Work-related stress is becoming increasingly common. It does not necessarily mean that you dislike your job; it may be caused by tight deadlines, colleagues and other factors. Work-related stress is a serious issue, and you may feel there is nothing you can do to eliminate it.
Feeling stressed can be harmful to your physical and emotional health. You cannot always avoid the pressures that arise at work, but you can take steps to manage work-related stress.
The most common causes are:
• Excessive workloads
• Lack of support
• Limited opportunities for growth or development
• Low salaries
• Complex work with insufficient or no training
Stress can affect your overall well-being, not just your working life. It can impact every area of your life, prevent you from thinking clearly and even leave you feeling paralysed. It can also stop you from enjoying your personal relationships. We need to keep stress under control, as it can lead to more serious health conditions.
We have put together five tips to help you manage stress in the workplace.
Stop and take a deep breath:
It may sound obvious, but it is absolutely vital. When stress begins to overwhelm us and we feel our bodies starting to tense up, we should stop and focus entirely on the air entering and leaving our lungs. By thinking only about our breathing, we can begin to calm down.
Minimise interruptions:
Office employees are interrupted seven times an hour and distracted for approximately two hours a day by emails, calls, instant messages, WhatsApp, colleagues dropping by and sudden urgent deadlines. You may not be able to control who interrupts you, but you can control how you respond.
When you are interrupted, accept it, decide how important the task is and make a plan. For example, only respond to emails during a set period and close the door when you need to concentrate, to prevent colleagues from dropping by. If someone has an urgent request, they are more likely to call you or come and speak to you than send an email.
Set work-life boundaries:
In today’s digital world, it is easy to feel under pressure to be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. For the sake of our mental health, we need to establish clear work-life boundaries. Avoid checking emails or answering calls outside office hours. We may all have different preferences regarding how much we combine our work and home lives, but setting clear boundaries can help reduce work-related conflict and the stress it causes.
Switch off:
We need to recharge our batteries and learn to relax. To avoid the negative effects of stress, we need time to return to our normal level of functioning. This means ‘switching off’ from work by setting aside a period when we neither engage with nor think about it.
Take time off work when possible so that you can relax and rest, allowing you to return feeling revitalised. If you cannot take time off, learn to unwind using techniques such as meditation, deep breathing and mindfulness to help relieve stress.
Ask for support:
Healthy employees tend to be more productive, so your employer has an incentive to create a working environment that promotes employee well-being. If you feel comfortable doing so, start a conversation with your supervisor and explain how you feel and what is causing you stress. Developing an effective plan to help you manage these feelings may improve your experience at work.
Accepting help from family and friends can improve your ability to manage stress. Your employer may also have a system in place offering resources for managing workplace stress, including online information, counselling and referrals to mental health professionals.
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