Stress not ALWAYS unhealthy: TeamLease study

Hyderabad|India|September'2009: TeamLease Services, India’s largest staffing company, todayreleased the findings of its latest survey “Stress at Workplace”. This is the 7thsurvey commissioned by TeamLease in a series to understand India’s new “World of Work”.

Key Findings of the Survey

• Overall 61% respondents feel that ‘stressat work is healthy’. Around ¾ respondents in Pune and Bangalore feel the same way. In Mumbai and Ahmedabad there is an equalmix of responses who feel that stress at work is healthy or not.
• Over 65% of respondents from Operations, Marketing and Sales feel that stress is healthy probably because ofthe nature of work involved with their job function. HR/Admin reported the lowest response with a 52% response.
• ‘Amount of work to be performed’ and ‘Managingothers’ work’ are the biggest stressors causing dissatisfaction. ‘Keeping up with technology’, closely followed by the ‘attitude of spouse/partner’ are also stressors that create negative emotions.
• Over 2/3rd respondents didnot feel that carrying work home causes any kind of stress.
• To cope up with stress, over 2/3rd of respondents try to recognize their limitations/fault at work and take corrective action. Least of the options considered are “taking a few days off (48%)”and “Looking out for a new job (45%)”.
• 60% respondents said that their company conducted ‘Employee Satisfaction Survey’ periodically to understand and to come up with solutions to combat workplace stress. ‘Confidentialcounselling’ is the next best solution offered by the companies to combat workplace stress. Offering ‘health club membership’ to the employees (31%) is notan offering popular with organizations.
• Among the cities surveyed, Amdavadis came across as most satisfied with various facets of their work life, like relationship with colleagues, conflict resolution, amount of work, level of salary, amount of flexibility and work environment. Puneites were the least satisfied.
• Office politics and lack of power / influence seem to stress Delhiites more than their counterparts in other cities.
• Overall, 68% respondents feel that companies should ‘formulate policies’ to identify and help employees deal with stress. Over 90% respondents from Mumbai and Kolkata share this opinion. 31%respondents from Delhi feel that formulating a formal policy will not help employees in dealing with stress.
• ‘Headache’ and ‘inability to get sleep' are the two main symptoms that respondents face when stressed. Against the popular belief, only 30% respondents felt like smoking under stress.
• Around 27% respondents admitted to have hit somebody when stressed – a low response reflecting unacceptability of such means to alleviate stress levels.
• Camaraderie – Around 60% employees tried to help their stressed out colleagues through various means like rendering advices, moral support, financial support, counseling or working with them to find areas of improvement.
   

The study undertaken across key cities in India revealed that stress has become such a normal part of work life that majority (61%) of the respondents found it healthy. This further went up to 65% for employees from sales, marketing and operations functions. The survey points out that exposure to constant stress in many functions might well be the cause of such an altered belief.

However, recognizing their own limitations/ fault at work and taking corrective action is the most sought out option to cope up with stress. Taking a break from work (few days off) or looking for another job were considered as the least preferred solutions to workplace stress.

According to Surabhi Mathur-Gandhi, General Manager, Permanent Staffing, TeamLeaseServices, “The popular notion of stress as a negative force that causes discontentment and discord may be dated. Our survey captures the bittersweet - but mostly sweet – feelings around workplace stress and coping mechanisms that probably represent the youthification of India’s workforce. This generation and cohort views stress as feedback for change but obviously human resource groups in companies have to be vigilant about striking the right balance.”

CITY HIGHLIGHTS

Ahmedabad

Bangalore

• 51% respondents believe stress is healthy.
• Around 90% are comfortable with relationship, conflict resolution, amount of work, level of salary, amount of flexibility and environment at their workplace. Only 6% feel stressed while taking work home.
• Looking out for another job is not in vogue in Ahmedabad, only 6% opt for it, lowest among the cities.

• 72% respondents believe stress is healthy. Highest among the cities.
• 52% feel their company is stable and has taken good care of them.
• 74% feel pressurized keeping up with advancements in technology.
• Only 50% of the respondents in Bangalore try to identify their faults in order to cope up with stress.

Chennai

New Delhi

• Only 40% are satisfied with their level of salary.
• 3/4th of respondents don’t feel any stress due to long working hours.
• 36% look out for another job in order to do away with stress; highest among the cities.

• Apart from the ‘amount of work’ (73%), other major cause of stress for Delhi employees is the ‘lack of influence’ (71%).
• Majority of Delhiites feels pressurized by inadequate guidance, keeping up with advances in technology, ambiguity in nature of job, inadequate/poor training and spouse’s/partner’s attitude
• 75% feel stressed, when working with the opposite sex.
• 69% believe formulating formal policy will not help in dealing with stress.

Hyderabad

Kolkata

• 64% feel stressed, while making decisions.
• 18% suppress emotions when stressed; seeking support is the mantra to cope up with stress (69%).

• 78% get most stressed when asked to manage other people’s work.
• Only 8% feel stress due to personality clash at workplace.
• Only 8% feel like taking few days off in order to cope up with stress, or taking to any physical activity (30%); least among the cities.
• 90% believe formulating formal policy will help in dealing with stress.

Mumbai

Pune

• 77% respondents feel stressed due to relationship with other people.
• 91% believe formulating formal policy will help in dealing with stress.

• Pune is the least satisfied when it comes to relationship with colleagues, conflict resolution, amount of work, level of salary, amount of flexibility and environment at their workplace.
• 74% believe they are over-worked.

The survey respondents included employees across the cities of Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai and Pune. The respondents’ profile ranged between the age group of 30-45 years across industries; and functions of sales, marketing, business development, operations, finance, admin/HRand systems (IT).

Structured telephonic interviews were conducted by global research firm Synovate for TeamLeasewith working adults across eight major cities during the period of August 2009for a total sample size of 400