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The Job Stress among Tellers and its Affecting Factors

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Journal of Health Policy and Sustainable Health
Vol. 1, No. 2, Spring 2014
Pages: 27-31

The Job Stress among Tellers and its Affecting Factors

Farshad Nadri1, Amir Nadri2, Fatemeh Nadri3, Ezatollah Haidari4, Hesam Akbari5,6,
Hamed Akbari*6, Ali MohamadHasani7

1 Occupational Health Engineering, Department of Occupational Health Engineering, School of Public Health, Bam Universi-
ty of Medical Sciences, Bam, Iran.
2 Physical Education, Department of Physical Education, Islamic Azad University of Izeh Branch, Izeh ,Khuzestan, Iran.
3 General Psychology, Department of Psychology, Alashtar center Payam Noor University, Lorestan, Iran.
4 Occupational Health Engineering, Department of Occupational Health, School of Public Health, Qazvin University of Medi-

cal Sciences, Qazvin, Iran.

5 Department of HSE, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.
6 Health Research Center, Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
7 Counseling and Guidance, Department of Counseling and Guidance, Islamic Azad University, Koohbanan, Iran.

Received: 2014/3/27 Accepted: 2014/6/8

Abstract
Introduction: Stress in the modern world is an epidemic problem. It affects all age groups and has negative impacts on the perfor-
mance of the workers. The aim of this study was evaluation of the occupational stress and influential factors in the Bank tellers of
one of the Iranian Southwest cities.
Material & methods: This descriptive- analytical cross-sectional study was performed on 81 bank employees in one of the Iranian
Southwest cities. Stress levels of Bank employees were assessed using the Osipow occupational stress standard questionnaire. The
Osipow job stress questionnaire has 60 questions in a 5-item Likert scale (never=1, sometimes=2, usually=3, often=4, most of the
time=5). This questionnaire used the 6 dimensions of role workload, role insufficiency, role ambiguity, role boundary, responsibility,
and physical environment to evaluate stress. SPSS.16 software was used for data analysis.
Results: The mean age and work experience of the employees was 35.37± 7.65, 11.21± 7.76 years, respectively. Also, the average
working hours of the employees were 8.84 ± 1.81 h per day. According to overall stress scores, 16.7% of the employees were stress
free, 81.8% had moderate stress and 1.5% had normal stress. Significant relationships were observed between daily working hours
and workload and the physical environment of bank, between the type of employment and workload role, between the number of
children and role limits, between the overall stress and age groups, and between the overall stress and education.
Discussion and Conclusion: Based on our findings, the current stress status of the employees was acceptable but considering the
studied dimensions (especially the physical environment), it will not remain desirable in the future. Physical factors in the workplace,
such as light, noise, ventilation and chemical agents must be assessed and should be improved in accordance with a regular program.

Keywords: Job Stress, Teller, Osipow Questionnaire, Workload

Introduction health and hygiene related problems, increased repeata-

Stress is defined as an individual’s reaction to an Inter
fearing factor in the environment (1). Stress is a subtle
and hidden disorder with side effects manifested after a
long time. Estimates show that 52-89% of physical ail-
ments have psychological or stress-related roots (2). In
the US, nearly 25% of the worker population suffers
from work-related stress (3). In the modern world today,
stress is an epidemic that affects all individuals including
men, women, children and even fetuses. The reasons for
stress might differ from person to person. The most im-
portant reasons for stress among employees are psycho-
logical demands of the job, stressful interpersonal rela-
tions and long work hours. The level of stress is indicat-
ed by factors such as decreased energy and motivation,
*Corresponding Author: Akbari H. Email: Akbarihamed_2005@yahoo.com
bility of the knowledge in brain, and a feeling of paying
less attention to capabilities, values and commitments
(4). Also according to this study, work stress manifest its
detrimental effects of by increased heart rate, an increase
in systolic blood pressure level, and lower vital tone(5).
In 2003, based on 46 studies, strong association between
work stress and health risk behaviors such as heavy al-
cohol consumption among men, overweight and so
communication has been found (6). According to the
results of studies workload, leadership style (manage-
ment), boundary role and insufficiency role are the main
sources of job stress (7-8). In Turkey, 2007, a study on
the effects of stress on women’s health showed a signifi-
cant difference in the total stress score between em-
Nadri F. et al The Job Stress among Tellers and its Affecting Factors

