How To Deal With Stress In Your Workplace?

Stress is part of life – there is not much you can do about it! But that doesn’t mean that you must suffer from the different symptoms stress will cause you.

A bit of stress can be actually good for you as many times it adds to your motivation to take some action to get rid of or change the circumstances that add stress to your life. If you feel overwhelmed with your projects at work and feel stress mounting up inside, a healthy stress response would be to go to your manager and ask for help or ask for a new deadline. You take action to solve the issue and this helps to relieve the tension inside.

What happens if you get no support from your manager in that situation or nothing changes even after you asked for help a few times? When you see no way out from a situation, no chance to solve the issue or influence the solutions – a small irritation can turn into a major stressor in your work life.

Too much or constant stress will not only kill your motivation to do your best work, it can threaten your physical and mental health, too.

The first signs of facing a stressor can be procrastination and avoidance. You try everything not to face the reality of the situation, begin procrastinating on projects or missing meetings. The problem with reacting this way is that the problem will not go away. You will have less time and chance of renegotiating with every minute you procrastinate. And this will lead to even more stress. A never ending circle!

In every stress situation there are 2 important factors:

1.the source/cause of stress: the stressor

2.and your reaction to the situation: your stress response.

Let’s look at both factors separately!

You should deal with the source of stress in your life, there is no way around it. You might opt to take pills or herbal medications to deal with your stress response, but if you don’t do something about the source of this problem, the solution you picked might be short-lived.

A few tips:

-before the situation gets out of hand, try to set up a clarifying meeting with your boss. Even if you tried talking with him/her once, try again. Your manager has a vested interest in keeping you motivated and doing the best job you can. Important is that you don’t complain – that rarely solves anything. Concentrate on setting up priorities and renegotiating.

–create a better solution. Use the freedom you have in your job and come up with a better work organization. Try out the new solutions, gather proof that your ideas work then share with your manager.

–clear expectations. Many times misunderstandings around projects, confusion around the deliverables will lead to much unneeded stress. The only way to deal with this: discuss with your team and create clear, manageable, realistic and measurable goals. A system for follow-ups will help tremendously, too.  

Most important is this: The more proactive you are, the less powerless you feel. The feeling of being able to influence the outcome will decrease stress levels immediately.

In our upcoming blogposts we will look at the options you have to change your stress response and heal the damage stress is causing in your life. Stay tuned to our new articles in the coming weeks!

In the meantime, starting a corporate wellness program is proved to help alleviate stress in the workplace. Please get in contact so we can help you find the best solution for your company’s needs!

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