How to Manage Stress at Work?

“Diamonds are formed under pressure” How many times have you tried handling work-related stress from that perspective? At some point, all employees are susceptible to work-related stress, maybe to meet a deadline or to prove skills. The truth is it’s never about loving what you do or being good at it, it’s just that every job comes with stressful aspects so how much can you take before stress turns into a harmful habit?

When work stress becomes a regular thing, it’s risky to both physical and emotional health.

Isle Of Innovation believes that when work turns into a source of stress then maybe you’re not in your right place or you just need to be understood and accepted! That was our motive for adapting the great Everything DiSC® learning and development model. We wanted to make a change in the work’s culture and achieve the healthy work environment every employee deserves.

First, let’s Jump into the Heart of the Problem!

Common causes of work stress:

1. Low Salaries: When employees feel underappreciated finically, they’re likely to experience stress while pretty much handling any task.
2. Excessive workloads: Many companies fail to explain the responsibilities in detail during the interview which leaves employees struggling with a pressure they didn’t sign up for when the real work began.
3. Lack of growth opportunities: No clear promotion plans and no new self-development opportunities leave employees stressing about the value this work experience is adding to them.
4. The absence of social support: Our human need for socializing can’t be excluded from work where we spend most of the day! Not granting employees their personal space to interact and socialize is only going to stress them more.
5. No control over work-related decisions: Each employee knows what’s better in his own career field so, taking the knowledge-based control is gonna leave the employee stressed and questioning his/her value.
6. Unrated work performance: Nobody prefers getting a negative performance comment but getting no comment can also be stressful for employees trying their best to prove their credibility.

Effects of Uncontrolled Stress

Continuous work-related stress isn’t something you can get rid of once you get home as its after-effects come in different forms like headaches, stomachaches, sleep disturbances, short temper, and difficulty concentrating. On the other hand, when stress turns into a chronic case it can cause insomnia and high blood pressure.

A lot of us miss the fact that our physical well-being is highly affected by our mental health as research has found that stress can literally weaken the immune system and cause other mental issues like depression and anxiety!

The way we deal with stress can also affect our health as many people handle stress in unhealthy manners like overeating, consuming unhealthy foods, smoking, or abusing alcohol. 

Tips to Manage Stress

1. Track & Note: Understanding the things that stress us and how we handle them is essential to making a change. Identify the things or individuals that stress you the most at work and observe your reaction to every conflict. Start with questions like “were you able to control your anger?” “Did you raise your voice?” “How did the stress affect your work productivity and concentration”
2. Work on adapting healthy responses: Every day is a good day to make healthy choices so instead of expressing your stress by eating junk food or drinking alcohol remember that exercising can relieve a great amount of stress. Also, controlling your caffeine intake is important to avoid rational reactions.
3. Set clear availability hours: With the world shifting towards online work, 24 hours availability can be stressful. Though it’s hard to set time boundaries like the one in on-site careers, try to set stable work hours and commit to them.
4. Reward time: Sometimes we indulge ourselves in endless responsibilities that we forget to take enough time to recharge and clear our heads. To avoid work-related stress, take time to relax no matter what it takes.
5. Ask for support: Everyone is living his own struggle, but we can’t expect others to lend a helping hand if we don’t show that we’re willing to accept this support. Work-related stress can significantly decrease your productivity so try speaking to your supervisor “it won’t make you look like you’re not capable of handling your responsibilities”

How Can We Help?

We believe that the cultural variations among staff can turn into strengths with the right approach. Isle Of Innovation adapted the amazing Everything DiSC® approach.

Everything DiSC® is a learning model that depends on personal assessments and analysis to provide on-point insights.

These customized insights help employees achieve a greater personal understanding of their needs, preferences, and their right position! Not just that, our smart DiSC® model is the key to developing unique harmony and cultural acceptance among everyone which contributes to a healthy and productive work environment.

At Isle Of Innovation, we don’t believe in stress, we believe in acceptance and self-growth.

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