ployed and non-employed women (9). In a study by Table 1. Stress classification based on scores from Osipow
Bashir, U. and M.I. Ramay in 2010, it was reported that questionnaires
there is a negative correlation between stress at work- Overall Stress status Score (Females) Score (Males)
place and the function of the individual. Bankers are Stress-free 60-107 60-133
under a lot of stress which is related to factors such as Normal 108-203 134-216
Moderate stress 204-251 217-258
overtime working, role ambiguity, role conflict, respon- Severe stress 252-300 259-300
sibility for others, cooperation, and lack of positive feed-
back and one of the major effects of stress is its impact To fulfill the aims of this study, necessary coordinations
on the individual’s function (10). According to a study
were performed with the managers of bank branches
conducted by Kakkos, N. and P. Trivellas in Greece in
throughout the city. Then, the tellers were provided with
2011, a reverse correlation was noted between stress at the questionnaire and were asked to complete them at
workplace and the function of the individual (11). Ac- home at their convenience. The questionnaires were col-
cording to a study in a Pakistani city, it was reported that lected one day after distribution. After collecting the
factors that caused stress in bankers included heavy questionnaires, data were analyzed with statistical tests
workload, long work hours, low income, and technologi-
such as Pearson correlation and Chi square and One-
cal problems (12-13). Therefore, the aim of this study Way ANOVA by using SPSS.16 Statistical significance
was to determine the stress level of Bank employees of was defined as P < 0·05.
one of the southwest city of Iran and to assess the causa-
tive factors.
Results
Out of 81 bank tellers in the city, 66 (81.4%) completed
Materials and methods the questionnaire (male: n=64 (97%), female: n=2 (3%)).
This cross-sectional descriptive analytical study was
Regarding employment, 16 tellers (24.2%) were contract
conducted under the supervision of the Kerman Univer- employees and 50 (75.8%) were official employees. The
sity of Medical Sciences (Faculty of Health) in 2012. mean age and work experience of the tellers were
Data collection tool was a standard questionnaire and 35.37±7.65 and 11.21±7.76 years, respectively. Two
Participants Study was all the bank tellers (81 persons) tellers (3%) were smokers and 64 (97%) were non-
one of the southwestern city of Iran. Participants were
smokers. Regarding education, 16 tellers (24.2%) had
selected based on census method. The standard ques-
high school diploma, 15 (22.7%) had Associate degree,
tionnaire of Osipow was used to determine the stress 32 (48.5%) had bachelor’s degree and 3 (4.5%) had mas-
level of the study population. The standard Osipow job ter’s degree or higher. About 10.6% of the tellers had a
stress questionnaire was first employed by Osipow et al positive medical history and 3% had a second job. Fifty-
in 1987; it was then named job stress measurement tool eight tellers (87.9%) worked overtime during the week.
(14). Today, this questionnaire is used as a valid tool to
In our study, 89.4% of the tellers were married and
evaluate job stress and its validity has been documented 10.6% were single. Among married tellers, 84.8% had
through several domestic studies (15-16). As the validity three children or less while 15.2% had more than 3 chil-
of Osipow job stress questionnaire has been approved dren. Table 2 shows the evaluated banks and the tellers
with Cronbach-Alphas coefficient equal to 0/85 and 0/87 of each bank in detail.
respectively in two studies in Iran (17-18). According to results relative frequency of bank tellers
The Osipow job stress questionnaire has 60 questions in
that participate in this study as follow; Keshavar-
a 5-item Likert scale (never=1, sometimes=2, usually=3, zi(21.2),Saderat(9.1),Mellat(6.1),Melli(15.2),Tejarat(9.1)
often=4, most of the time=5). This questionnaire used ,Maskan(6.1),Refah(6.1),Sepah(7.6),Credit Institu-
the 6 dimensions of role workload, role insufficiency, tions(19.7), as Keshavarzi bank had the highest relative
role ambiguity, role boundary, responsibility, and physi- frequency of tellers.
cal environment to evaluate stress. Role Workload de-
Table 3 shows daily and weekly activities of tellers in
fines a person’s status relative to the demands of the
detail.
workplace. Role Insufficiency assesses a person’s skills,
education, and experiences for the demands of the work- Table 2. Daily and weekly activities of tellers inone of the
place. Role ambiguity evaluates a person’s awareness of southwest city of Iran
work expectations and evaluation criteria. Role Bounda- Mean Ac- Standard
ry addresses the conflicts that a person is exposed to in Type of Activity tivity Du- Deviation
terms of work conscience and the role that is expected ration
from him at workplace. Responsibility evaluates a per- Daily work in the bank (hours) 8.84 1.81
Daily work with computer in the 6.90 2.71
son’s feeling of responsibility in terms of efficacy and
bank (hours)
wellbeing of others and finally, physical environment Speaking on the phone at work in 39.84 48.77
assesses inappropriate conditions of the workplace which the bank (minutes)
a person is exposed to. According to the obtained scores Break and rest in the bank (mi- 9.39 15.72
(6 dimensions), tellers were placed in one of the four nute)
groups, as shown in Table 1 (14). Overtime work per week (hours) 11.56 8.30
Demographic characteristics of the participants including Working in the standing position 1.62 1.55
age, sex, education level, marital status, employment per day (hours)
status, work experience, and daily work hours were col- Working in the sitting position 7.38 2.24
per day (hours)
lected using another questionnaire.
Exercise per week (hours) 3.06 3.5

