It is the responsibility of the employer as well as the employee to reduce work related stress. After all, in any business, employees are the greatest asset. It’s therefore logical that employee health and well-being is of vital importance if a company is to function to its optimum capacity. Healthy, happy employees should be the aim of every company management.
Employees also need to take personal responsibility to reduce work related stress because excessive stress leads to depression. According to the World Health Organisation, the most working days are lost to depression. Wise management takes an holistic approach to the well-being of its employees.
7 WAYS TO REDUCE WORK RELATED STRESS
How can you, as the employee, inoculate yourself from allowing work stress to send you spiraling down into the pit of depression?
- Change your attitude towards problems. Accept that problems are part of life, and not a disaster that shouldn’t happen! Have faith in your own problem solving ability and be willing to get input from fellow colleagues.
- Use your social and work support systems. Build and nurture relationships. Social relationships and having fun are important so that the stresses of work don’t consume and overwhelm you. Needing help from your colleagues has no reflection on your abilities but rather shows you as a valuable team-player.
- Be optimistic. A negative attitude pulls you and all those around you down and causes stress. Try looking at the glass as being half-full rather than half-empty. Don’t be negative because of a bad decision from the past. You can turn it about and a positive attitude will take you a long way. Don’t you hate people at work who constantly moan?
- Solve problems straight away. Avoiding dealing with a problem might initially feel better but in reality avoidance causes anxiety. The problem will need to be solved sooner or later. The sooner the better!
- Humor and enthusiasm. ‘Laughter is the best medicine’ is an old saying. so true because laughter releases happy chemicals in the brain! Enthusiasm is contagious in the work place and does much to blow away negative feelings and thoughts.
- Deal with rage and anger. These emotions only increase stress. Watch your thoughts because rage and anger stem from your thoughts rather than the situation. Often these emotions result from a person telling you what you ‘should’ have done. Inside you get the feeling that they’re telling you that you’re a bit useless and stupid and this is what you’re reacting to. Quickly take your thoughts in check and remind yourself that they are only giving you a suggestion that you can take or not. (Read more about the effects of the ‘should’ word as part of list of faulty thinking patterns).
- Don’t worry about things outside of your control. You’re not super-human, so try to accept that things will not go perfectly all the time. You will get stuck in traffic, you might have a flat tire. There are many things that might mess up your schedule. Take a deep breath and carry on with life!
Your health in the workplace is of ultimate importance. Being happy at work can be a real bonus. Even if your place of work is not the happiest, try to switch off as you leave the office and enjoy your family and time of relaxation. But the most important tip that I can give you is to keep a check on your thoughts because it is your thoughts that cause you stress, rather than your workplace or anything that happens at work.
To learn more about cognitive therapy and the effect of your thoughts please click here.
