How to identify and manage workplace stress

An employee might withdraw from the stress by changing jobs or industries to a better person-job fit or temporarily by taking a holiday or work breaks. FOTOSEARCH 

By SCOTT BELLOWS

In Summary

• Know the effects of anxiety and seek guidance if you or your employees experience burnout.

He tried every relaxation technique that came to his mind. HoweverNgugi paced up and down the halls of his office building. His palms perspired, his heart rate accelerated, and he found himself unable to eat. , try as he did, Ngugi dreaded an upcoming meeting with his boss.

Many of us sympathise with Ngugi’s predicament. He suffered from work-related stress affects. So, how might we define stress? Psychologists dictate that stress entails an adaptive response to a situation that someone perceives as challenging or threatening to their well-being.

Perhaps no job exists on the planet that does not entail some levels of stress. Our brains take our bodies through three stages as we adapt to stress.

First, we react to the stressor in the alarm reactor stage. Our reactions drop below our normal resistance level. Next, we experience heightened resistance in the second stage.

Then, our body lowers its resistance in the exhaustion stage. If you find yourself going through the stages with intensive frequency, you must implement a change at work. Science shows us that stress stages cause three main problems in our lives.

First, stress leads to physiological consequences including cardiovascular diseases, ulcers, headaches, and of course sexual dysfunction. Second, the behavioural consequences of stress include diminished work performance, accidents, poor decisions, increased absenteeism, and workplace aggression. Third, psychological consequences of stress include depression, moodiness, and emotional fatigue.

High tension

Now hopefully we may all agree in unison that we should not allow a constant state of stress as the modus operandi in our workplaces. So, let us examine how we, along with Ngugi, may reduce stress in our work environments.

In so doing, we m

ust first understand the causes of workplace stress. The physical environment, job role, organisational, and interpersonal conditions all play large parts in impacting our tension levels.

If a workplace involves taxing conditions, they certainly lead to stress. Alternatively, an open floor plan office layout may cause significant stress to introverted employees.

Stress related to your job role takes root in the ambiguity of your job description, too much or too little workload, no control over your work schedule, and internal conflict between your personality type and the role.

Stress involving interpersonal issues emanates from conflict with your co-workers, too much team work required at your office, and bullying along with the more extreme sexual harassment and workplace violence.

Employees often carry non-work stress into the workplace which accentuates office pressures. Sometimes ridiculously long work hours exacerbate tension.

Often working parents do double duty by going home and managing children and a household after work hours. All such personal strains may impact stress at work.

Each of us perceives stress differently. Employees with high self-efficacy have a greater view of their own skills and capabilities that, in turn, causes stress levels to reduce. Also, those closer to the locus of control in an organisation exhibit less stress as they feel more influence over their situation.