Occupational stress: exposing the dangers

You may not be able to touch or see it, but occupational stress is real and it can affect you at work.

Occupational stress is not an illness in itself, but a physiological and emotional response that occurs when workers see an imbalance between work demands and their capability and or resources to meet these demands.

If occupational stress is left unmanaged in the workplace, it can lead to a range of mental and physical injuries or illnesses including:

post-traumatic stress disorder
anxiety disorders
depression
musculoskeletal disorders, or
cardiovascular disorders

The costs to organisations through ineffective management of psychosocial risk factors can potentially exceed the cost of physical injury when factoring in compensation, common law claims, turnover, recruitment and training.

Occupational stress can also affect organisational performance through reduced productivity, efficiency, job satisfaction, morale and cohesion. It can result in increased absenteeism, sick days, staff turnover, conflict, accidents and injuries. The quality of relationships may decline, along with client satisfaction while health care expenditure and workers¿ compensation claims may increase.

Workplace Health and Safety Queensland has a range of tip sheets available to help manage occupational stress risks.


How to identify occupational stress at work
To help identify occupational stress at work, keep a look out for these risk factors. Excessive work demands Low levels of control, autonomy or responsibility Poor support from supervisors and or co-workers Lack of clearly defined work objectives and key accountabilities Poorly managed work relationships Low levels of recognition and reward Poorly managed change Poor perceptions of fairness about work procedures and how they are followed

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