| Furthermore, these conditions may create a stressful working environment for forensic scientists directly affecting the occupational experiences of scientists by increasing work stress and decreasing job performance. Work stress can be defined as the disconnect between job demands and employees’ available resources and capabilities. Work stress is correlated with low levels of job satisfaction, often leading to poor job performance. One key factor is work overload. The longer working hours of forensic scientists may be directly associated with higher levels of stress. Longer workloads are due to large backlog of multiple evidences that must be processed in support of certain cases. Various studies demonstrated that scientists working for longer duration reported greater levels of stress leading to physical illness, psychological problems, wastage of time and resources. Thus, understanding the factors affecting stressful environment and poor job performance may aid in the development of policies to improve organizational output. Another factor intrinsic to the job is the number of tasks performed by forensic scientist apart from routine analysis job. Forensic scientists must testify the report in the court of law, which requires coordination with police and prosecutors. Such additional task may increase stress because of added responsibility. Sometimes, the scientists are requested to rapidly process evidences to produce report in certain high-profile cases related to homeland security despite large backlogs, and thus increasing stress levels. |
