How to Reduce Stress in the Workplace

Stress at work is an inevitable part of working life. Even if you enjoy your job and the hustle and bustle of your job, stress can sneak its way into your life when tasks and outside factors all become a bit too much. According to the Health and Safety Executive, 1.7million people working in the UK suffer from some form of work-related illness. It’s estimated that 77,600 workers suffer from work-related stress, anxiety and depression – and that’s just from reported figures.

As we can see, workplace stress is a common occurrence that affects a large number of employees.

In some cases, stress can be a good thing to get you motivated and over the line with workplace tasks. But if you experience higher levels of stress, this can inevitably be harmful to your physical and mental health. Especially if you experience high stress levels for a prolonged period of time, which can often lead to burnout.

What causes stress at work?

Stress at work can be caused a variety of factors that affect individuals in different ways. For example, multiple tasks may be stressful for one person, but another may thrive under the pressure. That’s why the causes of stress can be subjective.

Generally speaking, there are some common causes of stress at work, including:

• High workloads

• Lack of control (progression, work assignments)

• Poor working relationships

• Poor working conditions

• Lack of control

• Lack of communication with managers and colleagues

• Job insecurity

• Tight deadlines

• Bullying and harassment

• No progression or training opportunities

• Micromanagement

• Organisational changes (such as redundancies, office moves or team restructures)

Recognising when there’s a problem as an employee

It can be hard to determine if you’re experiencing stress at work, particularly if a stressful environment or project has become the norm. Take a moment to really look inward and ask yourself:

• Am experiencing more aches and pains?

• How often do I feel overwhelmed?

• Am I taking time to ‘de-stress’?

• Am I looking after myself?

• Do I constantly feel like I’m on a hamster wheel?

• Has my mental health declined? If so, when did this roughly start?

Recognising when there’s a problem as a manager

Before you can help your workforce, you’ll need to know how to monitor stress levels in the workplace. It’s a good idea to educate managers to recognise the health effects of stress in the workplace and lookout for signs of it amongst employees.

• Noticeable indicators of stress include:

• Changes in their normal behaviour.

• Changes in their appearance.

• Sudden lack of concentration and disorganisation.

• Increased instances of lateness or absenteeism.

Stress outside of work – how does it affect us?

Sometimes stress outside of work can affect our workplace performance. This is inevitable, as depending on the issue, it may be hard to ‘block out’ the problem when you step into the workplace. This can vary from person to person, particularly if the issue isn’t being managed.

This outside stress can affect us by distracting us from our work, appearing ‘preoccupied’, and may even manifest into physical symptoms such as fatigue and headaches. And when you are unable to perform at your best as a result of outside stressors, this can sometimes cause workplace stress to occur due to missed details, deadlines and an inability to maintain focus like you usually would.

Spotting the signs of stress at work 

Workplace stress can cause us to manifest unpleasant symptoms, particularly if stress is prominent for a long period of time:

• Low mood

• Poor motivation and engagement levels

• Increased sick days

• Presenteeism (being physically but not mentally ‘present’ at work)

• Social withdrawal

• Irritability

• Poor confidence and self-esteem

• Increased anxiety levels

• Physical symptoms – stomach issues, muscular tension and poor sleep

Ways to reduce workplace stress

When stress isn't addressed immediately, it can lead to other serious mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression. It can also worsen existing mental health conditions you may have. If this is primarily caused by the workplace, then they need to exercise their duty of care to you as an employer to keep you safe from emotional harm.

If you remain quiet about the stress you’re experiencing, your workplace may be none the wiser, particularly if you work in a fast-paced environment. And although you aren’t required to inform managers of health problems, it may be beneficial to do so, particularly if it’s affecting your mental health and work performance. There may be something your manager can do to address it and keep stress at bay.

With that in mind, we’ve put together some proactive steps that managers can take to support employees.

Stress management training

As the first step in improving wellbeing, these workshops are designed to educate your staff about stress. In them, attendees will learn the impacts, how to recognise the signs of and how to reduce stress in the workplace. After a Stress Management Workshop, your staff will be able to identify the physical and emotional symptoms such as increased irritability, lack of concentration, loss of appetite, regular headaches etc. By recognising these signs earlier, managers can offer workplace stress relief activities to help resolve these issues.

Comprehensive wellbeing strategy

By incorporating an internal wellbeing strategy, you can support your employees through many issues they may be experiencing. It can also have a variety of business benefits. Apart from the impacts on motivation, productivity and absenteeism, a well thought out wellbeing strategy can reduce employee turnover, which’ll reduce the costs associated with recruitment. Consider including benefits that help to foster wellbeing such as gym memberships, cycle to work schemes, fitness days and health insurance.

Employee Assistance Programme (EAP)

An EAP proactively supports members of staff feeling stressed by offering a confidential way to resolve issues they may be experiencing, be it personal or professional. With this programme, a professionally trained counsellor can offer guidance on how to cope with problems in a healthy way. As well as offering tips to reduce workplace stress, they can also offer guidance on other issues such as health, debt and family matters.

Culture of open communication

There’s a lot to be said about a workplace culture where your staff feel like they can talk comfortably without the fear of repercussions. This environment fosters better employee relationships between co-workers, which in turn improves productivity and overall wellbeing.

Self-evaluations

This involves employees evaluating their workload and speaking to a manager about it if they feel overworked. The aim of this is to prevent employees from becoming stressed or falling behind in their work. After a self-evaluation, if they require tasks to be delegated or targets to be reconsidered, they can discuss this with you along with their ideas for balancing their workload.

Read our article: 6 Ways to Reduce Stress in the Workplace

How an Employee Assistance Programme can help with stress at work

EAPs are designed to give employees a safe, confidential space for them to talk about their mental health and any concerns they may have. Contactable 24/7, 365 days a year, our service can be used at any time of day through our Wisdom app for digital communication with a qualified counsellor, or by telephone or video call. Plus, with HA | Wisdom Wellbeing, employers can benefit from Active Care – a Peak Performance perk designed to safeguard staff who are off sick with stress and/or anxiety.

Conclusion

No one should ever have to deal with workplace stress in silence. If you notice someone experiencing the signs, it’s worth having a confidential chat to check in and see what they need. After all, workplace stress is inevitable, but by being there for your colleagues, you can ensure that stress levels don’t rise to dangerous levels and cause burnout and mental health-related absences.