How Are Your Employees Handling Workplace Stress?
Have you noticed that your staff is showing signs of emotional exhaustion? What about stress burnout symptoms? Is there a noticeable increase of angry outbursts among your staff along with more incidences of calling in sick? Are you also experiencing a high employee turnover rate? These and other issues can arise when someone has a stressful job and/or works within a stressful environment.
Recent data showed that stress has a major impact on both men and women in the workplace. As a result, roughly one million employees miss work on a daily basis. According to a survey on workplace stress, approximately 66% of the participants stated that their job caused them significant levels of stress. Furthermore, due to this situation, one out of four of these individuals called in sick or took a “mental health day.”
In addition to calling in sick or taking a mental health day, stress can manifest in other ways. Employees may, for example, experience difficulties focusing on essential tasks and make more errors than usual. It’s also not uncommon for employees to have challenges managing anger in the workplace when they are stressed, exhausted or otherwise burned out.
One of the reasons that employees experience issues such as difficulties managing anger in the workplace, is due to a work-life imbalance. When employees are required to be on-call or work consistently long hours, this can contribute to a lack of balance in their lives. Physicians, for instance, are nearly twice as likely to be unhappy with their work-life balance than individuals in other types of careers or occupations, according to recent studies.
Day-to-day operations and company culture can obviously be impacted when the issues above occur. This can be of even greater concern when it becomes the daily norm. When a formerly positive work place becomes rife with negativity, even the most calm and patient employees may experience challenges.
There are a variety of ways to assist employees with dealing with these and other workplace scenarios. While offering outside resources can be of assistance for some employees, focusing on ways to reduce stress within the workplace can potentially be more effective overall. Offering additional days off when needed and conducting weekly meetings where employees can openly discuss workplace issues without fear of reprisal may also be beneficial. One of the most effective solutions may be to consult with a mental health professional that specializes in this area.
