EFFECT OF STRESS ON SECRETARIES JOB PERFORMANCE

            According to the research made concerning the relationship between a worker’s life and his job, stress is assuming as number one killer disease in the modern world. The aim of this work was to find out the effect of stress on secretaries job performance, what factors caused this stress and how their effects were manifested and could be controlled.

          To do this, literature review relating to the effect of stress on workers especially the secretary worker, was conducted. A questionnaire was drawn up with which data were collected. This was also supplemented by face-to-face interviews with secretaries and observation.

          The researcher from data analysis find out that secretaries under-face a lot of stressing situations in the process of carrying out their duties but some were more annihilating in the effect than others. Three important stressors were identified, they were:

1.     Lack of adequate and important working materials and resources

2.     Work overload.

3.     Strenuous human relation in the workplace.

Recommendation were however made that adequate equipments should be provided for the secretaries and stress management programme should as well be introduced as this will help to examine stress and problem secretaries are passing through.

The secretary works in a dynamic environment which is full of conflicting situations and decision so much that no two working days are exactly the same. These conflicting decisions and instructions took all the time and day and demand quick attention, but the irony of it is that the time to perform these function is limited and does not increase rather, it seems to diminish and with this apparent shortage of time, comes “stress”.

Stress is defined as physiological responses that occur when an organism fails to respond appropriately o emotional or physical threats. It can also be a tension or a situation or factor that can cause stress. Occupational stress can occur when there is a discrepancy between the demands of the environment or workplace and an individual’s ability to carry out these demands.

Evelyn  (1990) stated that it should by now have emerged very clearly that the secretary will need her basic skills, her knowledge and her ability to apply these to her work situation, whether she works for a large or small organization.