Occupational Stress as Experienced by Private and Public Sector Bank Employees

Stress is a reaction to a stimulus that disturbs the physical or mental equilibrium. It is an omnipresent phenomenon. People from every walk of life do face stress. Likewise, employees working in the organizations are not free from stress which can have negative impacts on both the employee and the organization and thereby affecting the physical and mental health of the employees and the productivity as well. A healthy employee is a productive employee. Overcoming harmful effects of stress is not an easier task and some occupations are, of course, generally more stressful than others. It depends on the factors like stress sustaining capability of the individual employee and the type of occupation. Present study aims at measuring the occupational stress among the employees of the public and private sector banks. A sample of fifty public sector bank employees and fifty private sector bank employees are taken and occupational stress index questionnaire was administered. t-test has been used to analyze the data. Results showed a significant difference between the employees of public and private sector banks on their stress level. Significant differences have been observed between the public and private sector employees on role overload, role ambiguity, role conflict, powerlessness and strenuous working conditions.