Managing Workplace Stress
Workplace stress occurs when employees experience negative physical and emotional reactions due to job-related tensions.
While every job may involve stressful moments, it should not become a routine part of one’s work life. In a society that emphasizes productivity and outperforming others, it is all too common for individuals to feel immense pressure from work.
Mental health awareness is a key component of every workplace that prioritizes their commitment to developing an inclusive environment.
Top 3 Common Causes of Stress in the Workplace
1. Intensive Workload
A survey of North American employees revealed that the primary source of workplace stress comes from excessive workload.
When employees face unmanageable workloads with tight deadlines, they can quickly burnout from putting in long hours to meet expectations.
This, in turn, often leads to a decline in the quality of work, increased job dissatisfaction, and a poor work-life balance as employees are forced to prioritize work over personal life.
2. Interpersonal Conflicts
Given that we spend a significant portion of our lives at work, experiencing poor relationships with colleagues or enduring a toxic work environment can be extremely isolating.
Conflicts can arise from various sources, including work-related processes, customer interactions, or personal issues, leading to behaviors such as gossip, rudeness, or even physical altercations.
Successful employees thrive in environments that foster positive social interactions, promoting the exchange of knowledge, trust, and teamwork, among other essential factors.
3. Job Insecurity
The uncertainty of job security can lead to a constant state of anxiety. We have witnessed this in the recent layoffs in the tech industry, where numerous tech companies restructured to stay afloat in this challenging economy.
From Shopify’s reduction of its workforce by 20% to Lyft’s 26% staff reduction, the effects of job insecurity are devastating for both departing and remaining employees.
Those who remain are constantly worrying about the possibility of facing job loss themselves, leading to a decline in their mental health and job performance.
What are the Consequences of Unmanaged Stress?
In this section, we will provide a detailed explanation of each factor, supported by statistics that highlight the severity of this issue:
Employee Burnout
Burnout is characterized by complete physical and emotional exhaustion, with symptoms including reduced motivation, difficulty concentrating, heightened irritability or cynicism, and an increased reliance on food, drugs, or alcohol as coping mechanisms.
The effects of workplace stress are closely interconnected, often leading to burnout. Burnout, in turn, contributes to mental and physical stress, resulting in significant organizational and societal costs.
The Harvard Business Review reports that 61% of U.S. professionals feel like they’re on the brink of burnout at any given time.
Physiological Impacts
Forbes highlights the strong link between workplace stress and a range of serious illnesses, including heart disease, cancer, insomnia, anxiety, depression, and substance abuse.
Research from Stanford reinforces the gravity of this issue, revealing that health-related costs and mortality associated with work-related stress in the United States amount to a staggering $190 billion and result in 120,000 deaths annually.
Decreased Productivity
Experiencing acute stress from work impedes anyone’s ability to perform at their best. This creates a vicious cycle as employees become increasingly frustrated with their inability to meet expectations.
Overstressed employees costs the U.S. more than $300 billion per year in absenteeism, turnover, diminished productivity, and expenses related to medical, legal, and insurance.
Reduced Retention
It’s easy to draw a straight line from an increase in workplace stress and increase in job applications being sent out.
In fact, stressed employees are more than 3 times as likely to seek employment elsewhere.
While employers might perceive job burnout as an individual concern for employees to manage, it is clear that it is a pressing organizational issue that demands attention and intervention.
4 Powerful Stress Management Techniques
1. Develop Healthy Habits
Incorporating healthy habits is essential for maintaining a proper work-life balance. These habits can be small actions that, when accumulated, have a significant positive impact:
Get a full night's rest: Whether it means limiting your caffeine intake or having a night routine that allows you to slow down, do whatever your body needs to be rested.
Take short breaks: This may seem counterintuitive to getting more work done as it reduces the time available for work. However, the combination of shorter, frequent breaks along with longer ones can boost your energy, motivation, and concentration compared to pushing through the day without breaks.
Journal or speak with a therapist: This allows you to alleviate stress, unpack difficult situations, and formulate a plan of action.
To make these preventative measures effective, it is crucial to implement these habits before you're burned out.
2. Study Time Management Skills
Avoiding procrastination can be challenging, but developing effective time management skills is essential to prevent feeling overwhelmed by your workload. If you find it difficult to meet reasonable deadlines, consider adjusting your approach.
Here are some ways to improve your time management skills:
Create a daily schedule outlining the tasks you need to complete and prioritize them.
Break complex projects into smaller and more approachable components.
Seek input from your colleagues on effective strategies for tackling particular projects.
Eliminate distractions such as social media and email notifications.
Developing strong time management skills will allow you to finish your work at a reasonable hour, leaving you with valuable time to relax and pursue your hobbies.
3. Learn How to Relax
Even during moments of relaxation, many individuals wrestle with guilty feelings about their lack of productivity. Research has shown that thinking about work impedes your ability to recover from it.
If you frequently catch yourself thinking about the never-ending tasks on your to-do list while attempting to recharge, you risk becoming overwhelmed and eventually experiencing burnout.
