Four Ways You Can Manage Stress in the Workplace

How well do you manage or deal with stress in the workplace? As most are aware stress is a silent killer. So how do you control your emotions and actions so that stress does not get the best of you?

 Here are four ways that you can begin to manage your stress levels in the workplace.

1.     Learn what stress is. Stress is what happens to your body when you experience “something” (preferably negative) in your life that impacts you and everything in your environment.

2.     Understand the different levels of stress. There are 3 main types of stress – short term, long term, and chronic stress.

3.     Identify the origin or source of stressful feelings. Fears, lack of delegating tasks and responsibilities, negative co-workers, disruption in environment, etc.

4.     Take action: Once you identify the source of your stress learn how to manage and/or control it.

a.      Have a one on one with your boss or HR to have a conversation about what you are feeling

b.     Take deep breathes and allow oxygen to flow through your body

c.      On your lunch break meditate; Use on-the-go aromatherapy products in your vehicle or in a quiet environment

d.     Relax when you are at home; have an at home spa day

Defining Stress

Stress is what happens to your body when you experience “something” (preferably negative) in your life that impacts you and everything in your environment. It could be a daily stressful event (e.g., a new promotion, a disagreement with a boss, or even a backache), or more generalized events that cause you to experience “something”. Stress is usually associated with an event that brings up an emotional response or response in the body that causes some sort of physical event or reaction.  Stress is not a permanent state of mind or body. It is what happens to your body when you experience something that impacts it. So when your body reacts to stress, it is putting out chemicals that are telling your brain to react as if you are “under attack”.

Why Stress Is So Harmful

There are 3 main types of stress – short term, long term, and chronic stress.  Short term stress is the result of an urgent situation such as a hurricane, for example, or sudden unemployment. Long term stress is your everyday worries like a bad back, high blood pressure, divorce, or death in the family. Chronic stress is what you feel when your physical health begins to suffer.  When you don’t take care of yourself, stress only gets worse.

How to Manage Stress in the Workplace

Do you even know what you are stressed about? Perhaps it is something small and you are too afraid to go and talk to your boss, co-worker or anyone that you are close to because you might be considered weak.  Why it's so important to learn how to manage stress? Simply put we cannot function properly, our brains can not process the amount of energy that we are having. Think about it like an over-loaded light switch with a dying battery. 

Breathing Exercise

This can help you to take the pressure off and get you out of a bad mood quickly. However, if your breathing is shallow, then inhale deeply through your nose, hold for a second and then slowly exhale through your mouth.  This will help you to control the tension in your body.  The reason why it works is because when you breathe in deeply you put pressure on your lungs and as you breathe out you release it.  Use these breathing techniques whenever you feel tense, stressed or anxious. 

Coping with Difficult People

Disruption in the work environment can quite often cause stress.  Most working people want to be able to focus and concentrate on what they do but find themselves becoming frustrated and stressed having to work difficult co-workers.  In the workplace, negativity and frustration are often seen as indicators of how others are performing. This is because we are more likely to suffer emotional stress when we are dealing with people who are clearly unhappy with their jobs, have poor work habits, lack respect or have a poor attitude.

Aiming for a Good Night's Sleep

To prevent stress related burnout, it's essential to have a good sleep.  The following tips can help you get more sleep and prevent stress:  Set an alarm.  Go to sleep earlier.  Make the bedroom as dark and quiet as possible.  Turn off the phone and monitor your social media.  Change your circadian rhythm to night time. 

Conclusion

We took a look at some of the ways you can manage stress in the workplace. These tips will help you keep your cool, which in turn will benefit the business as a whole.  If you're a manager or owner, you are likely doing a good job. No matter how hard you work to make sure your team is happy and productive, the inevitable fact remains: there will always be someone who does not follow the rules. For this reason, your ability to deal with stress is critical.  However, all members of the team can follow the steps above to keep stress at bay.