Positive and negative work stress: what are they and what are their effects

Job stress is often perceived negativelyHowever, it does not always generate adverse effects. There are workers who in times of stress give a positive response.

Surely you have felt that handling it is not easy, but according toAccording to the experts, this would be the key to making these scenarios an engine and not a brake on productivity.

(See: Work stress: why it occurs and how it can be treated).

Adriana Solano Luque, executive president of the Colombian Security Council, assures that “Stress is positive when it motivates you to achieve goals and challenges in organizations, but it becomes negative when that situation exceeds the response limits that the person can handle, this would be the one that generates adverse effects on workers.”

The expert points out that “Stress should not be demonized, but it is necessary to pay attention to that existing limit between control and when ‘it got out of hand’“.

(See: Stress, a chronic disease that affects workers on a day-to-day basis).

For Solano, a group of people can experience the same situation, but have different experiences. To know if Indeed, this generates some level of stress, it will be important to check if the following happens to you:

1. Lack of sleep.

2. Recurring thoughts in the face of the same situation.

3. Substance use abuse.

4. Exaggerated reactions or lack of reaction capacity.

5. High anxiety levels.

(See: Colombia, the country with the most work stress in Latin America).

in cIf any of these situations happen to you frequently, You may be subjected to scenarios and work rhythms that stress you out in a negative way.

Now, some of the situations that, according to the expert, are accelerators of episodes of negative stress are:

– The lack of limits between work and life people.

– Excess workload.

– Feeling of frustration for lack of reward.

– Little recognition of the tasks carried out that make the person feel that they never reach the goal.

– Very long working hours.

– Organizational culture competition based.

– That a worker does not have clarity corporate governance of organizations.

(See: 68% of workers suffer from stress and anxiety, according to a survey).

The above can trigger on “decreased labor productivity, loss of concentration, rework, accidents at work, irritability, anguish, episodes of depression, permanent fatigue, sleep disorders, digestive and cerebrovascular disorders, chronic headaches, among other affectations” Solano explained.

In this sense, “It is recommended that companies manage negative stress from occupational health and safety systems, in addition to taking advantage of the programs and interventions carried out by risk managers to manage this type of phenomenon. It is also key to adhere to the laws that establish parameters on working hours and work overload” concludes the president.

Finally, to deal with negative stress, it will be important for the worker to generate a conversation with the bosses to generate actions and respond to risks, seek external help, carry out activities that disconnect people from work, among other alternatives.

(See: One in four employees suffer from symptoms of job burnout.)

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