Stress at the workplace: what an organisation should pay attention to
Six articles that illuminate the topic of stress at the workplace from different angles. Where does stress actually come from and what can organizations do about it? As a counterpoint, the last article which I strongly recommend: Is that stress at all what we feel?
Gemma Leigh Roberts: From ‘fika’ to offline time
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In the UK millions of work days are lost every year due to stress-related ill health. Gemma Leigh Roberts is asking whether we can learn from other countries to reduce stress at teh workplace. She mentions three examples that could easily be implemented by organisations.
The right to disconnect in France
Dealing with emails after working is a big stressor and adds to the workload.
In France organisations have to give employees a break from office emails and to respect their ‘offline time’.
Work-life balance reps in Denmark and Norway
In Denmark and Norway, a company’s staff elects representatives who participate in promoting and monitoring everything from safety to work-life balance, healthy lifestyle habits, improved nutrition and exercise.
Thus, organisations will listen to their recommendations and implement collaborative solutions.
The ‘fika’ mentality in Sweden
Fika allows employees to take two to five breaks a day to go for a walk or have a drink or snacks. Beside the healthy effect of regular breaks ‘fika’ is a certain mentality and has evolved into a social ritual (taking a step back from work together with your colleagues).
Jess Baker: How to help your employees become more resilient
Jess Baker raises two rarely discussed problems related to stress at work: not owning one’s emotions for fear of being seen as not able to cope; not being able to assert one’s boundaries by negotiating or saying no.
These two issues are often seen as an employee’s individual problem, but they have much more to do with the culture of an organisation.
Not owning one’s emotions for fear of being seen as not able to cope
So, what can a company do?
Share stories: Encourage top managers to share their personal experience with stress and how they have improved their resilience.
Ask employees what is not going well and what could be done about it. Let them come up with potential solutions.
Discuss stress levels regularly in 1:1 meetings.
Create a supportive environment: Encourage employees to take time to share their experience and insights between them.
Not being able to assert one’s boundaries by negotiating or saying no
Provide assertiveness skills training.
Encourage employees to take care of their work-life balance: i.e. take a lunch break, no emails outside working hours, asking for realistic deadlines etc.
Give employees the support they need and encourage them to ask for it.
«In order to help employees manage stress, organisations should create a culture of openess, provide effective training and role-model healthy working practices.»
Michael Falkenstein: Effects of work stress on an ageing work force
Older employees are more affected by some types of stress than younger employees. This is especially evident when skills and job do not go well together. Long-standing work stress mainly affects mental health and can promote dementia. Measures to reduce stress are therefore important — especially for older people.
Reduction of stress and promotion of mental performance
As mentioned, competences and requirements should match as well as possible. An important resource here is a large scope for action.
On the other hand, time pressure, interruptions and multitasking should be as low as possible. Older people are also more susceptible to stress factors resulting from (stressful) interpersonal interaction — especially with superiors. It is therefore important to train managers in this.
All employees — but especially older employees — must learn how to deal with stressors. This is not only about relaxation techniques, but also about how to deal as well as possible with stress-generating thoughts and concrete stress situations. Sufficient physical activity and training also help.
Korn Ferry: Professionals are more stressed out at work today than 5 years ago
Two-thirds (65 percent) of employees have more stress than 5 years ago. And the biggest stressor is not too much work but the boss.
80% say that transformations, restructurings and the subsequent change of manager are among the most stressful situations in the working world.
“When stress from the office has too much of an effect at home, a vicious circle often begins”
Stress at work usually has a negative effect on private relationships. And this private stress in turn has a negative effect on work productivity. As a result, many employees become increasingly dissatisfied and become less and less involved in their jobs. In this way companies achieve the opposite of what their organisational and transformation reforms should actually trigger.
Better too much than too little work
It comes as a surprise that 79% of respondents say that they prefer too much to not enough work. Studies show, however, that too much work also has a very negative effect on employees. Especially when performance and commitment are not sufficiently recognized, which top management and direct superiors often forget.
Nicolas Richter, Tobias Esch: Stress enables growth and satisfaction
First of all: The title is slightly misleading, as this statement only illuminates a side aspect of the interview. More about that later.
Work cycles are getting shorter and shorter, multitasking, overlapping processes and work interruptions are increasing significantly, leading to more stress and strain.
However, the content is very important. The amount of work is only one indication for stress or whether I find work to be stressful or enriching. Also important are work content, scope for action and controllability, management culture and working environment. And last but not least, whether I can be authentic, use my strengths and get development opportunities.
It is almost too late when increasing absences indicate a problematic situation. As an effective early warning sign, Tobias Esch mentions a “growing hostility in communication and in the attitude of others or myself”.
Now, as promised, to the title of the article. It is an illusion to strive to be permanently satisfied and happy at work. There are always times of “getting on the road” and also times of stress. These are among other things necessary to grow and reach a higher level of satisfaction. Workload and satisfaction then run parallel to each other. It is important not to exaggerate and crash in such difficult phases. Health management and coaching can then also be very helpful.
David Pfeifer: Why are you so stressed?
Most of the time we don’t have stress, but rather too much to do. Of course this can also stress, this feeling of not performing. That’s why we prefer to say “I’m under stress” instead of “I can’t take any more”.
Because if you don’t have stress, you look suspicious in a working world where “resilient, committed, flexible” appears in every job advertisement. Stress is used for many things that go wrong in society, but from a scientific point of view it is rather rare.
People can withstand high levels of stress well. In addition, people always have and have had stress — only the reasons change. In the modern world of work, for example, you have to communicate much more frequently and intensively. And that’s not everyone’s cup of tea.
We’ve already adjusted so well to the demands of the job that we’re unquestionably taking them on also in our spare time. “The eternal fiddling with one’s own unfulfilled biography is driving many of us crazy who want to stay young in the gentrified urban milieus.” Perfect self-realization including children, career, house with lake view and dream holidays can cause a lot of pressure. Even in your free time, you can’t do nothing. After all, people want to use their limited leisure time to become healthy and fit. But the frustration that inevitably follows does not mean being physically ill.
In any case, it is positive that mental health is increasingly becoming an issue today. The dramatization of one’s own stress is also used today, however, to gloss over self-centredness and self-exploitation. It is often forgotten that others can quickly see through this. “I am so stressed” does not result in appreciation and recognition from the boss, because he only hears “I can’t take any more”. So, for the sake of your career, rather try to relax.
But before you rush into the relaxation seminar, it would be advisable to admit that you don’t have stress, but just let it happen or even do it yourself. Maybe because you don’t like what you do?
