Office stress is a very frequent occurrence. Office stress comes about because of the pressures of the work, which is frequently not so easy to define, particularly in a small firm. In a large office, jobs are quite clearly defined and everybody knows what they are responsible for.
In a small office though, the few members of staff frequently have to cover a dozen or so different jobs and so office stress can build up. Office stress can build up rapidly if the boss is insensitive or a member of a small office team goes off pregnant or sick whether a temporary stand-in is employed or not.
Office stress is a very real phenomenon especially in a small business. For example, it is not uncommon for a company with $1 annual turnover to be managed by a staff of two – the office manager and a secretary. This means that the office manager has to be able to do every job and it is hoped that the secretary will be able to do most of them as well. This creates office stress.
The secretary-cum-assistant will need to understand filing, typing, word-processing, data entry for book-keeping software, how to read job sheets, time sheets and invoices. The secretary will also have to welcome visitors, but keep sales reps at bay, while staying polite.
The secretary will also need to have decent phone manners and be able to answer enough questions to be able to shield the manager from time wasters and deal with relevant questions if the manager is not in. These jobs are difficult enough on their own, but office stress builds up if you find yourself trying to do three jobs at once and that is not uncommon.
You could be keying in time sheet data the manager has gone to visit site, when the phone rings with an enquirey and a potential client comes in asking for a quote. This is enough to make office stress soar.
The manager will also need to be able to carry out these tasks, but the office manager will also be responsible for management accounts, pay, job costing, pricing, composing letters and keeping up with the law as the Company Secretary, which means that he/she will have to know enough about employment law to advise the directors.
This leads to tremendous office stress. Besides all this, the office manager is usually responsible for paying and collecting taxes and keeping up with regulations and employment law. In these days of litigation and government claw backs, mistakes in any legal field are punished with expensive fines or compensation claims. This level of responsibility also only increases the level of office stress.
The difficulty is that office stress, like most types of stress, leads to tension and irritability and irritability can lead to a short fuse and flashes of temper, which just goes to worsen the situation and raise the degree of office stress another peg.
The levels of office stress soar if an vital piece of office equipment breaks down, because it is always just as you need it. Because it can take hours or even days to get it repaired, you are expected to be able to carry out minor repairs yourself. And then if the boss is an unsympathetic or merely unlikeable person then the degree of office stress can get even worse.
Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on many subjects, but is currently busy with First Aid trainer courses. If you have an interest in RC vehicles, please go over to our website now at First Aid Courses Online.
