Workplace dissatisfaction is running high in the world, with employees being overworked due to shortages in revenue, stagnating the hiring process and creating a workload too heavy for the current employees. The workers who are left have all the work piled upon them, making them tired and discouraged as other jobs are given to them on top of what they‘ve always done, and they aren‘t being fully compensated for it.
King’s College in London recently took a survey of over 500 HR managers and found that over 46% of employees experienced or witnessed stress-related problems on the job and 42% expect the situation to worsen in 2011. The survey shows there’s been a direct link between higher levels of stress and stress-related illness and absence in the workplace.
Over half of the survey respondents indicated working overtime due to staff shortages and although they’re doing more work, they aren’t getting raises or bonuses like they should. This causes stress for the managers as well as the employees, and the survey also shows that poor relations with managers are responsible for the higher number of grievances being reported. This also results in growing levels of employee absence.
Everybody needs their jobs, but overworked people don’t produce as much and unhappy people add to workplace unrest, which raises turnover levels. The thing is, not all companies can afford to replace and train people, so when some quit they aren’t replaced, adding to the already heavy workload on those that are left.
The survey revealed that workers anticipate seeing a further deterioration in employee relations and the number of employee grievances will climb even higher. Morale is just too low.
Employers and HR managers that try to involve their workers in workplace events and offer a light at the end of the tunnel or at least open communication have workers with less stress-related absence and less open unrest. Employers must remember that without these workers their business could not run at the current pace, so making a more comfortable place to work can only behoove them.
