What is Stress?
Stress is a primary bodily response in terms of any unpleasant situation. When faced with difficulties or changes, our body reacts physically, emotionally, and psychologically; anything that causes us stress is called a stressor.
The human body is built such that it can experience stress and respond to it. Our body adjusts to a new environment with the aid of stress reactions; therefore, stress is not always a negative response as it can help us stay awake, motivated, and prepared to avert danger.
Everyone goes through periods of stress. However, how we handle stress significantly impacts our general well-being.
How Workplace Stress Impacts Us
In the corporate sector, stress is a severe issue getting deeper. Employees are typically under a lot of stress to finish duties in this fast-paced, time-bound world. Chronic and acute stress is mostly caused by an unbalanced relationship between job control and workplace expectations.
Since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, there has been an increase in workload leading to the inability to manage the home and work environment and inability to find a balance, thus resulting in stress.
In a study of 1,908 Indian workers, 70% claimed to regularly experience stress at least once during the workweek. The percentage of stressed-out employees in India is much greater than the Asia-Pacific average of 60%.
Stressors at Work:
There are two types of workplace stressors: physical and mental.
Physical stressors include things like noise, inadequate lighting, an uncomfortable workspace, and ergonomic issues like poor posture while working.
The most common sources of stress are probably psychosocial stressors. High job demands, rigid work schedules, bad job supervision, poor work design and structure, bullying and harassment, and job insecurity are a few of these.
Stress at work has negative consequences not only on employee performance but also on the companyโs performance. The impacts of stress at work are visible in employees’ behavior, mental health, and physical health.
Silent Killer
A body of research has shown that stress at work raises the likelihood of developing diabetes. Some other physical health issues connected to professional stress are immune system illnesses, musculoskeletal conditions like chronic back pain, and gastrointestinal conditions like irritable bowel syndrome.
The mental health of employees is also negatively impacted by the workplace, with an increased risk of anxiety, burnout, depression, and substance use disorders. Employees who are under stress at work are more prone to indulge in harmful habits, including smoking, abusing alcohol and drugs, and eating poorly.
Cardiovascular diseases are increasing due to it. According to studies, stress at work also increases the risk of cardiovascular events like heart attacks and strokes, as well as the precursors to the disease (obesity, high blood cholesterol, and high blood pressure).
Signs of Stress
โ Changes in Mood
โ Changes in Appetite
โ Inadequate amount of sleep
โ Headaches and burnout
โ Sweaty Palms and Palpitations in response to the stressor
Understanding Stress at Work
There are several indicators that you could be under too much pressure, even if stress is not always easy to spot. The following are organizational stress risks:
- lack of roles and responsibilities, such as inadequate management
- Inappropriate work demands, such as assigning assignments with impossible deadlines or requiring workers to perform tasks above their capacity
- Lack of acknowledgment or incentive;
- Unpleasant circumstances, such as dealing with problematic clients or being put on the spot in meetings; long or erratic work hours.
In a study on professional stress, depression, and alcohol use among Indian software professionals, Darshan et al. (2009) noted that software workers who experience professional stress, are ten times more likely to experience depression, and have a significantly higher incidence of psychiatric disorders.
Prevention measures include stress management classes, regular screenings to catch professional stress and depression early on, and dealing with these problems.
Shivam is a 32-year-old IT professional who has been working in a firm for the past two years and is subject to low pay, no incentives, increasing workload, and questionable work relations.
As a result, he has started staying aloof, eating less, and coming home with emotional baggage daily. He doesn’t spend time with his wife, talks less, and occasionally displays verbal aggression toward her leading to their having a disturbed marriage.
His wife also works as an IT professional and guides him whenever he goes on a side road. She had been very supportive of him throughout, but the verbal aggression is now intolerable to her as she finds it disrupting her mental piece.
The case above clearly shows what prolonged stress can do to a person and how it is a matter of concern. One must address stress and manage it to live a happy life.
Ways to Manage Stress
โ Quick Fixers: Breathing exercises are the most simple and easiest way to manage or have relief from stress. One can do this at times when there is short-term stress and one wants to have relief. Times such as, you have quarreled with your boss and want to be relaxed to get back to work, try doing the strategies mentioned below.
- Take short walks
- Do breathing exercises: Inhale from the nose and exhale from the mouth.
- Try reframing the situation.
- Drink water
- Go out and eat something you like.
โ Develop Stress Relieving Behaviour: Some methods are more difficult to apply when dealing with a stressful circumstance. But by becoming less reactive to it and better able to rapidly and easily reverse your stress response, they can help you manage stress in general if you frequently practice them.
Making long-term healthy habits like regular exercise or meditation part of your life can aid in promoting resilience toward stressors. The ability to communicate effectively and other life skills, can help us manage stressors and shift our feelings from overwhelmed to challenged or even stimulated.
Some ways to build these habits are:
- Taking a Balanced and nutritious diet
- Get going and indulge in physical activity
- Take 8 hours of Proper sleep
โ Avoid Stressors Whenever You Can: Your entire stress load can be reduced by eliminating any unnecessary stress. For instance, cutting off even one toxic relationship will make handling other stressors easier since you won’t feel as overwhelmed.
Following are the ideas that will help you reduce stressors.
