Workplace Stress Management Tips For Managers
Monday mornings are quite laborious for all the employees. It needs motivation. According to research, only 13% of employees like going to work on Mondays, irrespective of their positions.
Workplace stress comes voluntarily with unwanted feelings about going to work. In this blog you will find all the workplace stress related aspects a manager faces and how to cope up with it.
What is Stress?
Stress is an adaptive response mediated by individual differences and/or psychological processes that occurs as a result of an action taken in response to an environment, condition, or event that places excessive and unusual psychological and/or physical demands on a person.
Let’s understand this phenomenon in simple terms. Stress is a psychological process that has a negative effect on the mental and physical state of a person.
Now let’s understand what workplace stress is.
The most significant sources of workplace stress are: intrinsic to the job, which includes factors such as poor physical working conditions, work overload, or time constraints; role in the organization, which includes role ambiguity and role conflict; career development, which includes a lack of job security and under/over promotion; relationships at work, which includes poor relationships with supervisors or colleagues, an extreme component of which is bullying in the workplace; and organizational structure, which includes a lack of organizational structure.
Workplace stress management is the most important subject in today’s competitive world where every individual, regardless of gender, race, religion, caste, or class, is under stress and strain due to a variety of factors, particularly the ever-increasing cutthroat competition in today’s achieving society, where the sky is not the limit of success. Fear, frustration, and rage caused by an uncomfortable relationship with one’s boss or a demanding customer, as well as dissatisfaction with an unsuitable job, are examples of long-term or chronic stress. A rise in pressure will improve performance and quality of life to a degree.
Also Read: Team Building Tips for Managers
So what causes workplace stress?
Workplace stress, according to the World Health Organization, is especially common when employees are asked to do things that are beyond their knowledge, abilities, and coping skills, and they do not have enough support from peers and supervisors to bridge that gap.
Employees cited unrealistic manager expectations as a top stressor in Accountemps research, along with heavy workloads and looming deadlines.
“Increasing workloads can make you feel as if there aren’t enough hours in the day to get everything done,” said Accountemps executive director Mike Steinitz.
According to Happify Health, the top five things that employees say make them stressed have to do with workplace conditions that managers could probably do something about. Low wages or salaries, a lack of opportunities for advancement or growth, an excessive workload, unrealistic job expectations, and long hours are the top five.
“It’s critical for managers to recognize signs of stressed-out employees, such as incomplete work, decreased productivity, lower work quality, and errors,” Steinitz said. They can also relax deadlines and meet with employees to help them prioritize projects.
Even if managers only make demands on employees during off hours on occasion, they may never truly get a mental break from work if they know their manager can contact them at any time, according to Acacia Parks, chief scientist at Happify Health. “This is not to blame managers entirely. Employees are also guilty of this.
Here are some areas where managers can focus to help reduce their employees’ workplace stress levels.
- Reduce heavy workloads for better management of workplace stress.
A heavy workload is exhausting both physically and emotionally. Simply put, employees have too many responsibilities.
51% of employees report feeling physically drained after a typical day’s work a few times per month or more. After a typical day’s work, 25% of employees report feeling emotionally drained.
Employees have too many tasks, responsibilities, and pressures to complete, and not enough time in the workday to complete them all. They may believe they must work long hours to keep up, so managers must help set expectations and model behavior. Here are a few ways managers can improve their roles.
Also Read: Must Have Organizational Skills
Removing Impediments and Clarifying Priorities
Begin by identifying any potential barriers to productivity and removing those that have the greatest impact on workplace stress. Then, concentrate on eliminating office distractions and providing any resources your employees may require to be successful. Go a step further and schedule regular meetings with your employees to provide them with clear direction on what is most important and what can’t wait until next week.
Eliminate Low-Impact Tasks
Is there anything your employees do that isn’t worth their time or effort? Remove it from their to-do list. Overburdening your employees’ schedules will only bog them down, leaving them feeling overwhelmed and underappreciated. Use one-on-one meetings to learn about their goals and objectives.
Lead by Example
If you make it a habit not to overwork yourself, your employees may follow suit. Each week, be mindful of your work schedule and workload. Imitate a culture in which it is acceptable to prioritize family, hobbies, or other non-work-related activities over work.
