Occupational Stress in a Call Center Setting
There are a number of individuals who experience stress relating to their profession. Occupational stress is defined as “Job related stress, which often comes from occupational duties for which people perceive themselves as having a great deal of responsibility.” (Seaward, 2012) With different occupational comes many different forms of occupational stress. Personally, I though it would be interesting to research occupational stress in a customer focused environment.
In a call center setting, most associates interact first hand with customers through phone call or even chat servicing. Many businesses depend on call centers to address numerous customer concerns about account status, collection activity, and complications with a product or service and online assistance. I thought it would be interest to take a look at occupational stress within a call center setting including chat servicing that is perform within a call center setting as well.
The different type of stressors is the first of many topics in reference to occupational stress that I have focused on. A few of the main stressors in call centers include the nature of the job, quality versus quantity conflict, and job intensity. ( Suri & Rizvi, 2008) Call center employees are typically expected to meet to strict monetary goals, and to undertake high levels of quality monitoring while delivering an exceptional customer service interaction. I will also provide information in regards to the effect of occupational stress.
With the technological growth in our society there is a great need for call centers. Role conflict occurs when supervisors have the duty to support call center empl...
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...ain productivity. It is important that the unique form of occupational stress in call centers is addressed within all call centers to increase the awareness of these finding. The need for call center is steadily increase therefore; it is possible that occupational stress with continue to be an issue within this setting.
References
Suri, S., & Rizvi, S. (2008). Mental health and stress among call center employees. Journal of the Indian Academy of Applied Psychology, 34(2), 215-220.
Dean, A. M., & Rainnie, A. (2009). Frontline employees' views on organizational factors that affect the delivery of service quality in call centers. Journal of Services marketing, 23(5), 326-337.
Seward, B. (2012). Managing stress: Principles and strategies for health and well-being. (7th ed.). Burlington, Ma: Jones and Barlett Publishing.
Shinn et al (1984) investigated the effects of coping on psychological strain and "burnout" produced by job stress in human service workers (psychologists, social workers, psychiatrists, pastoral counselors, nurses, etc). The researchers found that these stressors predicted job dissatisfaction, behavioral consequences as job performance and turnover in studies of human service workers, psychological symptoms, such as depression and anxiety; and somatic symptoms, such as headaches and various risk factors
Lazarus, R.S. (1991). Psychological Stress in the Workplace. In P.L.Perrewe (Ed.). Handbook on job stress, Journal of Social Behavior and Personality, 6, 1-13.
Three out of every four American workers describe their work as stressful. According to the Holmes-Rahe Life Events Scale, which rates levels of stress, many of the most stressful events in life are related to the workplace. Some examples are firings, business readjustments and changes in financial status, altered responsibilities, a switch to a different line of work, trouble with the boss, changes in work hours or conditions, retirement and vacations. Workplace stress costs American employers an estimated $200 billion per year in lower productivity, absenteeism, staff turnover, workers' compensation, medical insurance and other stress-related expenses. However, stress may not always be a bad thing. It can stimulate creativity and productivity. The natural pattern of human behavior is to experience a stress-causing event or situation, react to it with increased tension and then return to a normal, relaxed state. The problem occurs when stress is so overwhelming or constant that this pattern is broken. This overwhelming feeling is usually caused by some lack of communication.
Health care workers experience adverse effects from occupational stress. This type of stress is detrimental to the workers, patients, and the hospital itself. To respond to this ongoing problem, stress felt by workers should be reported, and treatment should be provided by the hospital. This will help reduce or ultimately eliminate occupational stress by deducing the sources that are causing or contributing to the stress, and by offering treatment options, it will alleviate the burden felt by workers. Hospital policy should enstate a mandatory session where they can discuss signs of occupational stress and the available treatment options. This will go a long way towards creating positive work environments, and interactions. This hospital policy,
The research purpose of study this research was to examine the relationships between perceived stress
This research paper concerns how individuals perceive stress and the serious effect on their psychological thought process and physical and mental health and how they can cope with their anxiety driven thoughts. Research was gathered using printed material obtained at the Syracuse Bird Library, and also using various online sources and scholarly journals. One printed source written by Frank Campbell addresses the health effects stress can have on an individual while author Richard Lazarus explores coping mechanisms individuals can use to attempt to get rid of the their stress. Author Bruce G. Charlton in his publication in the Journal of Medical Ethics, claims that stress is an empty word, with little value and explains the origin of the Stress. Robert Lazarus explains the concept of stress along with the ambiguity associated with the word. Ruth O’Hara explains what situations causes stress. While authors Carolyn Aldwin and Sandi Mann discuss coping and how to alleviate stress.
