Reference [3] , in a survey of 23 different banks which included public , private, and foreign banks in Pakistan stated that the banking sector is becoming increasingly competitive around the country and the level of product and service quality being offered to the customers is almost the same. Hence, thebank management adds more responsibilities on the shoulders of its employees, resulting in more pressure on them, with increasing psychological problems, i.e. stress, strain, anxiety, depression, sleep disorders, etc. Reference [4], in their article Organisational Role Stress of Employees: Public Vs Private sector banks found that the private bank employees experienced higher organisational role stress than their public bank counterparts. Reference [5], studied 100 employees from nationalised and non-nationalised banks having minimum one year of job experience in a bank in Chandigarh. The findings revealed a highly significant difference in the job stress of employees working in nationalised and non-nationalised banks, with employees of non-nationalised banks having higher job stress as compared to their counterparts working in nationalised banks. Reference[6], in his study on the occupational stress of employees in public and private sector banks in Quetta city, Pakistan stated that occupational stress is higher among private bank employees as compared to public bank employees. In sectors, the role overload, role authority, role conflict, and lack of senior level support were the major stressors. Reference [7], in their paper on Role stress among employees: an empirical study of commercial banks stated that public sector employees feel stressful by being pigeonholed in one position for long. Reference [8], in his study on branch level managers, operational managers, supervisors, and officers (credit officers, remittance officers, customer services officers and relationship officers) of a bank stated that bankers are under a great deal of stress due to many antecedents of stress such as lack of administrative support, excessive work demand, problematic customer relations, coworkers relationship, family and work life balance, and risk involved in the job. Reference [9], studied four banks in South Africa. The research proves that the age of the respondents and the level of stress experienced by the respondents were related in terms of where they were in their life cycle. Different age groups felt the effects of stress differently and as stated in the literature this could be due to different pressures and responsibilities being placed on the individual within a particular age bracket and level in the organization. Reference [10], in their study on Nigerian bank employees state that negative perceptions of the culture within the organizations contribute to workplace stress.

[1] Dollard, M.F. (2003), Introduction: Context theories and intervention. In M.F. Dollard, A.H. Winefield, & H.R. Winefield (Eds.), Occupational stress in the service professions. New York: Taylor & Francis.[2] Le Fevre, M., Matheny. J., & Kolt, G. S. (2003), Eustress, distress, and interpretation in Occupational stress, Journal of Managerial Psychology, Volume 18, Pp. 726-744.[3] Rahim, S. H. (2010), Emotional Intelligence and Stress: An Analytical Study of Pakistan Banks, International Journal of Trade, Economics and Finance, August, Vol. 1, No. 2, 2010-023X, Pp 194-199.[4] Sankalp, S. .Pushpa N. Jeetendra (2010), Organisational Role Stress of Employees: Public Vs Private sector banks- Vashistha Vidwat, The Indian Journal of Management, Jan-Jul, Vol. 3, Issue 1, Pp 4-16.[5] Katyal, S, Jain M. & Dhanda B. (2011), A Comparative Study of Job Stress and Type of Personality of Employees Working in Nationalized and Non-nationalized Banks, Journal of Psychology, Vol. 2(2): Pp115-118.[6] Malik Nadeem. (2011), A study on occupational stress experienced by private and public banks employees in Quetta City, African Journal of Business Management, Vol.5 (8), Pp. 3063-3070.[7] Sharma J. & Devi A. (2011), Role stress among employees: an empirical study of commercial banks, Gurukul Business Review (GBR), Vol. 7 (Spring), Pp. 53-61.[8] Shahid, N., M. Latif, K., Sohail, N. S. & Muhammad, A. A. (2011), Work stress and employee performance in banking sector evidence from district Faisalabad, Pakistan, Asian Journal of Business and Management Sciences, Vol. 1 No. 7, Pp 38- 47. ISSN: 2047-2528 [9] Paruk, N. & Singh A. M. (2012), managing bank employee stress in a South African bank, African Journal of Business Management, Vol. 6(15), Pp. 5369-5375.[10] Adunola, O. & Patrick, D. (2012), The Role of Socio-Cultural Norms in workplace stress: An Empirical Study of Bank Employees in Nigeria, International Journal of Management, March, Vol. 29, Issue 1,Pp 314-Occupational stress is becoming increasingly globalized and affects all countries, all professions and all categories of workers, as well as families and society in general (Ahmad and Ahmad, 1992). Every employee is prone to stress either knowingly or unknowingly. Banking professionals are no exemption from this. According to a recent study conducted by Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM), it has been found that banks are the top 10 high stress workplace in recent times. Due to globalization and liberalization, the banking sector had undergone substantial policy changes, in response to the changes that have been taking place in the social, political, economic and technological environments. In addition to meeting the increasing demands from the traditional markets, new markets have been brought into the banking sector, entailing in the process the adoption of new marketing practices, calling for an entirely new approach and a significant change in the market attitude. Entry of new private and foreign banks, non-banking financial institutions, technological changes, downsizing, appointment of contract labor and VRS are some of the important challenges that the bank employees are facing increasingly. Due to these rapid and striking changes, the employees in the banking sector are experiencing a high level of stress. Evidence from existing literature states that more than 60% of the bank employees have one or other problem directly or indirectly related to these drastic changes (Nair, 2008). Increased competition, growing customer demands, prompt customer service, time pressure, targets and role conflicts are the main factors of stress to bank employees.