28 Journal of Health Policy and Sustainable Health

The Job Stress among Tellers and its Affecting Factors
According to Table 2, the regular work hours of the tell-
ers was 8.84 hours, which is more than the 8 hours of
daily work and 40 hours of weekly work. In other words,
during the week, tellers routinely worked as long as
42.18-63.9 hours in the banks; moreover, some tellers
worked overtime which should be added to the work
hours. Interestingly, tellers only rested for 9.39 minutes
which is very little in comparison with their long work
hours. Furthermore, the table 2 shows that tellers spend
most of their time doing sedentary work (7.38 hours).
They also spend 6.90 hours per day working with the
computer. According to the obtained scores in the 6 do-
mains and the overall stress score, tellers were divided
into 4 groups as stress free, normal stress, moderate
stress and severe stress, as presented in Table 3.
According to Table 3 and the overall stress scores,
16.7% of the tellers were stress free, 81.8% had normal
stress, and 1.5% had moderate stress, indicating that
tellers were in a good condition regarding stress. We
also addressed the correlation between the study
variables and the teller’s level of stress. We used One-
Way ANOVA to determine the correlation of each
dimension of stress with work experience but no
significant correlation was found (P value>0.05). But
there was a significant correlation between the age of
tellers and overall stress status (P value <0.05), as the
tellers with age of 20-30 years old have a higher overall
stress score. According to Table 3, out of 66 tellers, 32
(48.5%) exercised regularly during the week. The mean
duration of weekly exercise was 3.06 hours. Of the 32
tellers who exercised regularly, 15 played football, 12
went mountain climbing, 2 went jogging, 1 cycled, 1
wrestled and 1 played volleyball. Statistical analysis
showed no significant correlation between exercise and
stress (P value>0.05). No significant correlation was
found between the overall stress status and the six
dimensions of stress of the participants with weight,
except for the physical environment (P value>0.05),
which can be related to the individual’s work
environment (chair, work space, monitor, etc); moreover,
since the mean weight and height of the participants was
80.96 Kg and 177.19 cm, the participants were generally
overweight, which could itself serve as a stress factor
and affect the participants’ workload.
There was a significant correlation between the
type of employment and the dimension of work-
load (P value <0.05). Contract tellers, to guarantee
the renewal of their contract, made more efforts
Table 3. The status of the 6 domains and the overall evaluation of stress according to the obtained scores of the tellers
Six Dimensions and overall stress
Stress-free
Role workload (3%)2
Role Insufficiency (6.1 %)4
Role Ambiguity (10.6 %)7
Role Limit (1.5 %)1
Responsibility - (10.6 %)7
Physical Environment - (43.9 %)29
Overall Stress (16.7 %)11
Table 4. Tellers’ overall evaluation of the job, work hardness and management in a southwest city of Iran
Employees’ Assessment
Question
Very Satisfied Satisfied Relatively Satisfied
Job (Working as a teller) 13.6% 39.4%
Hardship of the Job 4.5% 4.5%
Bank Management 28.8% 27.3%
Journal of Health Policy and Sustainable Health
Nadri F. et al
which could be a stressor; therefore, permanently
employed tellers had less stress when compared to
contract tellers.
We found a significant correlation between the number
of children and role boundary (P value <0.05), which can
be justified by the definition of the role boundary and the
expectations from an individual. There are more expecta-
tions from a teller with more children than a teller with
fewer children.
There was no significant correlation between the dura-
tion of rest at work and the six dimensions and overall
status of stress (P value >0.05). According to Table 3,
