It’s been a few months since you started your job and the initial enthusiasm about work is on the wane? Reason being, you find your stress levels rising with the passage of every single day on the job. It begins slowly with a colleague dumping their work on you, the boss piling you with responsibility…. and ends up with a printer doing everything but printing that important document of yours!
Stress. Stress. Stress. Everywhere! What do you, under such circumstances? How do you deal with the inevitable stress at workplace? How do you minimize stress, so as to concentrate better on work? Questions such as the above and many more hound your mind, increasing your stress levels even more than before! Before we go ahead and answer those questions, let’s first understand the causes of workplace stress first.
Causes of workplace stress,
- Lack of feedback
Feedback be, it in the form of appreciation or constructive criticism is important, as it helps one to gage their performance and know their strengths from their weaknesses. Feedback is very important in terms of letting the individual know in which areas he is going wrong, where he has done well, where he needs to improve and so on.
A lack of the same can make the worker confused, whether he is doing things right or wrong! It can also make him feel undervalued in the organization, as his work is not warranting any feedback from his superiors.
- Ever increasing responsibilities
Volunteering to take on new responsibilities is another way to learn more on the job. While one cannot disagree with this thought, you have to spare a thought for those who don’t volunteer, yet are bogged down with more and more responsibilities.
Owning up to one’s responsibilities is a wonderful way of ensuring that work gets completed, but if you have too many responsibilities, then getting all the work completed within the stipulated time line can lead to stress, a lot of stress!
Communication is one of the major factors at play in the workplace. Most often people let their grievances, complaints, needs and concerns go un-aired, preferring to keep them to themselves.
While doing so, on a few occasions might be okay, but doing so repeatedly can let the matter stew and lead to stress and discontent with the workplace, in the individual’s mind.
Lack of co-operation at the workplace is one of the major reasons that lead to stress and discontent amongst employees. Co-operation is important as it helps share the work load and helps build better interpersonal relationships amongst employees which serves well to increase productivity and fosters a positive environment at the workplace.
A lack of co-operation however increases work load, holds up simple tasks and generally affects the final output causing a lot of undue stress.
- Lack of positional clarity
Lack of positional clarity can become a stress factor as, when one is not sure of the role that he/she plays in an organization it can even serve to not only confuse the employee but also de-motivate him in the process.
For e.g: When there are 5 different people doing the same job as you, or if you have to report to 5 different seniors, you really are not sure where you stand in terms of designation and are constantly under pressure of having to prove yourself which leads to stress.
While these are some of the reasons which lead to stress at the workplace, other likely causes would be a noisy, crowded and ergonomically challenged workplaces.
How to Deal with stress at the workplace?
Even though the causes for stress may be many, you can beat stress at work easily with a few simple solutions for the same:
Talking things out makes life easier, be it at home or work. Talk to your colleagues, boss or other superiors if anything is troubling or causing you stress. Talking helps to get out matters in the open, which allows for discussion and a solution to the problem and thereby your stress!
Being bogged down with additional responsibilities is an inevitability in this corporate era, however planning ahead and avoiding procrastination will help you meet the deadlines, no matter how close they seem. Plus procrastination also has the ability to set you back when it comes to work, making it a factor to avoid if you are looking to cut down on your stress.
- A simple No will suffice!
Many employees are afraid to say no, which results in them doing favors for others which translates to extra work or additional responsibility without enough returns i.e. appreciation or even a plain ‘thanks’ in some cases.
Saying No helps you prioritize your work and fulfill your given responsibility, but more than anything it helps you avoid over committing yourself and it also reduces your stress.
- Avoid Twittering when at work!
In the 21st century, where internet has all abut taken over our lives, not having a facebook or twitter account is frowned upon! So it is but obvious that these and other networking platforms account for ample distraction, when at work, which in turn puts you behind schedule and causes stress.
A simple way to deal with this problem is to set a fixed time period of say 15 minutes per 2 hours, where you allow yourself to get distracted. This timely distraction allows you concentrate on your job much better for the rest of the 1 hour 45 minutes!
Listing works wonders! Having a written list of tasks to be completed helps one to avoid distractions, be aware of their goals and deadlines for the day and just generally avoid the stress of last minute work and tight deadlines!
While these are some of the important tips to help you avoid stress at work, other relevant tips could be staying positive in your mind and speech, ‘tuning off’ work once you leave for home, practicing deep breathing techniques when under stress and so on.
So now that you know how to avoid stress at work, we are sure that you’ll be a happy stress free employee walking into office from now on!
