What is stress?
Stress is a psychological condition in which the body is subjected to extreme mental or emotional pressure. Various circumstances or life happenings can lead to stress in an individual’s life. It affects the health of the person to a great extent.
Everyone has their way of dealing with stress. It depends on many factors such as the person’s upbringing, social and economic reasons, personality, and genetics.
- When we come across any stressful situation, our body releases stress hormones that initiate a fight or flight response and stimulates our immune system. This body mechanism helps us to react quickly to dangerous situations.
- Stress is not always harmful because for some it serves as a motivation factor to perform well. Stress creates a feeling of challenge, determination, and self-confidence to prove their abilities. But the main concern here is that how much stress levels can be considered positive. Very high stress levels can pose a negative impact on a person’s mental and physical health.
What is work-related stress?
Work-related stress arises when individuals are assigned workloads of various types and pressures that do not match their knowledge, abilities and thus challenge them to cope with it.
Occupational stress in the workplace can cause employees to enter the office every morning with fear and give them sleepless nights having thoughts of losing their job.
As fascinating and attractive it appears, but the package comes along with certain cons for many people. It’s a roller-coaster ride for many staff personnel to balance work-life.
Causes of office stress –
- Long-hours of meetings
- Always’s under pressure to prove yourself
- Job insecurity
- No support from superiors
- Bad management practices
- Conflicts with co-workers
- High demanding workloads
- Insufficient job skills
- Unable to manage relationships and family responsibilities
- Long work timings
Work-related symptoms –
Stress indicators are three types such as physical, mental, and behavioral. They are as follows
Physical symptoms:
- Fatigue
- Muscle pain
- Headaches
- Heart palpitations
- Insomnia
- Diarrhea
- Constipation
- Reduced sex drive
Mental–related symptoms
- Depression
- Anxiety
- Discouragement
- Confusion
- Less concentration
- Restlessness
- Irritability
- Anger
- Feeling inferior
- Pessimism
- Unable to cope with stress
Behavioral symptoms:
- Avoiding office
- Aggression
- Poor work performance
- Issues with interpersonal relationships
- Anger and irritability
- Frustration
- Impatience
- Isolation
- Resort to alcohol and drugs
- Overeating or under-eating
- Tobacco use
How to manage office stress?
- Exercise regularly
- Practicing deep breathing, meditation, yoga, tai chi, or massage
- Eat healthy food
- Keep a sense of humor
- Get support from family and friends
- Taking out time for hobbies, such as reading books, listening to music, doing any sports or anything which you enjoy
- If possible going out for vacation
- Take proper rest and sleep well
- Organize your work
- Don’t over commit
- Try not to be a perfectionist
- You can have a word with your manager or human resources manager at your workplace
- Take advice from health professionals, (doctor, psychologist), if required
Work-related issues are unavoidable due to present-day scenarios in the corporate field and high competition in the market. But it’s the company’s responsibility to ensure that employees do not face unnecessary stress.
The managers, HR, and other related management staff should motivate employees in their work, improve communication, assign work according to their working abilities, and encourage them to participate in social activities in the office (wellness programs, meeting in lunch, etc)
By following these practices, a positive response can be seen within the company staff, and it will also benefit the company drastically.
