Did you Know?
- We are sleeping 1-2 hours less than we did 60 years ago?
- Over 2/3rd’s of us work outside of our contracted working hours?
- On average employees lose 6 days of their annual holiday because they don’t take them?
All of this contributes to feeling overworked and our emotional wellbeing affecting so many different areas of our life. Stress and anxiety creep in without you even noticing and upset our mood, and negatively alter the decision making we do on a day to day basis.
Blurry boundaries, never-ending online meetings, uncertainties and disconnection from colleagues are all leading to many of us feeling overwhelmed at work. Therefore, stress within the workplace is becoming more and more common.
An effect on employee’s mental and physical health in 2022/23 was that almost 24 million days were lost due to work-related stress, anxiety and depression.
Despite this, many employees continue to work when unwell with stress related absence, continuing to working from home whilst on sick leave or even using annual leave to ensure workloads at met.
Identify the sources of stress
Some stress is good for us; it can keep us alert and boost cognitive performance.
However, raised levels of stress can inadvertently lead to anxiety, poor health and burnout. So taking care of our physical, mental, and emotional well-being is essential to prevent it. The first step to coping with stress and burnout is to identify the triggers
What is making you feel overwhelmed at work? (workload, deadlines, conflicts within the workplace, lack of resources, feedback, or a multitude of things that are contributing)
What impact is this having on you? (Emotional, physical, mental)
What support can you seek within your organisation?
A great way to identify this would be to use a stress diary to track and evaluate your stress levels and responses. This will support and articulating your finding in a professional manner when seeking support, bring alive a true reflection which will enable you to evidenced where you need support most.
Here are 10 ways to reduce stress in your daily work life:
Know the difference between good enough and great?
Start your week by identifying and prioritise tasks that need to be done and accept that not everything has to be perfect.
Is it substantial enough to topple the tower?
Prioritise where to use your energies. Ask yourself if any of this is going to topple the tower? If it is, place your energy, time and focus into that.
Gain perspective
By gaining perspective from a trusted peer on how they would manage the situation and their stresses/anxieties can be impactful. As the old saying goes “a problem shared is a problem halved”. This can include your family, friends, colleagues, mentors, coaches, or therapist at Total Wellbeing Luton. You can also join online or offline communities who share similar challenges and experiences
Build the boundaries
Set boundaries within the workplace; be purposeful in considering where you may be required to push back on your “Yes overload”.
Set limitations on when and how often you check and respond to your emails and always use the automatic reply more intentionally when you need to focus on tasks and require protected time or are just genuinely out of the office (i.e. not in working hours or annual leave).
By setting boundaries and limits, you can avoid distractions and interruptions, and improve your productivity and work-life balance.
Just say No
As previously mentioned if you find it hard to say no, practice the art of saying 'not now'. Help others to understand what is time-critical and what the time frames you can achieve.
Open the tap of the stress bucket
If your stress levels are rising, take the time to rest and reset. This will feel challenging, but it's key for your resilience and just 5 minutes can make all the difference.
Beware of doing it all yourself
Perfectionism at work plays a huge part in increased stress and anxiety; this can get in the way of truly being our best at work and affects many of us within the workplace. However by letting our colleagues help we can receive the support we need, the same outcomes/common goal can be achieved. 'If something can be completed 80% as well by someone else, delegate!' Jon Maxwell
Switch off and Rediscover
Switching off momentarily is another way to take back control when feeling overwhelmed. What inspiring things have you read, watched or listened to recently?
How often are you exercising? This can reduces stress hormones, which helps calm the body and can be anything from walking around the block, joining a local team, or rediscovering hobbies you previously enjoyed.
Mental Massage
If you had tension in your shoulder which is causing pain you wouldn’t hesitate to attend an Osteopath or physiotherapist, so why are we so afraid to seek out a professional for our mental health? At some point in our lives will all be affected by mental health issue, hence why it is important to take care of our mind and seek out talking therapy?
This will allow you to naturally heal, give you the tools and techniques to evaluate your life, wellbeing and make the changes you feel may be necessary. All carried out in an impartial, confidential and professional space.
Learn and grow
Here at Total Wellbeing Luton, the employment advisory team always encourage clients to see this as opportunities to learn and grow. Instead of dwelling on the negative aspects of your situation, you can focus on the positive ones.
You can learn from the situation, become more informed about the support your company has to offer you, the skills you can develop, what goals you can achieve, and what changes you can make to give you a better work/life balance.
Follow us on LinkedIn here for more tips and insights on coping with workplace stress.