Stress management is often underrated. When people think about stress, it’s not something that they feel is important. Many of them have this mindset that hard work comes with stress and there’s nothing they can do about it. “I must work until I break”, the regular employee with deep, sunken, and tired eyes says that while typing on the computer, working gruelling 12 hours shifts. While we understand that work is essential to put food on the table, the stress that comes with heavy or overtime work should not be taken lightly.
Work-related stress can induce anxiety, decrease self-esteem, promote burn-out, and destabilize performance. Mishandling work-related stress can drastically affect a person’s physical and mental health. Employees should be able to recognize what are the work stressors so that they could remedy them. Remember, employee mental health is important. Because life is not just about work, it’s also about well-being, too. If the rat race is getting too much to handle, then you may be stressed. In this blog, we’ll be in talks about the causes of stress at work and how to manage them effectively with anti-stress activities.
Stress Management at Work: How To Spot Stressors in the Workplace
Stressors in the workplace should be identified to prevent developing undesirable symptoms of work-related stress. Stress in the workplace is inevitable. Identifying and knowing how to handle it will help you keep your sanity and improve work-life performance. Working under pressure is fine, but not knowing how to handle the pressure will drastically affect you in the long run. Here are the work stressors that you would typically find in the workplace:
Increasing workload
Sometimes an employee gets assigned tasks that are not included in his job description. Like for example, the boss orders you around to buy him a cup of coffee around the block–and you’re not even his secretary! This happens a lot. It may be a breach of contract, but if you want to keep your boss happy, you have to do what he says. As long as you’re okay with doing some minor tasks while keeping up with your real job tasks, it should be okay. Unless these additional tasks are big enough to neglect your main duties, then it’s time to bring this concern to your HR or supervisor. The increasing workload can cause physical and mental burn-out. It also requires you to upskill in case the additional assignments are outside your speciality.
Longer working hours
Because of the increasing workload, there are chances that you are going to work overtime. In the Philippines, BPO employees are the workforces that usually encourage their employees to work overtime because of the high volume of calls they receive daily. They work an average of 44.5 hours per week. The queuing status goes on and on and they need a number of heads to cater for these calls. Toxic workplaces tend to overwork their employees through forcing them to render overtime. Instead of hiring new employees to aid the teams, they force their current employees to work longer hours. This is a bad practice because the employees will be burned-out. No matter what industry you’re in, working overtime at all times (volunteer or not) is unhealthy.
Unhelpful Colleagues
When you’re working in the office, you’re surrounded with colleagues who are part of your journey when it comes to work-related skills. If you’re new to the team, you’ll most likely be under the supervision of someone who is more experienced than you. Your team leader, supervisor, mentor, or whatever you call it should be assisting you in getting to know your tasks and how to execute them properly. However, if you’re around for some time now and your colleagues are not treating you well, then it will stress you out. They’re not helpful to your emotional well-being so they’re qualified as work stressors. When an employee feels out of place or does not get along with their colleagues, they feel quite stressed. With that, they may be unmotivated to perform well and might resign.
Lack of Proper Management
At work, there is a system to follow. If your department or workplace has no clear system, then you might be hopping from one task to the next (even if it’s not part of your job description). A business with a poor management system creates poor working conditions. If that situation keeps up, then employees will suffer from strained work relationships and tedious tasks. Because there is no clear system, the employees don’t know what are expected of them to perform their duties fully. They’re always moving from one task to the next. Uncertainty meets their day at work. Thus, there is no control over what are the desired results if a system is broken. This is one huge stressor in the workplace where employees are overworked and unmotivated often due to a lack of stress management.
How To Overcome Stress At Work: Stress Remedy
When dealing with work stressors, you, as an employee, should do it for your own benefit. Remember, you are not a robot. You are vulnerable to stress, and it’s your job to get yourself back up. For stress management, here are the tips you can do to overcome work stressors:
- Set priorities – even with the increasing workload, you need to prioritize those tasks with the nearest deadlines. If the task(s) assigned to you are outside of your scope, delegate it to someone who knows it well.
- Make time for breaks – no employee should work their shift without taking a break. Set aside the pending tasks and grab a bite or take a nap. Working overtime to make up for tasks should not hurt if you take your breaks at work.
- Take your day offs – when a five day work week is stressful enough, make use of your day-offs to recuperate. Do the things that de-stress you, may it be a favorite hobby or two.
Stress Management Training For Employees Online
We care about your employees as much as you do. If you want to have a stress management webinar for employees, hit us up. For employee mental health training online, you can access our services.