With the increasing competition each day, people at work are presented with unimaginable work pressures and demands that are not easy to deal with. This leads to the employees having occupational stress that requires help to solve. According to a report by stress.org, around 83% of employees deal with work stress. If these hardships are left alone, untreated for a long period it can easily lead to chronic stress which is also known as PTSD.
Stress is often associated with mental health, but it can have drastic effects on physical health too. If you are also going through some form of work stress, then you are not alone. Read along to identify what work stress is and how you can prevent them.
What is Occupational Stress?
Everyday lives of working professionals are becoming more hectic day by day. This is directly making an ever-growing number of working professionals feel like there are not enough hours in a day to get the tasks done. This restlessness is known as workplace stress which is difficult to ignore. Let's look at some methods on how you can deal with this and overcome it in some type of way.
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You Can Track Stressors:
There are several impacts of stress on your work life such as less productivity, poorer performance at work, increase in absenteeism, turnover, burnout, etc. but for everyone, the reasons are different as different people have different trigger points. So the first step is to find out what stressors are causing you a difficult time. The employees can record their feelings about the environment and send them to the management team or the employers so that they can figure out the stressors.
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Set Some Healthy Boundaries:
The most common reason behind workplace stress? It is biting more than the employees can chew. Taking extra pressure to get a job done often creates a stressful environment that impacts the productivity of the employees. If you as an employee take more responsibility thinking if you distribute your effort you can easily get the job done, it doesn't work that way. Taking more responsibilities often means tiring yourself halfway which results in poor performance. So set some healthy boundaries to take control of what you do and how much you can do.
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Prioritize “me-time”:
After setting some healthy boundaries, the first step is to follow them. Do not agree to do more than you actually can. If you are already struggling to keep up with your tasks, don't go out to help your coworker with something that they have been working on. Avoid checking your work emails or answering work calls during holidays or after your shift ends. Decline politely so that they respect your time. Only you can create a work-life balance which is necessary to manage occupational stress.
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Improve Your Sleep:
Getting enough, proper and uninterrupted sleep can work wonders for your stressful life. When it comes to stress, often the factors are external but the way you manage your internal responses can create a huge impact. There are several things you can do to get enough sleep. You can reduce your caffeine intake if you have trouble sleeping along with consuming less alcohol. Socialize with friends and family more and reduce your screen time.
The most important step of all is to ask for help. If you think you are struggling in any way, open up about it. You might hear solutions you were not capable of thinking of.
