Can workplace stress lead to attrition?

Job satisfaction, work-life balance, congenial work environment, cordial colleagues and bosses, healthy pay package…well the wish list continues, but what happens if the reality is far from the expectations. Renuka Vembu finds out about the reasons and repercussions of stress at workplace and if it can lead to attrition

Stress is a uninvited yet unavoidable guest in our lives. Parental compulsions to teen tensions, employee grouses to boss tantrums—everything comes with the inevitable 'stress' tag attached to it; all an integral part of daily existence. While we have accepted to put up with the stress quotient that comes as a baggage of everything we do or perhaps even do not do, do we really know how to deal with it-that is precisely the question which is at stake. While some amount of stress is needed to keep us on our toes, to give an impetus to creativity, to meet deadlines, to be vigilant, to work to the best of our capability, the undue excessive element is what plays spoilsport; and we need to learn how to quell it away before it explodes into a deadly disease impeaching the mind and health.

Factors contributing to stress

There are a host of factors at workplace that can lead to stress, which go far beyond just the work-related pressure. Long working hours, demanding clients, and imposing bosses are the norm. The internal workplace environment stands interlinked with the defined job role of the employee; it is not totally reclusive but an intrinsic key decider and contributor to the stress-ridden minds of the employees at the organisation. Max D'Souza, Head HR, South Asia, ORG IMS Research, explained, "When work becomes a burden rather than passion to excel and enjoy your work, that is the time where stress leads to attrition." He listed some of the oblivious symptoms:

• Conforming to unreasonable demands of bosses
• Frequent bulldoze of telling employees what should be done and what not
• Mundane work
• Office gossips hitting negative strokes from colleagues about the workplace, superiors, etc.
• Superiors not respecting their sub-ordinates and peers; no respect for individuals
• Unfair treatment to employees and malpractices
• Harassment
• Inconducive work environment
• Hygiene factors not matching to basic minimum standards

Ronald Sequeira, EVP, HR, GSK, said, "While some employees manage stress on their own, there are others who thrive on it. The pharma industry is still preserved from the globalisation impact and working the graveyard shifts, unlike the IT sector. There is no specialised segment or area that experiences comparatively more stress than others, as each job function comes with its own set of have and have-nots, pros and cons, and advantages and challenges. Alignment of individual-personality job-fit, relationship with boss, and the skills and requirements of role match are some of the seemingly simple factors, that can add up to the work pressure, if not synchronised."

Leading to attrition?

Well, the answer is a unanimous, but unfortunate 'yes'. In the fast running market pace, where one is expected to be at an impeccable best and prove ones worth day in and day out, when excellence is the norm and expectations soar to newer heights each passing day, when competition literally cuts your throat, and colleagues at all given times are charged up to let out the competitive steam, there is neither space nor time to take a breather. In the threshold of business and the money game, the much publicised but less practiced work-life balance, when office becomes the home and starts affecting home and health, it indeed reflects on the stressful lives people lead.

Any of the above mentioned stress factors can lead to attrition, if the employee is not given timely assistance and proper guidance and shown a way to handle it, or the issue itself is not nipped in the bud. Stress is as much an individual's emotive response to a phenomenon as much as it is an organisation's responsibility to curb the situation in hand.

Highlighters and the helpline

Declining productivity, plummeting employee morale, lack of enthusiasm or active participation, absenteeism, a conspicuous change in the employee performance or behaviour, are some of the warning signals for companies to pause and take note of. Sequeira asserted, "Good HR practices and internal mechanism like grievance committee, employee engagement, job enrichment, recognition, counselling, helpline, wellness programme, assistance from trained professionals with regards to dealing with stress, recreation avenues, fun activities, CSR programmes are some of the de-stressor medium through which the organisation can partner with employees for building a healthy working life." GSK recently has also undertaken a survey on employee engagement and satisfaction to diagnose the areas that need to be addressed.

Different people react differently to situations in hand and the stress levels they experience. As D'Souza pointed out, "Staying with people who create and spread positive vibes and a positive ambience around, better time management and making use of the spare time in indulging in activities that one enjoys thoroughly, taking timely breaks, and most importantly saying 'no' whenever a task is not possible can help employees manage and combat stress."

De-stressing the stress

In an era where even a simple daily task like commuting can take a toll on a person's mind frame or health, it is necessary to curb the stress before it finally explodes and damages the human system. D'Souza aptly summarises, "Workplace is becoming a place of more to achieve, with crunched timeliness to better and raise the bar every now and then. In the bargain, a place which can be fun and where one spends more time there than in one's own household, is now an isolated place of pressure situation with no smiley faces and only sour worried looks. Superiors and bosses under tremendous accountability call pour down on the hierarchy chain with added super versions of more serious stress to be further refined as more superlative edition called stressed out."

renuka.vembu@expressindia.com