THE EFFECT OF STRESS AT WORK ON THE REDUCTION OF PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL-BEING

Marija Nikolić

University of Donja Gorica, Montenegro

marijapopovic88@yahoo.com

 

ABSTRACT

Stress and burnout syndrome are more present in the every day business environment. Burnout syndrome can have serious health and psychological consequences for the employee, and develops due to constant stress experienced employees in the work environment. To live full life, people have to work on improving psychological wellbeing in work environment, where they spend a significant part of tHEIR lives. This master thesis investigates how stress and burnout syndrome represented compared to the well-being at work among people employed in jobs of social and child protection in Montenegro. The study was conducted on 100 different subjects, employees of centers for social work and institutions of social and child protection in Montenegro. Research has shown that stress and burnout syndrome is very common with the professional workers employed in social and child protection. This research should serve future researches, and to raise the issue of prevention and promotion of the protection of workers from burnout syndrome and improve psychological well-being, in order to improve the quality of life.

Keywords: stress, burnout syndrome, psychological well-being

IntroductION

Stress and burnout syndrome at work have been very topical topics discussed in all developed societies in recent years. In order to increase efficiency at work and promote well-being at the workplace, it is necessary to undertake preventive and therapeutic measures, as well as to raise public awareness of the importance of recognizing and fighting against the mentioned problems. Institutions of social services, Centers for social work and institutions of social and child protection, where professional workers of helping professions work, represent a suitable framework for examining the presence of stress and burnout syndrome at work. The jobs of professional workers are a source of almost daily stress, because at work they meet with users – individuals, families or groups in crisis and at risk, which are characterized by various problems, such as – unemployment, poverty, illness, disabilities, divorces, disturbed functioning patterns in the family, children with unacceptable, antisocial behavior, children without parental care, neglect and abuse of children and other forms of family violence.

Professional workers are also additionally burdened with other stressful factors such as: increased workload in the form of an increased number of users, greater volume of administration, exposure to verbal and physical aggression of users and insecurity of professional workers, short deadlines for completing tasks, harsh and frequent criticism from the public, reduced opportunities for further education and advancement, feeling of too much responsibility in making important decisions for users, unrealistic expectations of users and the public, bad interpersonal relations in organizations, exposure to changes and other stressful factors related to the workplace. All these inconsistencies between work-related requirements and the environment lead to professional stress. Stress can be defined as a series of harmful physiological, psychological and behavioral reactions in which the demands of the job are not in accordance with one’s abilities, possibilities and needs.

Volume 9, No.2 (2024): April

ISSN 2661-2666 (Online) International Scientific Journal Monte (ISJM)
ISSN 2661-264X (Print)

DOI : 10.33807/monte.20243131

DOI URL: https://doi.org/10.33807/monte.20243131

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This is an open-access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)