While just about everyone is affected to some degree about stress at work, excessive stress can lead to decreased productivity, less job satisfaction and a diving efficiency. Moreover, this excessive stress can affect your relationships and home life, not to mention your emotional and physical health. It is, therefore, important to take measures to protect yourself from the stressors of work. Read on to know more about what are the stressors at work and what you can do to decrease this stress:
What are the stressors at work?
Different people can be stressed out about different things, however, the common stressors include: low salaries, lack of social support, conflicting excessive workload or workload that is not challenging enough, and few opportunities for growth. Even if you love what you do, there can be certain elements that induce stress, for no environment is ever tension free.
The thing about stress at work is that it just doesn’t disappear once you head home. Most people bring work stress at home, and thereby cause it to affect their personal life as well. This stress is compounded by unhealthy ways people often adopt to counteract this stress, like overeating and smoking.
Effect of stressors at work?
If an employee is stressed at work, it is not unnatural to assume that he is under-performing. Work stress is, therefore, associated with global and national recession as well as job insecurity. With more work conflicts and subsequent stress, there is an increased incidence of psychological distress, mental illness and more interpersonal conflicts. The latter can lead to a negative impact on children’s mental health and disrupted parenting.
Mental and emotional stress can also have physical manifestations. Work stress can amplify problems such as headaches, stomach aches, muscle tension, difficulty concentrating and sleep disturbances. Moreover, small bursts of temper, high blood pressure and a weakened immune system are all part of the physical manifestation of stress.
When there is excessive work stress, you may lose your confidence and become withdrawn. There can also be apathy, and loss of interest in your work. Not only can you be disinterested in work, but you can also be withdrawn socially.
How to manage work-related stress?
Track down what stresses you: The first step to managing workplace conflict and stress is to admit that you are facing a problem and then finding ways to remedy the situation. According to a study on perception of work stress, many participants perceived stress as a feminine trait and as such few admitted to it.
Therefore, identification and tracking down of work stressors is crucial to managing stress. In this regard, keeping a journal for a short period of time—a week or so—can help you identify which situations are acting as your triggers.
Record your feelings, and emotions in accordance with the work environment that you are facing; write about the people and circumstances involved, including the physical setting. Also, make a note of how you reacted to the external stressors. Your reaction is key to determining how a work thing is impacting your emotional health.
Reach out for help: a great way to beat work stress is to talk out the situation with a closed one. The act of talking out, getting sympathy and support can be a highly effective way of combating stress. It doesn’t have to be someone you are looking for advice from, just a good listener would do.
Seek help from co-workers: work stress and work problems can be managed efficiently if one seeks help from co-workers. You never know what they might have faced a similar problem at work and know exactly how you feel. If, however, you are not that close to your co-workers, then maybe you should extend a social hand forward and be more socially active with your colleagues.
A simple way can be to engage with your work fellows during office breaks and hang out with them instead of directing your attention to your smartphone.
Support your health: if the physical health is better, the mental health follows suit. It is important to make time for exercise and pay attention to nutrition to mitigate the effects of stress on the body. We are not talking a complete lifestyle overhaul, but small changes in fact, that can lift your mood and make you healthier as well. A healthy lifestyle can lift your mood and increase your energy to the point where you feel able to tackle anything.
Benefits of combating work conflicts and stress
Needless to say, combating work stress can help improve both physical and mental health. Moreover, it can improve personal productivity, and increase job satisfaction. If one is less stressed at work, there would be more work engagement and a healthy work environment.
Employers should also take measures to prevent employee burnout through stress management resources and employee assistance programs (EAP).
It is important to focus on the emotional health for the wellbeing of the mind; recognizing stress and identifying its source can go a long way in initiating treatment. If you need professional help in doing so then book an appointment with top psychologists through oladoc.com, or call our helpline at 042-3890-0939 for assistance to find the RIGHT professional for your concerns.
