Taking into account the changes that are currently taking place in our country, it is clear that these changes, which occur in almost all companies, lead to new stress factors for both employees and the organization. Occupational stress is a major problem for employees and managers, but also for the whole society. The issue of stress in organizations has given birth to many debates and studies. It is a common theme that is addressed by managers, employees and consultants from different perspectives. According to a study by the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work, in the European Union, work-related stress is the second work-related health issue after dorsal disorders. It affects 28% of EU employees. The European Parliament is fully involved in addressing issues related to the psychological support of the staff. Preventing work-related stress is one of the objectives set out in the Communique of the European Commission for Employment and Social Affairs regarding their new health and safety at work strategy. Manifestations of stress in organizations are easily observable, being manifested by behaviors such as: difficulties in adapting to the changes required to work or the dramatic drop in labor productivity. Also a double action is met: both the person who passes through the stressful situation and at the organization level on which it is reflected the existence of a stressful environment. This paper aims to address the implications of workplace stress, symptoms of stress in the workplace and strategies to eliminate and prevent stress at work This paper represents an exploratory research based on qualitative methods, being consulted various sources of information: the literature, case studies, media articles, reports of relevant organizations, etc.

Stress in organizations

Unwinding and recovering from everyday work is important for sustaining employees’ well-being, motivation, and job performance. Accordingly, research on work recovery has grown tremendously in the past few decades. This article summarizes research on recovery during work breaks, leisure-time evenings, weekends, and vacations. Focusing on day-level and longitudinal field studies, the article describes predictors as well as outcomes of recovery in different recovery settings and addresses potential between-group and cross-cultural differences. It presents findings from intervention research demonstrating that recovery processes can be improved by deliberate training programs. The article then discusses how future recovery research can address emerging themes relevant to the future of work—changing boundaries between work and nonwork life, increased reliance on teams and technology, and changes in employment arrangements. We conclude with an overall summary, open research questions, directions for methodological improvements, and practical implications. 

Recovery from Work: Advancing the Field Toward the Future

Happy to help, happy to change? A meta-analysis of major predictors of affiliative and change-oriented organizational citizenship behaviors

Supported by various collaboration technologies that allow communication from any place or time, employees increasingly engage in technology-assisted supplemental work (TASW). Challenges associated with managing work and nonwork time have been further complicated by a global pandemic that has altered traditional work patterns and locations. To date, studies applying a TASW framework have focused mainly on individual uses of technology or connectivity behaviors and not considered the potential team and social pressures underlying these processes. This study provides clarity on the differences between technology use and TASW and sheds light on the drivers of TASW in a work environment characterized by high connectivity and diverse team structures. Specifically, we demonstrate how individual, social, and material pressures concomitantly impact individual work practices in a team context. Drawing on multisource and multilevel data provided by 443 employees nested in 122 teams, this study shows that individual collaboration technology use and team-level response expectations are independently contributing to TASW. Though the persistence of communication afforded by collaboration technologies mitigates the impact of collaboration technology use on TASW, this persistence is not found to impact the relationship between team-level response expectations and TASW. We discuss how these findings inform our understanding of TASW.

Why people engage in supplemental work: The role of technology, response expectations, and communication persistence

Work-related extended availability (WREA; the availability of employees for work-related matters in their leisure time) seems to be associated with decreases in well-being and life-domain balance, but to date there is no quantitative synthesis of the scattered evidence. We conducted a random-effects meta-analysis (113 articles with 121 studies relying on k = 117 independent samples with N = 131,872) on the associations between WREA and employee outcomes while examining potential moderators as well as differences between availability demands and behaviors. WREA was adversely associated with recuperation, well-being and private life, but favorably with some work-related criteria. There were no systematic differences in effect sizes between availability demands and behaviors; however, segmentation preferences were a moderator. Overall, these results suggest that WREA may pose a threat to employee recuperation, well-being and private lives, especially when employees prefer separating work and private life. However, positive potentials of WREA should not be overlooked. 
 Plain Language Summary
 Work-related extended availability (WREA) refers to the availability of employees for work-related matters in their leisure time. Studies have shown that WREA may go along with primarily negative consequences for employees, but to date, there is no comprehensive overview of the literature statistically summarizing the current state of research, which was done in the study at hand. We assumed that WREA be related to problems with recovery, poorer well-being and difficulties to find a balance between work and private life. We also assessed in how far WREA goes along with attitudes towards work, absence from work and the intention to change jobs. Moreover, we considered differences between demands to be available and behaviors of actually taking care of work-related matters during leisure time. Finally, we investigated factors that may be associated with stronger consequences of WREA. We included 113 scientific papers with a total of 131,872 participants. WREA was related to problems with recovery, poorer well-being and difficulties to find a balance between work and private life, but also to more positive attitudes towards work. We did not find systematic differences between demands to be available and availability behaviors. However, we found that the relationship between WREA and work creating conflict with family life were stronger in samples with higher preferences to segment work and private life. Our findings suggest that WREA may pose a threat to employee recuperation, well-being and private lives, especially when employees prefer separating life domains. Still, positive potentials of WREA should not be overlooked.

The association of work-related extended availability with recuperation, well-being, life domain balance and work: A meta-analysis

Information and communication technologies facilitate connectivity to work-related matters after official working hours. Therefore, more and more employees engage in technology-assisted supplementa...

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/2397002220968188

Clara Eichberger

Papers

Technology-assisted supplemental work, psychological detachment, and employee well-being: A daily diary study:

Toward definitional clarity of technology-assisted supplemental work: A bridge over muddied waters