The term stress is derived from the Greek "stringere" which means to provoke tension. The definition of the physiologist, doctor and called the father of stress, Hans Selye (1936, 1956) mentions that it is the syndrome or set of non-specific physiological reactions of the organism to different harmful agents of the environment, of a physical or chemical nature.. In addition to the above, I detail the biological axes through which the transformation of the organism is carried out, and assumed that the sequence of responses (alarm, resistance and claudication phases) decided if the organism overcame adversity or not., whatever it was. (Valdés, 2000, p. 11).
Since ancient times, the different generations have gone through periods of tension, worry, or stress due to factors specific to their times and obviously at more controllable levels. There have been many changes and discoveries in the different areas that affect our lives, such as the technological, food, medical, urbanization, transportation, political, or ways of governing peoples, among many others, that have forced us to adapt and to remain in constant change.
Stress today has become a term widely used by most people, stress is spoken of in children, parents, families, professionals, athletes, workers and physical places in the ones that each develops.
Especially now we are exposed to experience it (but not "forced" to absorb it physically and emotionally), since we are immersed in different activities and in the midst of an almost uncontrollable pace of life, immersed in a very aggravated consumerism, which on many occasions It makes us indebted and thus tied, for many years, to the same jobs to cover the needs and debts that we create for ourselves, and for the benefits that we generate in terms of labor benefits.
There are many factors by which we can feel stress, and they can be classified into two large groups; the internal ones, these being those that include everything that depends on the person who is feeling it, and the external ones, understood as such, those that cannot be controlled and are not directly produced by the person who experiences it.
Starting from the previous classification, we find that one of the types of stress that are causing more problems in the contemporary era is work, which according to Alonso Gaeta Reynaldo is defined as the set of phenomena that occur in the worker's organism, with the Participation of harmful stressors, derived directly from work or that due to this, may affect the health of the worker.
Such stress in the workplace can start for the following reasons: excessive workload, financial pressures, staff cuts, conditions in the work area (cold, heat, noise, light, among many others), long working hours, lack of knowledge or activities that do not correspond to the worker's profile, the inappropriate organizational climate or the implementation of new technologies in programs or machinery.
In addition, it can not only be caused by work factors, but can also be exacerbated by poor diet, sedentary lifestyle, social beliefs such as those aimed at generating false appearances, such as accumulating wealth to project that one is someone. successful and happy, the family situations that are being lived at a certain time and that have a great diversity, for needs that we can not specify or satisfy, the same culture or way of life that we have from our family nucleus, in this way we become more sensitive when our personal appearance is not at its best.
And it is so when the situations that we are going through at work will be more difficult to deal with and moments of anxiety arise, since the individual is not able to separate all the other issues that do not fit with his work life.
As examples of external factors we have everything that affects the means of transport that a worker uses to get to his workplace, such as a road congestion caused by an accident or a demonstration, in this item there are also technical problems that makes you lose the backing of your documents, as well as the same pressure or demand imposed on your direct boss that sooner or later will fall on you.
The sensation or the reaction that each and every one of these factors may have in the person, will totally depend on the capacity that one has to adapt to them and overcome any situation that may arise.
It would be ideal if there was a doctor in charge of staff health within all organizations, however, the reality is that not all companies are willing to invest in this department, considering that it is an aspect that only in offices and hospitals should be treated.
It is Joel Ortega, Physician of the Division of Labor Risks of the Mexican Institute of Social Security (IMSS) who mentions that in our country there are no stress figures since it is not considered a disease, and because those affected do not take this condition as reason for medical consultation. Additionally, it estimates that between 15% and 25% of absences from work are due to some illness derived from work stress.
In Mexico, some organizations, specifically in the health and safety departments, are only in charge of complying with the minimum requirements of the Ministry of Labor and Social Security and the IMSS. But they do not go further in measures of stress levels in workers or types of diseases, they also leave aside the issue of prevention, which, if applied correctly, would have a very important saving in terms of spending on the concept of medical services.
The benefits can be many if attention were paid and above all action to these points, important changes could be observed for companies, such as: decreases in the rates of absenteeism and delays, improvement in teamwork, profitability, productivity, among others. To achieve all these objectives, an adequate diagnosis and a wide dissemination are required, both individually and collectively within the fields of work.
In the United States there is the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), which on its website breaks down health and safety issues, among which it considers the issue of stress, as well as explains some points of prevention, its possible causes and symptoms among others.
Work climate surveys are a very important tool within organizations, since they can measure and give valuable information about how staff feel towards various aspects, such as their immediate boss, facilities, activities, colleagues, among others; When applying this technique, it is necessary to create awareness among collaborators that it will be necessary to take this activity seriously, in order to take concrete actions when attacking weak points and continue to pay attention to development strengths and opportunities.
Keep in mind that it is a diagnostic tool, not a solution, and inform employees that the information they provide will be completely confidential. It is very important that the diagnostic stage is well established, since at this point the aspects to be considered are thrown out for attention and eradication.
We know that every organization is different from the others, therefore before applying this evaluation to know the company's own results, the directors and managers must meet, to know which points they want to know in particular and to adequately adapt. professional survey to those aspects.
There are several factors to evaluate in these surveys and all are aimed at improving the quality of working life, consequently creating an improvement for the organization in every way, since by nature if the worker is in optimal conditions, by consequence he will give the maximum effort when carrying out their activities.
