In this difficult economy, many of us are finding it harder than
ever to cope with stress in the workplace. Regardless of occupation,
seniority, or salary level, we’re spending more and more of our work
days feeling frazzled and out of control, instead of alert and relaxed.
While some stress is a normal part of the workplace,
excessive stress can interfere with your productivity and reduce your
physical and emotional health. Finding ways to manage workplace stress
is not about making huge changes to every aspect of your work life or
rethinking career ambitions. Rather, stress management requires focus
on the one thing that’s always within your control: you.
Coping with work stress in today’s uncertain climate
For workers everywhere, the troubled economy may feel
like an emotional roller coaster. "Layoffs" and "budget cuts" have
become bywords in the workplace, and the result is increased fear,
uncertainty, and higher levels of stress. Since job and workplace stress
increase in times of economic crisis, it’s important to learn new and
better ways of coping with the pressure.
The ability to manage stress in the workplace can not
only improve your physical and emotional health, it can also make the
difference between success or failure on the job. Your emotions are
contagious, and stress has an impact on the quality of your
interactions with others. The better you are at managing your own
stress, the more you'll positively affect those around you, and the
less other people's stress will negatively affect you.
You can learn how to manage job stress
There are a variety of steps you can take to reduce
both your overall stress levels and the stress you find on the job and
in the workplace. These include:
- Taking responsibility for improving your physical and emotional well-being.
- Avoiding pitfalls by identifying knee jerk habits and negative attitudes that add to the stress you experience at work.
- Learning better communication skills to ease and improve your relationships with management and coworkers.
Tip 1: Recognize warning signs of excessive stress at work
When you feel overwhelmed at work, you lose
confidence and may become irritable or withdrawn. This can make you
less productive and less effective in your job, and make the work seem
less rewarding. If you ignore the warning signs of work stress, they
can lead to bigger problems. Beyond interfering with job performance
and satisfaction, chronic or intense stress can also lead to physical
and emotional health problems.
Signs and symptoms of excessive job and workplace stress
- Feeling anxious, irritable, or depressed
- Apathy, loss of interest in work
- Problems sleeping
- Fatigue
- Trouble concentrating
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- Muscle tension or headaches
- Stomach problems
- Social withdrawal
- Loss of sex drive
- Using alcohol or drugs to cope
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Common causes of excessive workplace stress
- Fear of being laid off
- More overtime due to staff cutbacks
- Pressure to perform to meet rising expectations but with no increase in job satisfaction
- Pressure to work at optimum levels – all the time!
Tip 2: Reduce job stress by taking care of yourself
When stress at work interferes with your ability to
perform in your job, manage your personal life, or adversely impacts
your health, it’s time to take action. Start by paying attention to
your physical and emotional health. When your own needs are taken care
of, you’re stronger and more resilient to stress. The better you feel,
the better equipped you’ll be to manage work stress without becoming
overwhelmed.
Taking care of yourself doesn’t require a total
lifestyle overhaul. Even small things can lift your mood, increase your
energy, and make you feel like you’re back in the driver’s seat. Take
things one step at a time, and as you make more positive lifestyle
choices, you’ll soon notice a reduction in your stress levels, both at
home and at work.
Get moving
Aerobic exercise—activity that raises your heart rate
and makes you sweat—is a hugely effective way to lift your mood,
increase energy, sharpen focus, and relax both the mind and body. For
maximum stress relief, try to get at least 30 minutes of heart-pounding
activity on most days. If it’s easier to fit into your schedule, break
up the activity into two or three shorter segments.
Make food choices that keep you going
Low blood sugar can make you feel anxious and
irritable, while eating too much can make you lethargic. By eating
small but frequent meals throughout the day, you can help your body
maintain an even level of blood sugar and avoid these swings in mood.
Drink alcohol in moderation and avoid nicotine
Alcohol temporarily reduces anxiety and worry, but
too much can cause anxiety as it wears off. Drinking to relieve job
stress may also eventually lead to alcohol abuse and dependence.
Similarly, smoking when you're feeling stressed and overwhelmed may seem
calming, but nicotine is a powerful stimulant – leading to higher, not
lower, levels of anxiety.
Get enough sleep
Not only can stress and worry can cause insomnia,
but a lack of sleep can leave you vulnerable to even more stress. When
you're well-rested, it's much easier to keep your emotional balance, a
key factor in coping with job and workplace stress.
