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Problems of Stress and Burnout for Employees and Employers

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Problems of Stress and Burnout for Employees and Employers

Introduction

Work-related stress and burnout turn into a more widespread problem in the American workforce. Both employees and employers face problems when dealing with this issue. Our book defines burnout as a special type of job stress; a state of physical, emotional or mental exhaustion combined with doubts about your competence and the value of your work (Dressler, 2011). Stress is much more then just a specific situation though. Stress basically is a responsive reaction of an individual to a particular situation. This is why stress is usually difficult to cope with because every person reacts differently to a certain situation. Overwork, job insecurity, and other numerous factors have a negative effect on a person. Distress is produced, and an employee physiologically and psychologically deviates in her or his experiences in comparison to healthy functioning (Sandon, 2006). Stress and burnout are some unnecessary pressures at work can not only be detrimental to the well being of an employee but also affect the company in negative way.
Causes of Stress and Burnout in the Workplace While mild stress can be beneficial to a person, providing stimulus and challenge. Stress becomes health threatening only when individuals feel unable to cope with demands expected from them. There is a clear difference between stress and burnout. Stress causes lots of anxiety and stirs up many emotions, while those suffering from job burnout show signs of procrastination and loss of motivation, absenteeism and lateness, everyday seems like a bad day, isolating ones self from others, cynicism, overreaction, and depression (Fowler, 2011). Some of the stresses that can lead to burnout are factors unique to a job such as over/under workloads, ability to make decisions about your own job tasks, hours of work, skills, lack

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