Introduction
Stress can be defined as the response the body makes in attempt to defend itself from either a real or an imagined threat. Normally, we are always faced with hassles, demands, disappointments, dissatisfaction as well deadlines in our lives (Worthington & Britton 2006, p. 218).
In the event of such aspects the body tries to bring its system to a balance by building adequate energy as well as staying alert to face any possibility of the threat happening. Nevertheless, stress is generated either from the external environment or within oneself.
The environment always compels one to meet some targets or fulfill something that an individual feel a bit difficult. Subsequently, this forces an individual to either prevent the situation from happening or otherwise attempt to adapt to it. Sometimes avoiding the stressful situation does not form a solid solution in dealing with stress (CBI 2009, p. 126).
However, avoidance of stressful environment as well as people has proved to bear fruitful solution in mitigating the level of stress one faces in his/her daily activities. Stress can as well be self-generated in a situation that a person might portray certain personalities that are not preferable in dealing with stressful environment.
The effects of stress are diverse and in most cases, they can be portrayed either physically or emotionally. Emotional signs of stress include dizziness; use of drugs such as cocaine, looking drowsy, displeasure among others.
Physically, one might become more vulnerable to a number of diseases such as heart problems, breathing problems, high risk of stroke among others (Hind & Moss 2005, p. 109).
The hospitality industry
The service and hospitality industry is perhaps among the best performing industries. In particular, the hospitality industry deals in a number of services including accommodation, food and beverages, entertainment, tourism in addition to parking services.
The industry boasts a large number of qualified and skillful employees (McBride 2000, p. 97). However, employees are expected to have empathy, welcoming as well as possessing friendly characteristics. It is obvious that an airhostess is expected to behave in manner that is pleasing to air travelers.
Majorly, how the airline hostess handle its customers reflect the value and brand equity of such airline company. Subsequently, this tends to attract prospective customers while maintaining the existing customers because of the superior services (Brown & Hesketh 2004, p. 122).
In general, employees working in hospitality industry experience countless interaction with the customers. In the middle of interaction, stresses often emanates due to the heavy workload employee is expected to handle. An employee will at most spend more hours working in an organization.
This reduces the time an individual spend in relaxing with friends or family members. As a result, he/she will start losing the close links he/she had once shared with the relatives and friends. This sometimes led to marital problem bearing in mind that is fundamental for one to have humble time with the family.
In this view, it has turned out essential to analyze various stresses facing employees working in the hospitality industry. It is as well imperative to discover approaches that may preferably be applied in the hospitality industry to curb the soaring rates of stresses (Kew & Stredwick 2008, p. 77).
Stresses Experienced in the Hospitality Industry
With the acknowledgement of frequent interaction between the employees and customers in the hospitality industry, it will definitely strike in ones mind that many stresses are generated because of regular interaction. Employees in this industry in most cases deal directly with the customer.
While serving the customer, the management requires that one portray high level of dignity as well as profession (Littleford, Halstead & Mulraine 2004, p. 82). This has the ultimate purpose of attracting the customer next time he/she will be wishing to receive similar service.
Since the target of the company is to make superior profits customer always become the focus of any organization. This behavior of the management leads to ignorance of the rights of employees and in many cases; they are not treated as required by law or trade unions.
In order to optimize the value of the firm employees are forced to work for long hours. Sometimes workers are forced to relax for 8 hours while in a shift. To make the matter worse the employee is never compensated for the additional time. In cases where the employee fails to perform the management threatens he/she.
This adds pressure on the employees to yield better performance as measured by the company standards (Bright & Earl 2008, p. 87).
However, it becomes difficult for the employee to measure up to the required standard. Such occurring is explained by tiredness, sickness or lack of motivation enhanced by furious employers who aim at superior performance of the firm while looking down upon the tribulations of the employees.
It is clear that one is subjected to high levels of failing to think logically or otherwise work well if he/she is physically or psychologically exhausted. Brain is a very fundamental system in the human body and it needs time to rest just as vehicles do. The resting period allows the brain to enliven before beginning to work again.
If the brain does not get sufficient, time to rejuvenate there is high likelihood of failing to work or think appropriately. Brain might stay awake and alert if one have adequate sleep or have enough time with friends and family.
It is apparent that long working hours denies employees the chance of sharing some good time with the family and friends. Since individuals are brought up in an environment where they had much time with family and friends, it becomes tricky for one to change the trend and as a result, employees usually feel denied the chance to interact socially.
This could explain the problem of high levels of employees’ turnover experienced in hospitality industry (Fagan 2008, p. 11).
