Every job carries an element of worry and stress, even if you love what you do. Short term work stress can be in meeting targets or fulfilling a challenging goal but when work stress continues over a long period of time then it can have disastrous consequences on one’s mental and physical well-being.
A person just doesn’t leave the work stress behind when they get home. More often work stress continues to linger long after work hours and can also impact your personal life and decisions.
In order to cope with work stress it is important to find out the sources of work stress. Some of these are;
- Low salary
- Poor work conditions
- Long work hours
- Stagnant growth
- Low chances of promotion
- Excessive work load
- Lack of social support
- Colleagues’ behaviors
Work stress can have serious consequences on one’s health. Stressful work environment contributes to body aches, migraine, anxiety, high blood pressure, depression. Therefore, in order to maintain one’s well-being it is crucial to find means of dealing with work stress.
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Steps to manage work stress:
What stresses you at work?
In order to find means of coping with work stress, it is important to identify the root causes of the stress. Whenever you find yourself stressing over something start taking notes to find out what triggered the reaction. Also, take notes of what you do to deal with the stress. Do you start eating? Do you take a break? Do you start shouting or showing anger? Documenting will help you identify a pattern between the triggers and your reactions.
Develop healthy responses:
Many people cope with work stress by eating or getting hyped up or even by resorting to alcohol or drugs. It would be wise to start incorporating healthy responses in your every day life so that these can be used when you find yourself stressed at work. Meditation and yoga are two excellent ways of releasing the negative energy and staying composed. Any form of physical activity or exercise is beneficial in helping to cope with work stress.
Develop a healthy lifestyle:
Work stress can lead to problems in personal life, similarly personal life can also affect the work place. Therefore it is advisable to maintain a healthy lifestyle. This includes staying away from negativity, eating healthy and in moderation, staying away from alcohol and drugs, walking or exercising, getting ample amount of sleep time also.
Take time to DE-stress from work:
Everyday dedicate an amount of time that you will not allocate to work or any work related activity. This includes setting boundaries so that you are not expected to receive calls or indulge in any work related tasks during your personal time. It is also important to recharge. Either by taking a vacation or by spending a quiet day alone. If this is not possible then spend a fixed amount of time every day without your cell phone and avoid thinking about work related activity.
Talk to your employer
Work stress has been linked to poor work performance, therefore it is important for employers to help employees in identifying work stress and providing an environment where employees are least likely to be stressed or burdened. If there are no formal procedures of recording complain at work then have a one on one with your employer to politely inform them about the factors that cause stress. The purpose of this discussion should be to eliminate the identified elements. There can be many positive outcomes when you open up with your employer, including skills to help improve time management, better communication power, introduction of work incentives etc.
There are many other ways in which work stress can be managed including:
- Support from family and friends
- Resetting your work setup like organizing the work bench
- Establishing work balance boundaries
- Focusing on one task at a time
Did the article help you in coping with work stress? If you would like to share some useful tips please reach out to us at info@jobsuccess.ae.
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