Employee Stress: A Case Study

) There are many different kinds of support given to workers in order to help them deal with stress. Here we will be looking at types of stress support given to employees as well as their stressors, by giving examples of these derived from the case study. Types of support given can include psychological support, cognitive support, employee assistance programs and physical support (Lehrer et al, 1994). Types of stressors that employees face are work overload, work-life balance, emotional and physical labor, job ambiguity and job demands (Danna & Griffin, 1999).

Under psychological support there are various mediation and relaxation techniques that are used in order to help support employees suffering from stress. Autogenetic Training is an

Goal setting helps the person reduce job ambiguity and take control of their job demands because they will know exactly what is needed of them to succeed (Lehrer et al, 1994). Mentoring in the work place can help reduce stress levels by a large amount due to the fact that employees can reply on someone else in the organisation for metal support and guidance (Lehrer et al, 1994). Employee Assistance Programs are useful in buffering the negative effects of stress because it is there to help employees get through difficult times and acts as an intervention program to further detriments to employees when they are having personal issues. Mind Tree allowing women to take one year of leave for every six years of working is an example of this. This allows for the employee to prioritize her personal life and family, which could reduce or eliminate work-family

The first of which is, although there is legislature in place that ensures each and every organisation has health and wellness practices in place this does not mean that the organisation is actually adhering to them (Rick et al, 1997). Each organisation is different and has a range of people working for them, it is thus challenging to know how every single employee is doing and assessing whether they are coping with the work load and stress (Viljoen & Rothmann, 2009). It is also a challenge for the organisation as a whole to know if their management and leadership people are actually putting into play the support systems that are there for its employees (Rick et al, 1997). For example, if an organisation claims it has open lines of communication for employees to use if they are in need of assistance, whether that is through EPA’s or the needing of mentorship of someone from a management team, if the management itself does not cooperate then, the system is not being implemented, therefor it is there on paper but not in action. Another challenge for organisations is that although there may be practices in place to help people cope with stress, the employees themselves have to take it upon themselves to reach out and accept that help (Viljoen & Rothmann, 2009). If an employee refuses to make use of the resources that are provided for them in order to help