Here are a few great ways to recover from a difficult workday:
Find an outlet that allows you to disconnect from work entirely: While low-effort activities such as watching TV might be an appealing way to unwind, consider learning a new language or musical instrument. More active and engaging activities have been proven to be more effective for stress recovery.
Spend quality time with friends and loved ones: Try to avoid making work-related discussions the dominant topic in your conversations with friends and family. Continuously discussing your job after spending 8 or more hours at work can quickly make it the center of your life.
Establish clear boundaries regarding when you will fully detach from work: In an era of constant connectivity, it's tempting to check emails before bedtime or engage in work-related tasks during dinner.
However, setting these boundaries is crucial for reducing stress. It's imperative to adopt the mindset that taking a break is not a privilege but a necessity. This detachment from work leads to more effective recovery, which results in improved work outcomes, including enhanced performance and engagement.
4. Get Support From Managers
If you find that the stressors you're facing are beyond your control, initiate a conversation with your manager regarding the challenges you've encountered and the specific support you require.
This support may include accessing the wellness resources provided by your employer or collaboratively devising a work schedule that can offer you a more balanced work life.
How Employers Help to Manage Workplace Stress
While employees can utilize the suggested strategies to manage their stress, it's important to note that this may not address the root cause of the issue, which often lies within systemic factors.
Effective Communication
Creating an environment of psychological safety is crucial, allowing employees to confidently approach their managers about the stress they may be experiencing. Recognizing that employee burnout can have a ripple effect on the entire team, managers must proactively assist those facing higher stressors.
Managers should also look for signs of stressed employees, which may manifest as challenges in meeting deadlines, reduced productivity, lower work quality, and increased mistakes. Collaborating with their employees, managers can formulate customized action plans to help prioritize projects and alleviate overwhelming deadlines.
Stress Reduction Programs
According to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), only 35% of employees feel adequately supported with resources to manage stress.
Acknowledging this resource gap, organizations should consider implementing the following 3 employee wellness programs:
Fitness and wellness initiatives: These programs promote physical health by offering benefits like gym memberships and reimbursements for fitness classes.
Mental health support: Providing access to resources such as therapy services and support groups or offering mental health days is essential for addressing employees' emotional well-being.
Employee recognition and rewards: Implementing programs to acknowledge hard work can significantly boost employee morale.
Keep in mind that the most effective burnout prevention strategies are those tailored to your employees’ needs. This involves engaging with teams directly to determine desired initiatives and their priorities within a specific budget allocation.
Workload and Job Design
The World Health Organization has found that workplace stress commonly occurs when employees are given responsibilities that exceed their current knowledge and skills, without the necessary support to bridge this gap.
Other stressors related to job design are monotonous or meaningless tasks, a lack of control over processes, and limited opportunities for career development.
Here are several strategies to address stressors related to job design:
Align job demands with employee skills: This can be as simple as having discussions with the individual to understand their comfort level or reviewing past projects for skill overlaps or potential skill development opportunities.
Implement proper training procedures: Establish comprehensive training procedures for new job assignments. This may include having the current employee document detailed work processes, utilizing online learning systems, and dedicating time for a seamless project or position transition.
Grant employees autonomy over their work: Greater independence helps employees build their confidence and instills a sense of ownership within the team.
Promote a culture of peer support: Cultivate an environment that encourages mutual support among colleagues, regardless of whether it's formally requested by a manager.
Collaboratively expand job roles: Collaborate with employees to expand job roles or diversify tasks, taking their input into account.
Provide a clear career growth plan: Employees want to see that they have a future at the organization. According to the American Psychological Association, 66% of workers who feel stressed are not satisfied with opportunities for growth and development.
Creating a Work Culture of Well-Being
Leadership plays a pivotal role in effective stress management as they have a significant influence on workplace culture.
Here are a few steps that should be taken by the leadership team to create a culture that prioritizes well-being:
Lead by example: When managers work beyond regular hours or skip lunch breaks, it sets an expectation for junior staff to do the same.
This means leadership should set clear boundaries such as refraining from responding to emails outside of work hours and taking regular breaks, encouraging their employees to do the same.
Enforce flexible work policies: The pandemic has accelerated the adoption of flexible work policies, which have proven effective.
According to the Gartner Digital Worker Experience Survey, 43% of respondents reported that flexible working hours increased productivity. This aligns with the logic that flexible arrangements empower employees to work during their most productive hours.
Rather than adhering to a rigid 9-5 workday, organizations may consider implementing core hours for meetings and collaboration, while allowing employees to determine their preferred work hours outside of these core times.
Create an inclusive workplace: Fostering a culture that prioritizes mental health relies on the foundation of an inclusive workplace that values and celebrates diversity.
Conducting diversity, equity, and inclusion training can proactively address interpersonal conflicts and foster an environment of trust, enabling employees to feel comfortable discussing challenging subjects such as burnout. Consider hosting regular team DEI events to further strengthen a sense of community.
Stress Management is Important for Everyone
Work-related stress is currently being experienced at concerning levels and leaders must take proactive steps to drive improvements. As previously discussed, the impacts of workplace stress are devastating for both the individual and the organization.
Creating an environment that allows employees to attain work-life balance is not a nice to have, but a necessity to maintain a healthy workforce and achieve sustainable success.