The definition of stress is a person’s adaptive response to stimulant that places excessive psychological and physical demands on him or her. Employees stress is a growing concern for organizations today. The Stressors may be physical or psychological in nature and place an excessive demand on an individual. Job stress dynamic condition in which an individual is confronted with an opportunity, constraint, or request related to what he or she desires and for which the outcome is perceived to be both uncertain and important. Furthermore, stress can divided to two parts it is Eustress & Distress. According to Dr. Hans Selye are the concepts of “Eustress”, “Distress” and the phenomenon of “General Adaptation Syndrome” is the normal
Comcast Corporation is a company that specializes in cable networking and high speed internet access for residential and commercial customers. “Comcast Creates More Than 5,500 New Jobs as Part of Multi-Year Customer Experience Transformation” (Comcast.com, 2015). I spent a total of three years working for them in a call center atmosphere before relocating my family. This job was one of my most memorable and enjoyable mainly because they followed the management practices which allowed everyone to function efficiently. Nominally “The primary function for most call centers, also known as ‘inbound’ call centers, is to receive telephone calls initiated by customers. Inbound call centers typically spend 60–80% of their budget on staff members who handle phone calls” (der Horst, et al., 2012, 435). My days were spent with between eight to twelve hours a day attached to a desk and phone system monitoring all aspects of job performance. Comcast “today announced a new, multi-year plan to reinvent the customer experience and to create a culture focused on exceeding customers’ expectations, at all levels of the company. The plan centers on looking at every decision through a customer lens and making measureable changes and improvements across the company” ...
Supervisor support is a relevant factor in the way an employee perceives organization support. Along with directing employees, a supervisors role is to implement supportive efforts towards employees (Dawley et al., 2008). According to Eisenberger et al. (2002), supervisor support is recognized as the extent to which employees believe that their supervisor have concern for their well being (Dawley et al., 2008). Research has shown that supervisor support is correlated with employee burnout and commitment (as cited in Dawley et al.,
The potential ramifications for the employer can be costly when employees succumb to internal and external stressors. To effectively combat job stress and develop a comprehensive stress management program, organizations must be cognizant of several areas that may be contributing factors to an employee’s stress level. Internally, organizations should review the employee’s workload and ensure that they have the necessary skills to complete the tasks they are expected to complete (Ornelas & Kleiner, 2003). They must also work to “motivate, challenge and take full advantage of the employee’s skills and abilities” (Ornelas & Kleiner, 2003). Employee’s job stress can also be decreased by allowing them take an active part in decisions, creating an atmosphere that facilitates a support network, and offering flexibility in their schedules that allows them to address responsibilities outside the workplace (Ornelas & Kleiner, 2003).
Work place or occupational stress refers to any form of restrain that is experienced when there is no match between job demands and the output of the worker. The article ‘Occupational stress’ aims at showing ways in which stress people get from their work place affect them and what causes the stress. This condition may encompass many conditions that include maladaptive behavior, psychological disorders, cognitive impairment, as well as emotional strain. These conditions lead to poor performances at work, injuries, or biological reactions that in turn may compromise the health of the employee.
The main goal of the Handbook is to give an overall view of work related stress. It is divided in 5 chapters:
In order to find a solution to the issue of stress in the workplace, it is important to first understand what stress is. Stress is a difficult issue to solve because everyone experiences stress differently. According to the National Institute of mental health, stress can be defined as the brain’s response to any demand (“Fact Sheet on Stress”). When there is any sort of change going on, it usually triggers the stress response. Since people are always dealing with certain changes in their lives, they are always dealing with some type of stress. One of the biggest growing issues with stress is stress in the workplace. According to Northweste...
Jaramillo, F., Mulki, J., & Boles, J. S. (2011). Workplace stressors, job attitude, and job behaviors: Is interpersonal conflict the missing link?. Journal Of Personal Selling & Sales Management, 31(3), 339-356.
Long – term stress can even require the brain, leaving you more vulnerable to anxiety, and depression; it can be a main cause of moodiness and frustration. Many of us are aware of the physical symptoms of stress-muscle pain, rapid breathing or an increased pulse. At the same time, they also suffer from emotional of stress which can be like roller coaster of highs or lows. emotional effects rang from emotional overeating to a feeling of being overwhelmed and pressure. stress impact many other components, which leads to difficulties in making decisions, loss sense humor, poorer concentration, negative thinking. As can be seen, stress nearly brings serious effects to people. Apart from the effects above, it can be the main reason which creates your decreased productivity at work. stress makes people less control their pace work, which leads to dissatisfaction. about 40% employees said that they are burned out because of work-related stress and loss $300 billion each year in the workplace . In addition, your relationship with people around also become worsens because of your stress. In fact, stress makes people puzzled and their life can undergo a considerable