Mental Load Leading to Psychosocial Risks across Occupations: An Overview of the Existing Literature

Description

Page: 604-608

Yogeeta Bhatia (Department of Psychology, Kamala Nehru College, Delhi University, Delhi)

The overload of roles in working women generates various stress effects on them, such as anxiety, fatigue, burnout, lowered outputs at work, and decreased satisfaction in family life, to list a few. The demands of family and work may be challenging both physically and mentally. With an increasing number of women entering the workforce, dual roles and responsibilities need to be performed by them with maximum efficiency. Mental load is different from physical load as it incorporates an emotional component and is an emerging concept of concern in women and mothers of today. A systematic review of the literature, in a major database google scholar was carried out to assess the impact of role overload and mental workload on women. Keywords like Mental workload, Indian working mothers, Mental overload among women, dual-earner families, and Role overload were used. Studies showed that mental load is experienced by women and mothers engaged in various occupations like teachers and nurses, and even female students resulting in stress and psychological ailments and affecting work-life balance. Attempts need to be made both at the organizational level and at the personal level to manage stress arising out of mental work overload/ role overload and propagate a minimal-stress environment.