Specific actions should be directed towards the characteristics of the organization's structure, the different communication channels, decision-making processes, organizational culture, work functions, as well as the physical environment that plays a very important role, if such actions do not If they are put into practice, the people who work in the organization may feel demotivated.
When these results are known and analyzed, change measures will have to be taken to restructure some processes and tasks within the company, in order to improve important points and develop the worker's capabilities to the maximum, respect hierarchies and not get involved in other people's activities.
In this sense, the values under which the organization is governed are very important, since they must be coherent towards the changes that are to be made to improve the quality of working life. A point that should not be neglected is that when these organizational values have been established they must be respected and practiced at all levels, including mainly managers.
The most common symptoms that people can experience when suffering or suffering stress are: headache, muscle aches, especially in the neck and shoulders, stomach problems, nervous colitis, anxiety, ir, depression, tiredness, sweating, gastritis, among others.
These are the symptoms, to call them in some way, simpler and which, through episodes of relaxation, meditation techniques, and better organization of time and activities, can be corrected. Of course, in more severe cases, it will be necessary to go to the doctor to prescribe some medication, which can help make the recovery process even more effective and faster.
There are some other symptoms, such as sociological ones, among which are: irritability, intolerance, lack of attention, alteration in personal relationships, inability to organize, etc.
However, stress levels can be so high or even chronic, that the person can fall into nervous breakdowns, which can cause accidents in the workplace, this is very often repeated in those people who are directly involved with production processes, or suffer from high blood pressure, addictions, antisocial behaviors, and even aggressiveness.
The duration and strength with which these symptoms appear will depend on the worker's ability to adapt or recover from them, as well as internal factors that he or she cannot handle correctly.
For the above reasons, the employee must be taught to know and control their emotions in some way when they feel stress, support them with tools and techniques that they can use to prevent, and above all, avoid facing stressful situations, or agents that are harmful to health. emotional.
Some support points may be: analyzing and making a list of those emotions that are most often experienced, observing what type of behavior accompanies them, looking for their origin, identifying physiological changes, and finally finding and applying their solution.
It is important that they know how to distinguish emotions, because in the workplace the demands are many but it does not mean that by having a job, a person is stressed, since this factor will affect their productivity, quality, sense of responsibility, creativity, and interest towards the organization and its colleagues, because it is very easy for stress to spread in workplaces, given the physical closeness of people and the degree of job strain they receive due to the demands of production processes, which it resides in the nature of the work that is carried out.
One of the points that should not be neglected is to perfectly analyze the profile of a collaborator before entering the organization, carrying out the necessary skills and attitudes tests, as well as taking care and ensuring that the interviews are carried out by two or more people involved in the job area of the vacancy.
On the part of the organization there must be a job description carried out conscientiously, since it may be that someone who does not meet the indicated profile is hired and assigned activities that they do not know or have no experience, it is then sensible that As the person's capacity and knowledge are not tied, he goes through an acute period of stress by making an extra effort to meet the expectations placed on him and that the same person knows that he does not have the necessary knowledge to carry out such work.
Contrary to whether we hire someone where their profile matches that of the requested position and when they are carrying out their activities, they will encounter new challenges or new activities, but this will not be a problem since their abilities and experiences qualify them to carry them out.
For this reason, having hired, you must try to incorporate the selected person gradually, and through strategies that the organization applies, so that the integration is carried out in the best way.
We have forgotten to pause and take time to analyze our day, our activities, work and personal relationships, as well as performance in all aspects of our lives.
We have dedicated ourselves to a great extent to acting without sometimes thinking, to creating more and more ambitious needs that involve us in a series of activities, and new commitments; which has ended up making us much more automatic people, to be less observant, without appreciating our surroundings, to be further from the natural and consequently to complicate our existence in this world in various ways.
All people have their own characteristics, it will be then also depending on the way of being and facing the situations in each of us, that we will be more or less exposed to suffer the different emotions due to stress that can be felt.
We must learn to know ourselves, to know what activities or agents that can be harmful or stressful, for each one and in this way learn to prevent and act on them.
In the labor field, not everything the organization or the health departments have to take care of, it is also the responsibility of the worker to handle the situations that generate stress, in a way that allows him, only to take advantage of adversities, without absorbing the problems, and even less being a bridge that transmits them to his coworkers, or to his family, so that the pro-activity of each member of the organization is sought, to detect sources of stress and minimize the factors that affect it. are producing.
Some points that can be analyzed at the organizational level are: that the volume of work is proportional to the skills and resources of the worker, always provide the meaning of the activity to be carried out, the objective and stimulus, as well as the delimitation of the responsibility of the worker.
In this way, we will be making clear the important points for the development of the work, and we will not leave any margin of error regarding the performance that we want to obtain from the staff.
The important points that the worker should not lose sight of are: continuous job training, continue developing, according to the experience and tools provided by organizations, better responses to stress and the agents that may cause it.
A high degree of responsibility made their own decisions regarding the activities they accept and those in which they must declare that they are not qualified to carry them out. Know how to separate work from personal aspects to achieve internal harmony, where personal conflicts do not incapacitate the performance of work and above all not to take anything personally, to avoid thoughts that are only polluting their environment and development.
This is how it will always be of great help, trying as much as possible, being able to take things slowly and analyze the factors that may be placing us in a stress episode, to correct and prevent them on later occasions and not awaken delicate situations. always unnecessary health.
Bibliography
- Psychobiology of stress, Valdés Manuel, Ediciones Martínez Roca SA, 2000, First edition. Mexico.
