Almost everyone feels overwhelmed and excessively busy at one point or the other and therefore they have a lot on their plates to deal with on a daily basis. It is however in the interest of leaders, managers and co-workers to keep stress levels low at work.
If a superior can be calm in a tense working condition, colleagues and employees can then also be calm.
Stress at work is of various forms and these can affect an employee’s productivity at work and can also cause a negative impact on the company.
There are however some signs to watch out for when assisting your colleagues manage stress at work, like them not being cheerful at work, them not smiling, losing interest in work, feeling irritated. Once you notice these signs, you need to help your colleagues manage their stress in your little way.
Listed below are some ways you can assist colleagues in managing stress at your workplace.
Try to connect with them
If you notice that your colleague is undergoing stress at work or outside work, try to establish a connection with them. Try and ask simple questions that will make them come out to you about what they are experiencing and in case they don’t want to talk at that moment just let them know you have shoulders they can cry on.
Help them get to the root of the stress
Try and get to the root of their stress. Once you achieve this, you have helped your colleagues identify their problems as the help they need depends on the cause of the stress and you can then suggest ways of dealing with the stress.
Help your colleagues live healthy
You can try to help your colleagues by engaging them in sport-like activities, aerobics, you can also organize sports competitions amongst them, you can encourage them to eat healthy food, promote healthy eating tips, you can even go as far as creating free healthy lunch for them.
Promote a good working relationship amongst one another
Some colleagues may not be free enough to talk about some of the difficulties they face at work or outside work. Try to be open to employees such that they can walk up to you or to one another during work hours and this brings about interaction among staff.
You can create an adaptive working schedule
One can help create an adaptive working schedule that is flexible as a team leader or manager by allowing some days off their workdays. You could also allow your staff work from home if possible without losing grip of them. This will go a long way in easing work stress.
You can re-design the workplace to enhance relaxation if possible
If you have the opportunity, you can help your staff manage stress by changing the office layout, you can create a relaxation spot to help with unwinding after a long day at work. You can also create a ‘games’ room if possible to further ease stress.
Encouraging colleagues to take breaks
Some people feel working long hours at a stretch at work will make them achieve a lot more but rather, their productivity level drops and stress sets in and as a result they leave their places of work drained of so much energy they have almost nothing left to be used at home.
In order to manage stress in such a condition it is however advised we should try to have breaks occasionally to walk around, play around the office a bit, stretch out the body parts. All these tricks will go a long way in reducing the build up of stress and will help restore energy and zeal to last you the whole day and spreading this good news can help other colleagues manage stress too.
Conclusion
Every organization has a certain level of stress that its employees have to pass through but how they deal with stress is a joint responsibility of all the staff within the organization and more importantly, endeavor to create time for everyone when your colleagues approach you with whatever issues they may be facing as this will eradicate or reduce stress to a tolerable level.
Featured image by flickr Sari Montag