Stress and anxiety are symptoms of very specific emotions, triggered sometimes by disappointment, overwhelm, or isolation. At some point, everyone will experience negative emotions at work, albeit to different intensities. However, recognising workplace stress as a symptom of a more complex emotion can help a person overcome it. The same goes for workplace anxiety too.
People spend a huge amount of their lives at work. During that time, they will experience many ups and downs, busy and quiet periods, and work with different personalities.
When the going is good, employee morale peaks. But when the going gets tough, employees can feel unsettled, causing them to underperform.
Workplace wellbeing covers many areas, including:
Now, striking a balance to ensure these categories are met is tricky, especially when each employee has different priorities. Nevertheless, a broad wellbeing strategy that focuses a little bit on everything is the most comprehensive and usually has the best chance of delivering a great employee experience.
Reducing stress and anxiety triggers could involve giving your employees a discount scheme, which would alleviate their worries about the increasing cost of living, or providing them with a wellbeing platform so that they have the resources to take care of their mental and physical health.
Giving your teams the tools to manage their emotional health can make them more resilient to stress and anxiety. Pausing and reflecting helps people objectively think about why they are having a specific thought or feeling.
This helps them understand the trigger and how to approach it. For example, they may realise that when they are hungry, they are easily frustrated and quick to anger.
Positive emotions tend to be easier to articulate as they are more obvious. For instance, if an employee receives a compliment from their manager, they may feel encouraged. When a salesperson signs a new deal, they likely feel accomplished.
Negative emotions can be quite different. Suppose an employee receives criticism from their manager or gets let down by a colleague. In either of these examples, they might feel quite stressed or anxious. However, the causes of their anxiety or stress may not be immediately clear, as these small frustrations can build up slowly over time.
When someone says they’re stressed, they are describing a symptom or reaction to a feeling they have experienced, and they may not fully understand the cause or trigger.
Books have been written about ways to deal with stress and anxiety. Meditation, exercise, cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), and many other methods have been tried and do — most of the time, work.
However, to truly deal with stress, a person needs to identify the cause, which can be a complex reaction to an event — or someone else's behaviour.
The three triggers that typically contribute to workplace stress include:
Put simply, a person feels disappointment when an outcome does not meet their expectations — something that happens all the time in the business world.
As a manager, disappointment can occur when their team misses its targets. Alternatively, an employee may feel disappointed after losing out on a promotion.
In both instances, if the emotion isn’t recognised as disappointment, symptoms of stress can quickly escalate.
The manager may start panicking about what they will relay to their superiors, and the employee might worry about their position at the company.
One way to overcome disappointment is to reflect on what has happened and work towards managing future expectations.
Many employees need active support to thrive at work. They need to be shown appreciation and provided with direction. If employees don’t receive adequate support, it leads to isolation, which contributes to stress.
Recognising isolation as the cause of workplace stress or anxiety means a person can take action and seek the support they need, provided they are in a place to do this. Rather than feeling out of control, which leads to more stress.
With Perkbox, employees can recognise each other from the app, whether they work from home or are in the office. This keeps everyone connected, as colleagues don't have to be in the same location to show appreciation.
Plus, managers can attach points to each recognition they send, so those who go the extra mile know their effort earns them rewards. Employees can save or redeem these points right away against over 8,500 rewards.
When the work keeps piling up and seems neverending, it often results in panic or overwhelm. Overwhelm causes symptoms of stress or, more likely, anxiety. So it's important to recognise these feelings for what they are to avoid spiralling.
There are plenty of tips for dealing with this cause of stress, but in this instance, positive self-talk can help. For example, talking through what needs to get done, how much time there is to do it, and how to get through it all.
More importantly, try to outline the steps to take if the deadline is missed. A contingency plan is very useful here. Accepting that a project can't be completed in time and offering an alternative plan goes a long way in alleviating symptoms of overwhelm.
Managing sources of workplace stress is often easier said than done, especially if a person is unfamiliar with grounding techniques and has not previously engaged in methods to protect their mental health. Only when a person is having a crisis do they usually think about ways to make themselves feel better, not before.
With Perkbox, your teams have access to a holistic mental and physical wellbeing library, which is constantly updated with quality content curated by industry experts. From mindful meditations to relaxing yoga flows, there are plenty of anxiety-reducing resources in addition to full-body workouts and educational webinars.
We've put together this guide to help you create the best possible employee wellbeing strategy.
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