Work underload

Workload-related stressors These stressors are concerned with work overload or work underload. In case of work overload, the job requirements exceed the ability of a person to satisfy them properly. Similarly, in case of work underload, the current duties being carried out by the person do not provide sufficient level of stimulation. Some examples of work underload are lack of opportunity for using acquired skills and expertise of the person, task repetitiveness, and the lack of any intellectual input. 

Our jobs or careers are filled with stressors. Consider for a moment how much time you spend working, or thinking about your work. Some workplace stressors are obvious others might not be as evident but are just as powerful. Work overload can obviously become a stressor and provoke either stress or distress, but what about "work underload" Being asked to do too little can produce profound feelings of boredom, which can also lead to distress. Performance appraisals are stressors that can be motivational if perceived as objective and fair, or fhey can contribute to distress and inferior performance if viewed as subjective and unfair. 

Why stress reactions may also occur at medium or low levels of arousal, for example when people perform a monotonous task under conditions of underload or work in physical and social isolation. People may even experience stress reactions when they work halftime or are not working at all. 

The types of tasks covered in this chapter are usually organized in such a way that they expose the individual to an imbalance between demands and resources as implied earlier. For instance, Levi, Frankenhaeuser, and Gardell (1982) describe how stress is usually linked to overstimulation and overload, such as a very high work pace, conflicting demands, too much responsibility, or problems too complex to solve. They also describe how stress may occur due to underload or lack of stimulation. This may happen in very simple, repetitive jobs as well as in uneventfiil, monotonous monitoring tasks. 

Proportional delay differentiation does not match the taigetproportional factors when the route is underloaded, due to the factthatthe algorithms are work conserving and therefore cannot artificially generate delays when the load is small. 

Follow-up is done to check if there are any bottlenecks in the flow of work and to ensure that the production operations are occurring in accordance with plans. It spots delays or deviations from the production plans. It also helps to reveal defects in routing and scheduling, underloading or overloading of work, etc. All remedial measures are taken to ensure that the work is completed by the planned date. 

The use of improved interface design and increased levels of automation are expected to reduce the level of workload experienced by process control operators however, attempting to work with automation and computerized systems and in unfamiliar types of plants could actually increase workload (Sebok, 2000). The key issues surrounding the concept of mental woikload and process control are therefore related to the factors that either increase or decrease workload and the consequences arising from those instances in which operator woikload is either too high (i.e., overload) or too low (i.e., underload). A brief overview of the main issues is presented below ... 

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