Tip 3: Reduce job stress by prioritizing and organizing
When job and workplace stress threatens to overwhelm
you, there are simple steps you can take to regain control over
yourself and the situation. Your newfound ability to maintain a sense
of self-control in stressful situations will often be well-received by
coworkers, managers, and subordinates alike, which can lead to better
relationships at work. Here are some suggestions for reducing job
stress by prioritizing and organizing your responsibilities.
Time management tips for reducing job stress
- Create a balanced schedule.
Analyze your schedule, responsibilities, and daily tasks. All work and
no play is a recipe for burnout. Try to find a balance between work and
family life, social activities and solitary pursuits, daily
responsibilities and downtime.
- Don’t over-commit yourself.
Avoid scheduling things back-to-back or trying to fit too much into one
day. All too often, we underestimate how long things will take. If
you've got too much on your plate, distinguish between the "shoulds"
and the "musts." Drop tasks that aren't truly necessary to the bottom
of the list or eliminate them entirely.
- Try to leave earlier in the morning.
Even 10-15 minutes can make the difference between frantically rushing
to your desk and having time to ease into your day. Don’t add to your
stress levels by running late.
- Plan regular breaks. Make sure
to take short breaks throughout the day to take a walk or sit back and
clear your mind. Also try to get away from your desk or work station
for lunch. Stepping away from work to briefly relax and recharge will
help you be more, not less, productive.
Task management tips for reducing job stress
- Prioritize tasks. Make a list of
tasks you have to do, and tackle them in order of importance. Do the
high-priority items first. If you have something particularly
unpleasant to do, get it over with early. The rest of your day will be
more pleasant as a result.
- Break projects into small steps.
If a large project seems overwhelming, make a step-by-step plan. Focus
on one manageable step at a time, rather than taking on everything at
once.
- Delegate responsibility. You
don’t have to do it all yourself. If other people can take care of the
task, why not let them? Let go of the desire to control or oversee
every little step. You’ll be letting go of unnecessary stress in the
process.
- Be willing to compromise. When
you ask someone to contribute differently to a task, revise a deadline,
or change their behavior at work, be willing to do the same.
Sometimes, if you can both bend a little, you’ll be able to find a happy
middle ground that reduces the stress levels for everyone concerned.
Tip 4: Reduce job stress by improving emotional intelligence
Even if you’re in a job where the environment has grown increasingly
stressful, you can retain a large measure of self-control and
self-confidence by understanding and practicing emotional intelligence.
Emotional intelligence is the ability to manage and use your emotions
in positive and constructive ways. When it comes to satisfaction and
success at work, emotional intelligence matters just as much as
intellectual ability. Emotional intelligence is about communicating
with others in ways that draw people to you, overcome differences,
repair wounded feelings, and defuse tension and stress.
Emotional intelligence in the workplace:
Emotional intelligence in the workplace has four major components:
- Self-awareness – The ability to recognize your emotions and their impact while using gut feelings to guide your decisions.
- Self-management – The ability to control your emotions and behavior and adapt to changing circumstances.
- Social awareness – The ability to sense, understand, and react to others emotions and feel comfortable socially.
- Relationship management – The ability to inspire, influence, and connect to others and manage conflict.
The five key skills of emotional intelligence
There are five key skills that you need to master in order to raise your emotional intelligence and manage stress at work.
- Realize when you’re stressed,
recognize your particular stress response, and become familiar with
sensual cues that can rapidly calm and energize you. The best way to
reduce stress quickly is through the senses: through sight, sound,
smell, taste, and touch. But each person responds differently to
sensory input, so you need to find things that are soothing to you.
- Stay connected to your internal emotional experience
so you can appropriately manage your own emotions. Your
moment-to-moment emotions influence your thoughts and actions, so pay
attention to your feelings and factor them into your decision making at
work. If you ignore your emotions you won’t be able to fully
understand your own motivations and needs, or to communicate
effectively with others.
- Recognize and effectively use the nonverbal cues
that make up 95-98% of our communication process. In many cases, what
we say is less important than how we say it or the other nonverbal
signals we send out, such as eye contact, facial expression, tone of
voice, posture, gesture and touch. Your nonverbal messages can either
produce a sense of interest, trust, and desire for connection–or they
can generate confusion, distrust, and stress. You also need to be able
to accurately read and respond to the nonverbal cues that other people
send you at work.
