retcambio whose objective applied to this topic would be useful results as coping right with efficiency and effectiveness of labour, based on the obvious reality leaving in this way stress-generating situations of the circle of comfort that if it is not broken leads individuals to situations of resignation with the reality.
