ABSTRACT
Stress has been well known to have negative effects on the lives of individuals including their health, social interactions and work. This study looked into
the effect stress has on the secretary’s job performance. The study defined stress to be ‘the body’s reaction to any change that requires an adjustment or
response’. Purposive Sampling technique was used to sample secretaries from various department within the Ministries compound of New Juaben Municipality of
the Eastern Region. Questionnaires were used to sample data from secretaries working under the departments sampled for the study. Other secondary data that
were useful to the study such as journals, books and other literature were used for the research. Frequencies and Descreptives were the major tools used to
analyze data collected. The study noted the major causes of stress on secretaries to include long working hours, work overload, harassment, poor job
communication, poor job design and job insecurity. The study found that stress generally existed among secretaries with single and divorced secretaries
appearing more stressed at work compared to their married counterparts. Also,young secretaries appeared less stressed than their relatively older colleagues.
Though secretaries used for the study generally experienced stress, the study found that it did not gravely affect their job performance hence the effect of
stress on their job performance was minimal. However, the research spelt out some recommendation such as more working incentives for secretaries which were
aimed at reducing stress and boosting job performance.