tellers rested for a mean duration of 9.39 minutes at
work which is not comparable to their work hours and
therefore we expected this finding.We found a signifi-
cant correlation between education and total stress (P
value <0.05). The fact that more than 50% of the tellers
had at least bachelor’s degrees justifies this finding.
There was a significant correlation between the name of
the bank, role boundary, role workload and physical en-
vironment of the workplace (P value < 0.05), which is
related to the loans that each bank offers, the number of
clients, and history (years of offering bank services). In
the end, considering all the aforementioned, Table 4 pre-
sents tellers’ overall evaluation of the job, work hard-
ness, and management using three multiple choice ques-
tions.
According to Table 4, 19.7% of tellers were unhappy or
very unhappy with their job, 75.7% of the tellers were
unhappy or very unhappy with work hardness, and
15.2% were unhappy or not very happy with the man-
agement. In the end, the tellers were asked if there were
enough personnel in the bank; 19.7% believed that there
were enough personnel while 80.3% stated the opposite.
Discussion
Stress is a major concern in today’s modern world and
stress management of different jobs and professions is
big challenge for organizations (1). In our study, because
the number of female participants was very limited, we
decided to not evaluate the correlation between gender
and stress. According to Table 3, the results of the di-
mension of workload suggest that tellers’ work hours
were longer than usual and it is suggested that bank
managers shorten work hours, allow tellers to have long-
er breaks and recruit more personnel to compensate for
this problem.
Stress Status in Bank Employees
Normal Moderate Severe
(39.4%)26 (47 %)31 (10.6 %)7
(62.1 %)41 (18.2 %)12 (13.6 %)9
(72.7 %)48 (10.6 %)7 (6.1 %)4
(51.5 %)34 (37.9 %)25 (9.1 %)6
(86.4 %)57 (3 %)2
(12.1 %)8 (43.9 %)29
(81.8 %)54 (1.5 %)1 -
unsatisfied Very Unsatisfied
27.3% 7.6% 12.1%
15.2% 33.3% 42.4%
28.8% 9.1% 6.1%
29
Nadri F. et al
Regarding the dimension of role insufficiency, consider-
ing the tellers’ low mean age, their lack of experience
and insufficient competency is justifiable and therefore it
is prudent to provide them with more educational pro-
grams in this regard. Regarding role ambiguity, which is
defined by expectations of the work environment and
criteria for evaluation of employees in the workplace,
managers are required to divide work tasks between the
tellers. Role boundary is defined by the role that is ex-
pected from an individual at work and the stress-causing
workload at the work environment. The dimension “re-
sponsibility” addresses the employee’s feeling of respon-
sibility at work and well-being of other employees which
is related to the nature of each person. However, having
conscientious employees is undoubtedly to the benefit of
any institution and organization in the long time.
Regarding physical environment of the workplace, con-
sidering the fact that 43.9% of the tellers had severe
stress, factors like the light, noise, ventilation, etc.
should be improved in order not to deliver extra stress to
the tellers. In our study, stress-causing factors were simi-
lar to the findings of a study conducted by Bashir, U. and
M.I. Ramay in Pakistan in 2010 (10). There was no cor-
relation between age, the six dimensions and overall
status of stress (P value > 0.05), which can be explained
by the relatively low mean age (35.37 years) of the tell-
ers; however, this finding is in contrast with the findings
of a study conducted by Kayastha, R. and et al in Nepal
in 2012 (3). There was a significant correlation between
daily work hours, role workload and physical environ-
ment of the banks (P value < 0.05), indicating that with
increasing the work hours, work load is increased which
acts as a stressor. In the meantime, overtime working can
add to the problem although no significant correlation