- Develop the capacity to meet challenges with humor.
There is no better stress buster than a hearty laugh and nothing
reduces stress quicker in the workplace than mutually shared humor.
But, if the laugh is at someone else’s expense, you may end up with more
rather than less stress.
- Resolve conflict positively.
Resolving conflict in healthy, constructive ways can strengthen trust
between people and diffuse workplace stress and tension. When handling
emotionally-charged situations, stay focused in the present by
disregarding old hurts and resentments, connect with your emotions, and
hear both the words and the nonverbal cues being used. If a conflict
can’t be resolved, choose to end the argument, even if you still
disagree.
Tip 5: Reduce job stress by breaking bad habits
As you learn to manage your job stress and improve
your work relationships, you’ll have more control over your ability to
think clearly and act appropriately. You will be able to break habits
that add to your stress at work – and you’ll even be able to change
negative ways of thinking about things that only add to your stress.
Eliminate self-defeating behaviors
Many of us make job stress worse with negative
thoughts and behavior. If you can turn around these self-defeating
habits, you’ll find employer-imposed stress easier to handle.
- Resist perfectionism. No
project, situation, or decision is ever perfect, so trying to attain
perfection on everything will simply add unnecessary stress to your
day. When you set unrealistic goals for yourself or try to do too much,
you’re setting yourself up to fall short. Aim to do your best, no one
can ask for more than that.
- Clean up your act. If you’re
always running late, set your clocks and watches fast and give yourself
extra time. If your desk is a mess, file and throw away the clutter;
just knowing where everything is saves time and cuts stress. Make to-do
lists and cross off items as you accomplish them. Plan your day and
stick to the schedule — you’ll feel less overwhelmed.
- Flip your negative thinking. If
you see the downside of every situation and interaction, you’ll find
yourself drained of energy and motivation. Try to think positively
about your work, avoid negative-thinking co-workers, and pat yourself
on the back about small accomplishments, even if no one else does.
- Don’t try to control the uncontrollable.
Many things at work are beyond our control— particularly the behavior
of other people. Rather than stressing out over them, focus on the
things you can control such as the way you choose to react to problems.
Five Ways to Dispel Stress
- Take time away. When stress is
mounting at work, try to take a quick break and move away from the
stressful situation. Take a stroll outside the workplace if possible,
or spend a few minutes meditating in the break room. Physical movement
or finding a quiet place to regain your balance can quickly reduce
stress.
- Talk it over with someone. In
some situations, simply sharing your thoughts and feelings with someone
you trust can help reduce stress. Talking over a problem with someone
who is both supportive and empathetic can be a great way to let off
steam and relieve stress.
- Connect with others at work.
Developing friendships with some of your co-workers can help buffer you
from the negative effects of stress. Remember to listen to them and
offer support when they are in need as well.
- Look for humor in the situation.
When used appropriately, humor is a great way to diffuse stress in the
workplace. When you or those around you start taking things too
seriously, find a way to lighten the mood by sharing a joke or funny
story.
Tip 6: Learn how managers or employers can reduce job stress
It's in a manager's best interest to keep stress
levels in the workplace to a minimum. Managers can act as positive role
models, especially in times of high stress, by following the tips
outlined in this article. If a respected manager can remain calm in
stressful work situations, it is much easier for his or her employees
to also remain calm.
Additionally, there are a number of organizational
changes that managers and employers can make to reduce workplace
stress. These include:
Improve communication
- Share information with employees to reduce uncertainty about their jobs and futures.
- Clearly define employees’ roles and responsibilities.
- Make communication friendly and efficient, not mean-spirited or petty.
Consult your employees
- Give workers opportunities to participate in decisions that affect their jobs.
- Consult employees about scheduling and work rules.
- Be sure the workload is suitable to employees’ abilities and resources; avoid unrealistic deadlines.
- Show that individual workers are valued.
- Offer rewards and incentives.
- Praise good work performance, both verbally and officially, through schemes such as Employee of the Month.
- Provide opportunities for career development.
- Promote an “entrepreneurial” work climate that gives employees more control over their work.
Cultivate a friendly social climate
- Provide opportunities for social interaction among employees.
- Establish a zero-tolerance policy for harassment.
- Make management actions consistent with organizational values.
