The sources of workplace stress amongst employees in the Post Office (Bloemfontein)

Abstract

Owing to the increasing prevalence of stress experienced by the employees of the SA Post Office in the Central Region, where the researcher is employed, a research project was launched to determine the sources of this stress and to make recommendations on possible ways of managing it more effectively. The respondents were randomly sampled from the population of the employees who consulted at the Employee Wellness office, as well as those who were booked off with stress-related illnesses. A self-developed questionnaire was distributed to 100 respondents/employees after a review of literature on the sources of stress in the workplace. However, out of 100 possible respondents, only 36 responded to the online questionnaire. The self-developed questionnaire was designed with the use of Qualtrics, a user-friendly software package which allowed the respondents to complete the questionnaire on-line. A link was e-mailed to the respondents giving them access to the on-line survey. Responses were automatically and anonymously submitted to a central data base hosted by Qualtrics at the University of Pretoria. The original mail, with the link and two reminder e-mails, were mailed from the office of the researcher s supervisor at the university. In conclusion, the research conducted indicated that the respondents were satisfied with the SA Post Office as an employer. They were, however, dissatisfied with the job promotion prospects, the lack of performance feedback in the organization, the ineffective communication in the organization and the fact that there were no policies on workplace violence and industrial action which may contribute or even cause stress to these employees The respondents also acknowledged that they experienced personal stress from time to time. However, this did not impact on their productivity. Although not a majority of the respondents experienced workplace stress, and 75% of them confirmed, that work-related problems impacted on productivity. In order to uplift employee morale and improve the quality of life of the employees, the following recommendations were made to the SA Post Office management: ? A standardised stress management programme for all the SA Post Office employees should be developed and offered to the employees. ? Services rendered by the Employee Assistance Programme should be marketed much more aggressively to increase the levels of awareness and the use of the EAP.