This article deals with the recently emerged concern of increased workplace stress, its impact and the root causes for the emergence of stress. It answers some key questions such as `is job stress dangerous all the time?' and `who is affected by stress?' It also explains the consequences of stress and provides the strategies to be adopted for coping with stress.

Workplace stress is rela tively a latest trend of contemporary life. The characteristics of work have undergone radical changes over the last century and it is still shifting at a twister pace. Stress occurs in more or less all lines of work- starting from an actor to a doctor, or from a pilot to a sales manager. It is a never-ending syndrome originating from circumstances in the place of work that pessimistically affects a person's performance and/or well-being of his body and intellect on the whole. In particular situations, workplace stress can be rendering inoperative. In several circumstances, a psychiatric session is generally a requisite to bear out the cause and amount of job associated stress. Even though stress is widely recognized to be a common trait of present-day lifestyle, defining stress, its root causes, symptoms and impact on persons is an intricate matter. It is repeatedly distinguished from a prehistoric stone-age reaction to recent managerial and societal aspects, identified as stressors. Experts define job stress as "the harmful physical and emotional responses that occur when the requirements of the job do not match the capabilities, resources, or needs of the worker. Job stress can lead to poor health and even injury."

Various studies and researches conducted by experts to examine the job stress sound an alarming bell about the psychological and bodily well-being of the employees. The Northwestern National Life study in the US revealed that 40% of the employees stated that their job is "very or extremely stressful" and among that one-fourth of the workforce considers their job the main stressor in their life. The Families and Work Institute (FWI) study on the US workforce disclosed that 26% of employees report that they are "often or very often burned out or stressed by their work." In India, work-associated stress and psychological exhaustion are mainly blamed on high performance expectation of the employers, work time limits and tough competition. These factors are adversely affecting the Indian employees, especially, in sectors like information technology, manufacture and banking.

HRM Review Magazine, Stress at Workplace, Business Consultancy Company, Mumbai-based Web-Technology, Harvard Business Review, HBR, Confederation of British Industry, CBI, Metamorphic Transformations, Information Technology, Human Resources.