In the production process, it is necessary to pay attention to the physical and mental health of the workers as the most precious element of the facility.
The housekeepers at tourist facilities are exposed to a number of factors related to the organization of work, as well as the demands of society as a whole, which can significantly influence the occurrence of work stress.
Introduction
Mass tourism was born in the 50s of the 20th century, this event has transformed the lives of many countries and their citizens, becoming an engine of change in their economies, creator of wealth, employment and transmitter of culture, depending of those who are and those who arrive, achieving a closer relationship between the men and women of the world.
Despite the fact that the last third of that century has been characterized as a period of global crisis and recession, the tourism sector continues to show a flattering prospect of expansion, with continuous evolution and development, permanently carrying out the projects required by constant demand. increase.
If the care, maintenance and preservation of equipment, machinery and tools is important, much more so is man and with a greater connotation in a system like ours; because in a generic sense it is the most precious thing in society.
In the production process, special attention must be paid to the physical and mental health of man in its double meaning: as a human-social aspect and in the economic repercussion, when a worker becomes ill or has an accident, he is affected and influences the economy and quality of production.
Development
The waitress in a hotel facility is in charge of the cleaning, conditioning and aesthetics of the rooms, guaranteeing hygiene and customer comfort, important elements in quality management.
In their daily work they are constantly exposed to:
- an excessive pace and work overload, monotony in movements, repetitive activities, strict supervision of superiors, high degree of responsibility, harassment, among other situations in the family and society.
These conditions favor muscular and intellectual fatigue. Nervous exhaustion and professional dissatisfaction appear, acceptance of the job because of the need for a salary and the earnings they receive.
Other alterations that waitresses suffer due to the influence of work and family activity is stress.
The concept of Stress dates back to the 1930s, when a young 20-year-old Austrian, a second-year medical student at the University of Prague, Hans Selye, son of Austrian surgeon Hugo Selye, observed that all the patients whom he studied, regardless of their own disease, presented common and general symptoms: tiredness, loss of appetite, weight loss, asthenia, etc.
This drew much attention to Selye, who called it stress.
More than half a century ago, Hans Selye defined stress before the World Health Organization as: "the non-specific response of the organism to any demand from abroad". The term from the English language has been quickly incorporated into all languages, the idea, name and concept have easily settled in the popular consciousness.
Stress in itself is not necessarily harmful. Everyone needs goals and challenges. But excess can be harmful.
Stress has become one of the ills of the 21st century.
It is not considered a disease however its consequences can alter the health of the person.
A person who is stressed or depressed is more likely to contract an illness because their immune system has dropped. The depressive state and stress lower the body's defenses and the subject in this situation "collects everything".
Stress has two ways of acting:
- Acute stress, in response to imminent danger, burdens the system with powerful hormones that can immediately damage the cardiovascular system. Chronic stress, caused by intense emotional pressure, which the victim cannot control, produces hormones that can depress the immune system and damage the bone.
This increases the risk of suffering skeletal muscle injuries, some loss of bone mass, damage to the cardiovascular system causing damage to the arteries, suppression of the reproductive system and memory problems.
Physical symptoms can be headache, back pain, tiredness, sweating, gastritis, depression, anxiety, insomnia, indigestion, skin disorders, sexual dysfunction, increased heart rate, diarrhea or constipation, etc. Among the sociological symptoms it can be pointed out when a person forgets all things, feels tired, upset, relationships with other people start to fail, he fights with everyone.
When a person faces a stressful situation, sleep is the first thing they lose (insomnia), they have nightmares, they increase their appetite or, on the contrary, they do not make them hungry.
A person exposed to situations of constant stress has a high probability of developing hypertension problems.
It is necessary to mitigate stress:
- Improve the waitresses' attitude towards the factors that put their health at risk, as well as being more responsible in the participation in the management of improvements in the organization's performance.The waitresses suffer from chronic stress to alleviate it, they must carry out practices outside medical science like:
- MeditationRelaxation exercisesApply exercises: "tai chi, yoga".
We also recommend:
- Rest between activities. Maintain correct posture in performing your daily tasks. Share any stressful situation with someone, tell a relative or friend. Solve problems as they arise, do not allow them to accumulate. Maintain adequate nutrition, as the body must be prepared for the additional expenditure of energy generated by a stressful situation. Doing physical exercises, this will allow you to get rid of toxic substances that accumulate in the body and also strengthen the circulatory system and the heart muscle.
Each hotel facility must:
- Achieve the participation of waitresses in the management (identification, evaluation and control) of occupational risks of a psychosocial nature, present in their work, so that the psychological demands of influence at work are met, through:
- work enrichment techniques. the creation of semi-autonomous groups.
- The promotion of flexible career plans; The reward for effort and effectiveness. The exchange of knowledge between waitresses of different ages and levels of expertise and work experience.
- Satisfy the psychological demands for social support at work, incorporating existing socialization and training processes and tactics in the hotel. Ensure the emotional psychological demands are met in relationships with superiors, coworkers and clients, through: Course design, workshops and trainings with chambermaids on: how to form empathy, self-knowledge and self-control; how to detect the thoughts that are related to your emotional state. Establish a systematic follow-up and monitoring program to respond quickly and effectively to the information of the presence of some of the psychosocial risks that may appear in the floor management area.
The application of these activities will alleviate the pressure on the immune system and will improve the response to the social and family environment in which they have lived.
Psychosocial risks related to housekeeping in hotels is an issue that still needs more systematic and in-depth studies, this time we will refer to some variables that were applied in our study and that offered significant results.
