You would be amazed to know that India reports a staggering growth of 70% of workers struggling with work-related stress at least once in every week! As surprising as it sounds, this statistic surpasses the Asia-Pacific average of 60%. In this blog, you will learn about the complexities of work-related stress, and learn about the most effective strategies that can help you develop a healthier, and more supportive work environment!
How do you define work-stress? The term ‘work-stress’ is used to refer to the physical, emotional, and psychological strain that an individual experiences in response to any work-related demand. This could be felt in the form of inevitable pressure and expectations.
Work-stress results from an imbalance between the demands of your job and your ability to cope with that demand. This imbalance creates an overwhelming feeling, a sense of frustration, and heightened exhaustion. Work-stress can manifest itself either through physical symptoms like fatigue or headache, emotional symptoms like anxiety or irritation, or behavioral symptoms like absenteeism or decreasing productivity. Therefore, a chronic exposure to work-stress can severely affect your physical & mental health, thereby impacting your overall performance and wellbeing.
In the context of organizational behavior, work stress can be defined as the phenomenon of stress which is experienced by people within a typical workplace setting.
1. Workload
2. Role ambiguity
3. Interpersonal conflicts
4. Lack of control
5. Organizational culture
Work-stress in organizational behavior affects an employee’s attitude, behavior, and work performance. This field is studied from multiple perspectives, which include individual, group, and organizational levels to understand its causes, consequences and all other potential interventions.
Organizational behavior attempts to identify effective strategies that can help promote these 3 things:
1. Employee wellbeing
2. Improving organizational effectiveness
3. Creating a healthier work environment
A stressful work environment can create several problems like irregular sleep, temperament issues, frequent headaches, stomach ache, and difficulty in concentrating. If not paid heed to, this stress can eventually develop into a chronic problem, creating insomnia, high blood pressure, or even a weakened immune system and anxiety!
Remember!
If you have already been suffering from health conditions like heart disease, obesity, or depression, work stress can add to your misery. Therefore, in an attempt to cope up with this, instead of turning to unhealthy habits like overeating, junk food, smoking, or use of alcohol and drugs, you must seek out healthy ways that will help you in the long run.
Looking for some tips? Here you go!
1. Keep a check on your stressors: Did you feel an intense pain in your forehead or raise your voice or did you go to the snack counter immediately after having a stressful event? Here’s where journaling can help. Recording your thoughts, feelings, and details about the atmosphere, people and situations can help you identify specific situations which created the most stress and how you respond to them.
2. Start off your day on a good note: Having a stressful day depends on how you begin your day. Hence you should avoid having a stressful morning as much as possible. If you begin your day with effective planning, nutrition and a positive attitude, you will be able to tackle a good amount of stress at your workplace or let it roll off easily.
3. Be clear about what you need: When you don’t know exactly what you are required for and your role keeps changing with little or no notice you might feel extremely pressured or stressed. In such a case, make sure to talk directly to your supervisor. It is always a good idea to go over your expectations and discuss ways for you to meet them accurately without it being stressful for you or your employer.
4. Develop a healthy response: Any kind of physical activity acts as a very good stressbuster and helps you release the work-related pressure that you have been carrying. Some examples could be exercise, yoga, playing games with your family, or even reading a book. Additionally, good quality sleep is also essential for effective stress management. Build healthy habits, limit your caffeine intake, and screen time, and engage in leisure activities that allow you a window to breathe.
5. Establish boundaries: Establishing boundaries at work is important but you must also have some work-life boundaries for yourself. This allows you to set a time for yourself to check your mail and keep your phone aside when you are on a break. These habits will help you reduce potential work-life conflict and the stress that accrues out of it.
6. Forget about multitasking: multitasking allows you to maximize what you can do with your time. However, its major downfall is, with so much going on at the same time, you find it extremely difficult to split your focus and oftentimes, it doesn’t work well for most people.
These are some of the most effective ways you can handle work-related stress without feeling overwhelmed or burdened. Seek help from the friends and family members you trust the most, whenever you are unable to manage stress. Ask your employer for stress management resources (if any) and go through other resources like online information, counseling, and consulting mental health professionals. If you still feel a burn out, you must see a psychologist and seek help to tackle your stress effectively.
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