Cutting off a relationship or making a boundary
- Organise your desk as it will help you have a clean and relaxing environment.
- Organise your lifestyle: there are many stressors that might be piling up and resulting in burnout. It is important to prioritize each one by one and start eliminating them.
- During office hours, you can build healthy relations with colleagues and occasionally hang out on weekends with them to reduce work-related tension.
- Positive Journaling and affirmation writing is other helpful technique to manage stress.
โ Time Management: Another important aspect of stress management is managing oneโs time and maintaining a healthy schedule. Following are some tips that will help you manage your time.
- Commit to things you can promise to complete: often we tend to over-commit to certain things, and we are unable to meet or fulfill everything.
- Prioritise and schedule tasks based on deadlines.
- Do not take any new project as a burden. Instead, fragment it into smaller parts by making a blueprint for execution.
- Do not take all the responsibility on your shoulders. Instead, divide the task amongst the team.
โ Enjoy whenever you can: Another very important strategy to manage stress is curating โmeโ time and family time. Every individual has to look after oneโs physical and psychological needs. Following are how you can enjoy my time.
- Set some time in a day for your leisure activities (ex: painting, cooking, playing .etc)
- Do not forget to treat yourself to things you enjoy having or doing.
- Go on family outings or hang out with friends.
Shivam was then taken to a psychologist by his wife. The psychologist suggested some strategies and ways to manage stress and his personal life, which are mentioned and explained above. After two weeks, Shivam reported to the psychologist and concluded that he was feeling much better, spending time with his wife (taking her out on the weekend) and starting to interact with his colleagues. He reported keeping his work issues at work and not taking any of them home, which made him maintain a balance between family and work. Shivam wishes to continue practising these and expresses a desire to maintain a stress-free lifestyle by going on walks.
Benefits of Stress Management:
1. Managing stress helps in Regulating Blood Pressure: A study found a connection between stress and variations in blood pressure. The term hypertension is another name for high blood pressure. It is associated with chronic coronary heart disease and stroke and is believed to cause 12.8% of deaths worldwide. This figure is anticipated to increase further. Your general physical health and blood pressure may improve if you reduce stress.(Gordon-et-al,2021).
2. Stress Management goes hand in hand with good mental health: The majority of mental health issues stem from stress and managing stress can eliminate the possible risks of developing one. Dan wu and colleagues conducted a study on university students and
found a high prevalence of mental health issues associated with uncertainty stress, which is defined as anxiety in the presence of unclear situations and challenging environments. The conclusion is that although it’s hard to eliminate stress, developing coping mechanisms may lift your spirits. Additionally, it can enhance performance and reduce your risk of mental health disorders.
3. Stress Management improves Cardiovascular Health: as mentioned above, chronic stress leads to coronary heart diseases, like stress management aids and improves cardiovascular health. A 2020 study monitored 328 office workers’ heart rates over five days and evaluated the long-term stress levels of the workers. According to the study, persistent stress can:
- Elevate your heart rate
- Heart disease risk is increased when sleep and circadian rhythm are disturbed. This implies that controlling stress may lower heart rate, enhance general physical well-being, and lessen the risk of heart disease. (Kraj-et-al,2020).
4. Stress Management enhances Cognitive and executive functions: For instance, a 2020 research looked into the productivity of 41 individuals with chronic stress and 31 individuals without it. Chronically stressed people responded to tasks more slowly, were less precise, and had trouble remaining alert and focused.
This shows that employing stress reduction approaches when under chronic stress may enhance your capacity for concentration, focus, and productivity.(Liu& Liu,2020).
Stress is not at all difficult to manage or something which seems out of our control. It is a natural response and everyone goes through it. Little stress is something we always need to face challenging situations, whereas too much stress can lead to grave consequences, but it is a manageable response and the above-mentioned tips and tricks can be used to manage stress to live a healthy life.
Managing stress eliminates physical disorders as well as promotes balanced life. If the self-help strategies are not working well, then one can visit a psychologist and seek professional help.
Research shows that the management of stress not only improves psychological well-being but also lowers the risk of developing stress-related disorders such as diabetes, arthritis, cancer, heart risk, blood pressure, etc.
Research also concluded that women are more likely than men to be stressed. It should also be that the work-related stress should be catered to and addressed by corporates firmly by:
1. Encouraging Wellness Programs: incorporate schemes in your organization that provide healthcare facilities for every employee.
2. Providing a Flexible working environment: Working from home has become a practice in the covid era, so to lessen the stress, provide a hybrid mode of working and flexible working hours.
3. Conducting Inclusive Social Events: the organization should not be biased towards one particular group, ethnicity, or gender orientation. A healthy organization provides an inclusive environmental program such as pride celebrations, body positivity events, and festive celebrations.
4. Regular counseling programs: an organization should offer regular counseling services to employees and provide leaves for similar concerns.
5. Recognising Potential Employees: Employee-environment fit should be the main priority at work. If it’s a good fit, the worker will probably be at ease. Stress and tension are heightened by a bad fit.
Employee well-being and corporate performance are both negatively impacted by stress and the implications it brings when it goes unrecognized. Leaders must commit to redefining what “workplace wellness” means to combat this spreading disease and foster healthier workplaces.
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