The causes of the level of presence of stressors and their harmful effects, based on the elements of the discourse and the comments made by the waitresses in the questionnaire on stressors derived from work.
High presence level factors: Within this level are some very common manifestations when there is presence of stress, considered minor ailments, while the worker perceives these anxiogenic situations, these behaviors will continue and will be dangerous if they are maintained over time. From a labor point of view, it causes a decrease in motivation at work., of the contributions or labor suggestions and of the quality of the decisions, the increase of the rate of labor accidents, the deterioration of the interpersonal relations, increase of the absenteeism and decrease the efficiency. The group of waitresses coincided in expressing that they are very demanding of themselves so that the work is of the highest quality, that they feel altered when in the supervisions they have signs that they could correct them before they were detected, they also reported that when they have to going through customer surveys redouble efforts and when they finish they feel exhausted and with little ability to decide and prioritize regarding the tasks they have to carry out, this also happens when they have more than 5 outings a day.
Medium presence level factors: The group of waitresses who show these levels of stress behavior, express that they have felt these symptoms only on some occasions such as rotations of floors or work areas, analysis of performance evaluations, visits of superior to the work area, also when they have had complaints from an unsatisfied client.
Low presence level factors: This group of waitresses who are with a low level of stress are the youngest of the group and state that soon after having gone through a difficult situation, they forget and start the task again with the Same rhythm, they do not torment themselves when something goes wrong, because they think that from so many tasks to be carried out it is normal that they can point out some details in the supervisions that they do in a systematic way.
The stress episodes that are short or infrequent pose little risk, but when stressful situations remain unresolved, the body remains in a constant state of activation, which increases the rate of wear of biological systems.
Work stress results from the interaction of the worker and working conditions. Work stress is conceptualized as the set of phenomena that occur in the worker's body with the participation of harmful stressors derived directly from work or that may affect the worker's health.
There is a relationship between work stress and a variety of diseases:
- mood disturbances, irritability, discontent, sleep disturbances, exhaustion, difficulties concentrating, digestive problems, headache, problems in relationships with family and friends, etc.
These early signs of work stress are usually easy to recognize. But the effects of work stress on chronic diseases are more difficult to see because chronic diseases take a long time to develop and can be influenced by many factors other than stress. However, the evidence suggests that stress plays an important role in various types of chronic problems:
- cardiovascular disease musculoskeletal disorders psychological disorders
Considering the variability of the responses of the sample subjects of the survey of stressors derived from work, it is observed that the greatest variability is associated with factors such as:
- the ability to stay still, suffering from dizziness, suffering from back pain, the presence of tremors and sweating on the hands, experiencing palpitations; insomnia, appetite disorders; feelings of insecurity and fear, manifestations of aggressiveness; the high predisposition to get angry, irritated, despair, states of sadness, fear and frustration and the desire to cry
While the lower variability of the responses is associated with factors such as:
- the perception of accidents at work, addiction to the use of medications, excessive consumption of alcoholic beverages, excessive smoking, intention to be absent from work, suffering from skin irritations and constipation.
When addressing the stressors arising from this work, I refer below to ideas to take into account to improve the psychosocial reality of housekeeping:
- Operationalize the right of waitresses to receive sufficient and adequate information and training on psychosocial risks at work.Implement educational programs for waitresses about the surveillance of their health, through the multiple and growing opportunities that Cuban society offers for this. Operationalize the right of waitresses to participate and be consulted directly or through their union representatives, in risk assessment and prevention planning. Comply with and enforce occupational health and safety standards. Develop work enrichment techniques in order to incorporate autonomy, feedback, variety in the task and demanding skills, identity of the tasks, significance of the same. Carry out an ergonomic design of the task and job in relation to complexity, mental load, etc. Facilitate semi-autonomous groups, that is,assignment of the task to the group which is responsible for planning, organization, execution and control. Schedule change, regarding the organization of the day, split shift, flexible schedules, etc… Assignment of tasks for a certain time unit, overload and deadlines assigned to tasks. Promote career plans, establishing flexible career plans: ensuring that effort and effectiveness will be rewarded, and facilitating the exchange of knowledge between employees of different ages. Incorporate processes andPromote career plans, establishing flexible career plans: ensuring that effort and effectiveness will be rewarded, and facilitating the exchange of knowledge between employees of different ages.Promote career plans, establishing flexible career plans: ensuring that effort and effectiveness will be rewarded, and facilitating the exchange of knowledge between employees of different ages.existing socialization and training tactics in the Organization. Modify the organizational structure, reducing the conflict of role ambiguity through: role negotiation techniques, participation of workers in company management and organizational redesign. Apply techniques of interpersonal communication and self-control by specialists. Permanently monitor the internal and external conditions of work. Identify the strengths and weaknesses of the group of workers. Improve the organizational climate by seeking greater commitment, belonging and a better work environment.
Conclusions
The waitresses of the tourist facilities must participate in a critical, active and conscious way in the identification of the psychosocial risks that endanger their well-being, incorporating their own resources, reactions and appropriate behaviors against risk factors, the application of activities outside of medical science and others developed by the apartment department and the hotel facility, which help reduce stress on waitresses.
Bibliography
- Collective of authors. Hotel Management. Accommodation waitress. Vol.I ED: Balcony. Havana.2007.Stress and its effects on health. Taken from: All about stress. Treatments and information about stress. Taken from: http: //www.desestresarte.comTuS@lud/Estrés. Taken from:.
