Gender Differences in Workplace Essay

In the emerging global economy, the world economic system today is much more open than it was only a decade ago. The world is fast becoming interdependent global market place. Competitiveness will be on an international basis wherein knowledge and skills of the workforce posed great challenge as it will be the key competitive weapon for the 21st century. While the global economy emerges here in the Philippines and so does stress. Stress – that can be felt by those who are in the frontline and those who are in the corporate ladder. Stress was first introduced by Walter Cannon along with the fight or flight response, and often than not one would feel changes in body temperature, the heart will beat faster and blood pressure alleviates and faster blood clotting once entered this phase. Stress is one of the factors why majority of the employees in management level become ill or at some point the reason for leaving their post. Over the past couple of decade, this has been the major concern of employers with their employees. Most of the big companies even allocate budget for the employee’s well being and prevention of such stress. Vacation leave has been around the working industry for a long time, since it will definitely help reduce stress and at some point sick leaves can be use to tend to stress. Many factors inside the company may affect sources of stress, there is the nature of work, threats in lay-offs, salary, time of work (e.g. graveyard shift), deadlines and managers themselves – well these are some of the stressors among those who are in the workforce of a company. Filipino workforce front liners has a clue on how to overcome stress, we might get a chance to see how most of the call center agents cope with stress outside of their company building by smoking cigarettes. But that is just one in so many ways on how to cope with stress. It is also notable that stress helps  an individual to perform well on a given task, the important moderator in the military context, for individual and groups, is training. Stress exposure training, in which individuals are exposed to simulated stressors and forced to perform target skills under them, can build familiarity with potential stressors, teach individuals strategies to maintain performance under stress, and contribute to over learning, task mastery, and increased self-confidence. Stress exposure training can also be effective in improving group performance under stress by teaching groups how to adapt their performance strategies to external stressors and alerting them to how other team members will be affected by stress. Groups that undergo training, tend to have better communication, teamwork and feedback strategies that help them to work together under stress (Kavanagh, 2005). Stress is an inevitable buddy in workers of fast food, BPOs and other offices -both public and private. Stress, both good and bad contribute to the efficacy and quality of service that an employee can offer. This study aims to know how stress affects those who are in the corporate ladder. Harris (2011) in behalf of American Psychological Association made a study last 2011 involving 1546 adult employees regarding work stress shows that 36% of the respondents feel stressed out with their job. And those who have high and low level of stress feel that they are less likely satisfied with their job. With this being said, we can take note that sufficient amount of stress is needed as a means of motivation. And that is what this study is all about. How stress affect both men and women who are in the corporate ladder. How they cope with a bucket of stress, and how to turn the tides to their favor. Statement of the Problem This study is conducted to determine the impact of stress among those who are in the corporate ladder in Metro Manila. Specifically, it seeks answers to the following questions;