- Increase employees’ career satisfaction for better management of work stress.
The average employee works for 13 years and two months. In fact, it is what we spend the majority of our time doing throughout our lives (aside from sleeping). Can you imagine devoting that much time to something that makes you miserable? When employees are dissatisfied with their jobs, they may see them as a burden and a source of workplace stress, forcing them to forego activities they would prefer to pursue
Employees feel they can’t spend time with their families, travel, get a puppy, meet up with friends, or pursue their dreams because they have to work. Managers can use these tips to uncover these feelings and motivate their employees to keep working toward their personal and professional goals.
Recognize Emotions and Provide a Channel for Expression
Early in your employee’s lifecycle, assess their career prospects. Consider conducting new hire surveys after 30, 60, and 90 days to capture their feelings at various stages. Employees may be nervous or excited when they first begin, but how does this change after a few months? At different points in their careers, employees’ emotions can provide insights into how to improve the employee experience and mitigate talent risk.
Coach Your Way to a Successful Career
Continually challenging employees keeps the door open for new ways to engage and delight them. Collect ongoing, real-time feedback about their career goals through a variety of media, such as engagement surveys, pulse surveys, one-on-ones, or performance reviews.
Enhance and expand employee skills and strengths.
Your employees have a great deal to offer. Spend time learning about your employees’ strengths and personal objectives for contributing to the organization. Making certain that each employee can capitalize on their strengths will help maximize both their individual happiness and the overall team potential. Allow employees to expand their skill sets through job shadowing, mentoring, or professional development.
- Strengthen team relationships for better management of workplace stress.
When you don’t like, get along with, trust, or respect the people you work with every day, workplace stress levels can skyrocket. Poor relationships with teammates can lead to a variety of negative outcomes, including anxiety, misalignment, distractions, distrust, and jealousy. Managers can help their teams develop better relationships by encouraging honesty and integrity.
Also Read: Common Mistakes to Avoid as a Manager
Create an Open Culture and Address Conflict Head-On
Make sure your team members feel comfortable being open and honest with one another. Team members will most likely disagree from time to time. Make certain that you handle it quickly, professionally, and transparently.
Give and Receive Feedback
Feedback is a great way to gather important information from your team while also improving connections.
Group projects and non-work team events should be facilitated.
Your employees spend a significant amount of time together… working. If you want to improve team relationships, allow employees to bond and get to know each other outside of work. For example, allow your team to collaborate and rely on one another for reasons other than your sales quota.
- Improve employee relationships for better management of workplace stress.
A strained relationship with one’s boss can be a major source of workplace stress. Employees who disrespect or distrust their managers (or vice versa) are more likely to be unhappy in their jobs, let work interfere with their personal lives, and eventually leave your organization.
When asked to describe a time when they experienced a particularly negative emotion at work, more than a quarter of those polled used the words “manager,” “management, supervisor, boss, or “leader.”
Negative emotions at work can quickly snowball, leading to even worse behavior and a toxic environment. Managers can use these suggestions to reflect on and develop the skills required to deal with their employees more professionally.
Request Continuous Feedback to Help You Improve Your Leadership Skills
Gather feedback from your employees and leaders on how you can improve as a manager. Take those suggestions to heart, and make an effort to put them into action. Investigate books and articles that offer research and advice on how to cultivate a healthy relationship with your team
Conduct Repeated One-on-Ones
Meet with employees on a regular basis to demonstrate that they are worth your time and attention. Inquire about what you can begin or discontinue doing to improve your relationship with them. The first rule of conducting one-on-one meetings is to prioritize them. These are opportunities for you to learn about your employees’ career goals, personal goals, concerns, and issues, as well as provide valuable feedback.
Conclusion
The workplace is a significant source of both stress-causing demands and pressures, as well as structural and social resources to alleviate stress.
Workplace stress linked to health risks can be divided into two categories: those related to work content and those related to the social and organizational context of work. Long hours, work overload, time pressure, difficult or complex tasks, a lack of breaks, a lack of variety, and poor physical working conditions are examples of intrinsic job hazards (for example, space, temperature, light).
Workplace stress can be caused by unclear work or conflicting roles and boundaries, as well as having responsibility for others. Underemployment and job development opportunities are important buffers against current workplace stress.