Similarly, employees are deprived the opportunity to form informal groups in organizations. This force employee to have formal kind of interaction, which is quite strict, and at most it denies employees some degree of freedom.
Lack of recognition or reward such as praise or promotion for working hard always lead to generation of stress and in many cases employees choose to work elsewhere. Unfair wages and salaries lead to stress, as employees perceive their service not fairly rewarded (Williams, Brown & Hesketh 2006, p. 127).
Underperformance by employees also causes stress since employees feel their service not corresponding to the set measurement as outlined by the management. Difficulties in communication commonly happening in the tourist industry are other key stress causing factors that require a long lasting solution.
For instance, tourists from countries like Brazil have had communication problems with employees working at the tourist sites.
Signs of Stress in the Hospitality Industry
A number of signs associated with stress can easily be noticed in the hospitality industry. Due to frequent interaction with both the management team and the customers, an employee will hardly avoid stress from either the client or the manager. Many researches indicate elevated levels of stress in the service and hospitality industry.
Among the signs of stress in the hospitality industry include high rate of employees turnover, decreasing level of performance by an employee, high number of employees quitting the job after participating in a short period of time, loosening of family ties, sickness, moodiness, mental illness, one recurrently feeling tired, sleepy among other physical and psychological signs (Horn 2009, p. 33).
The sign always demonstrate itself at the point where an employee fails to suppress, prevent or control the stress. Consequently, the employee will reveal the stress either emotionally or physically. A person who is stressed up will most of the time tend to have some alone time.
He/she fears much interaction, as he/she is not able to communicate comfortably since the brain is working vigorously towards finding a solution to the pending problem. This denotes that much attention is given to the prevailing problem.
Generally, this person will have his/her veins widened to increase the level of blood flow to the muscle as more energy is generated to increase the alertness and power to solve potential or existing problem (Burke 2005, p. 137).
In many families, employee displays the character of being hounded by stress through consistent quietness and frustrations. The stressed person appears not to answer question whenever asked. When he/she responds then he/she responds in an unsatisfied way that aims at upsetting a person.
Others will attempt to use addictive drugs such as bang and cocaine with an aim of suppressing the stress. However, the stress persists and one may choose to use the drug for a long period without achieving solid solution for the problem. Some employees go to extend of exchanging painful words with their employers expecting to get rid of the stress (Johnson, Scholes & Whittington 2008, p. 217).
Large numbers of employees choose to quit the job and work somewhere else. It is evident that a good number of employees fail to adapt to the stressful environment and therefore develop health problems such as stroke and mental illness. On the rise of such effects, employees always underperform that employers endeavor to warn or threaten to sack them on the failure to deliver quality service as anticipated (De Wit & Meyer 2004, p. 219).
How to Manage Stress
Both researchers and learning institutions advocated several ways of preventing stress. As it was earlier noted stress lead to dissatisfaction of the employee and consequently the organization surfer from the poor performance displayed by an employee.
The result sees an organization, which is not able to offer quality and value to its customers leading loss of profits to other superior companies at the market. Therefore, it becomes an imperative step for an organization to find ways of solving the problems leading to stress (Holden & Hamblett 2007, p. 95)
Firstly, an employer should allow the employee to work within a reasonable time that may not subject the employee to difficulties such tiredness and dizziness. In addition, the management team ought to give adequate and justified salaries that may directly reflect the service employee’s offer to the company.
The management team should at most involve employees as regards to solving of the organization problem. This gives employees the opportunity of sharing their opinions and views regarding to what is perceived as stress and how it can be solved (Tee & Corfield 2006, p. 162).
For instance, employees working in a restaurant may find it wise for the manager to increase the size of servers to attend to large number of customers. It also appears significant for the administration to reduce the workload to individuals by assigning a reasonable task which employer will handle effectively and without complaints (Holden & Hamblett 2007, p.555).
Conclusion
Stress is particularly a major factor that individuals face in any environment. It may appear that avoiding stress is not possible bearing in mind that no environment lack stressors (Palmer & Hartley 2009, p. 219). However, some stresses are said to benefit certain individuals as others find it risky or resulting to losses.
Although stress is experienced in many sectors of the economy, it is no doubt that the likelihood of stress display hospitality industry is high. Such frequent occurrences in this sector can be explained by high levels of interaction between the employees and customer who keenly observes the quality of service organization offers.
As a result, most managers choose to overwork employees with a view of satisfying their customers as well as maximizing the value and quality of the services offered by the firm.
Regarding the contemporary issues facing the hospitality industry it may however turn out to be vital for management to device ways of controlling and preventing stress and its’ causes in an attempt to elevate the overall performance of the company (Lindgren & Bandhold 2009, p. 157).
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