was found between the hours of overtime working and
overall stress (P value > 0.05) which is in line with the
findings of a study conducted by Mangaiyarkarasi et al
in 2012 (2). In a study entitled job stress and burnout in
the banking section of Pakistan in 2010, it was found
that work load, work hours, technological glitches at
work, insufficient income, insufficient time allocated to
family, and job concerns were major sources of stress in
the banking section and burnout was manifested with
symptoms such as backache, fatigue, headache and sleep
disorders. This study also reported that all stressors (or-
ganization, job, relations at workplace, workplace envi-
ronment, and interference of the job with family) had a
strong correlation with burnout (physical, psychological,
organizational) (13). Job stressors are associated with
problems like organizational incompetency, increased
Workflow of the employees, increased sick leaves, in-
creased costs of healthcare, decreased quality of quantity
of work, and decreased job satisfaction (19). According
to Table 4, 75.7% of the tellers were unhappy or very
unhappy with work hardness, which is very high for the
employees of an organization. It indicates that job relat-
ed stress affects individuals’ evaluation of the work
hardness which is in line with a report by Khattak, J.K.
and et al (13). Table 4 also shows that 19.7% of the tell-
ers were unhappy or very unhappy with their job; this
figure may increase overtime considering the stress-
causing factors at the workplace. Regarding the results
of management and job evaluation, it seems that all tell-
ers completed the questionnaires with some concerns
30
The Job Stress among Tellers and its Affecting Factors
(disclosure of their answers, losing their job, confronta-
tion of the managers, lowering of income as punishment,
etc) and therefore the authors believe that, according to
the high workload and physical environment stressors,
the figures must be higher.
The best strategy to overcome stress is to listen to the
music which is not practical considering the type of
work tellers do. Stress management skills in an organiza-
tion are optimal if they are executed regularly, not when
there is pressure or stress. In an individual level, to man-
age and overcome stress, 3-layer approaches including
behavioral approaches (exercise, diet, leisure and hobby,
etc.), relaxation (such as techniques for putting the mind
at ease), and focusing on numerous stress management
plans and programs such as identification and control of
negative emotions with a realistic approach, which is the
most effective (4).
Conclusion
Therefore, considering the three-layer approach, using
athletic coaches (for stretching exercise), psychologists
and healthcare professionals together with regular educa-
tional workshops can help to reduce stress in these indi-
viduals. Athletic coaches may use light exercises to in-
crease motivation and efficacy of the employees. Psy-
chologists may teach them techniques to control and
overcome stress and healthcare professionals will try to
reduce stress through diet and education. In general, the
stress status of the tellers was good, but it does not mean
that there are no stressors at their workplace. Finally,
bank managers should know the psychological basis of
making effective communication with their employees
and provide necessary facilities for their comfort and
wellbeing. Also based on participant answers there were
few personnel in the bank, that it should be consider by
managers in order to reduce the workload and effects of
job stress.
Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to all the personnel of Banks in
Iran, especially Heads of the Banks (Mellat, Keshavarzi,
Saderat, Refah, Maskan, Meli, Tejarat, Sepah and Credit
Institutes), for their cooperation throughout the study.
Financial Disclosure
There is no financial disclosure.
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