It doesn’t matter who you are or what your job is, we can all experience stress in the workplace. Whether it’s the pressure that you put on yourself to achieve a standard, or whether people around you expect you to drop everything to carry out what they see as important - it all adds up. 

Now, I say it all adds up because when we feel overwhelmed with the task or tasks at hand our health and wellbeing starts to suffer for it. This is where we need some intervention to make sure that we are able to cope when these situations arise, because they inevitably will at some point.

But believe it or not, some stress can be good for us – it can spur us on to get things done. Like when you put something off because the deadline seems to be ages away, but as the date closes in, you realise you need to start to do something and you act upon this – this is good stress.

Scheduling instead of stressing

Organisation is key to helping reduce potential stressful times. It is a good idea to look at what objectives you have been set – as this will give you a good base to set your scheduling around. You have been set these objectives because you and your line manager decided that these are the most important things to be focusing your efforts on. Making these objectives SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound) will also help you to set a schedule for their completion. 

Schedule in regular catch-ups with your line manager to talk about how your workload and objectives are going. Let them know if there is anything that you may need help with early, or if you see a potential issue, so that extra resources can be made available to help out. 

Using stress to your advantage 

As I mentioned above, you can use stress to your advantage. It can instil a sense of urgency and therefore make us more alert. Using this alertness can help us to focus on what needs to be done. If you want to hear more Kelly McGonigal does an excellent TED talk about ‘how to make stress your friend’.  

Coping Mechanisms for stress

Remember that relying too much on stress to motivate you can be bad for your health and wellbeing, if you keep yourself in a stressful frame of mind for long periods, it can lead to burn-out. 

What are the best ways to cope with stress in the workplace? Here are a few for you to think about:

• Track what stresses you at work. Make a note of what you find stressful in your job. It could be a certain task you have to do. It could even be someone in the office who only comes to talk to you when they need your help on their objectives. Either way, write them down, how you currently deal with them; then write down some potential solutions to reducing the stress they make you feel.
• Make healthy choices. Stress can make us lead an unhealthy lifestyle with reliance on caffeine, alcohol or junk food. Regular quick hits of these can have detrimental long-term effects, so be kind to yourself and make healthy eating and drinking choices. Also, think about getting some exercise (just going for a 10 minute walk in your lunchbreak) or practising mindfulness techniques can really help.  

• Set your boundaries. Just because we have emails and a work phone does not mean we should be ‘available’ at all times. You need to have time where you switch off from work, even during the working day. You should not feel that taking a lunch break is a luxury – though many of us sadly now do. Speak to your line manager if you think there is a culture of not being able to take your full entitled breaks, you’re probably not the only one in your company that feels like this. 

• Getting support. If you feel you’re struggling with stress in the workplace, please speak to someone about it. This could be your line manager, a colleague, or if your company has an employee assistance programme, get in touch with them. It doesn’t have to be someone in the workplace that you talk to – just sharing your issues and talking to someone might just lift some of the pressure that you have been carrying. 

• Take time to recharge. To avoid chronic stress and burnout, we need time to return to our pre-stress level of functioning. Making sure that you take regular annual leave throughout the year can help to avoid this. During this time you need to not think about work or be tempted to switch on your email or listen to your voicemail as this will be counterproductive to your recuperation. 

More help and advice

Wednesday 4 November 2020 is National Stress Awareness Day and there are lots of organisations that can offer helpful advice. One organisation that I find particularly useful is Time To Change - they have lots of helpful resources on their website for ending mental health discrimination.