Coping With Work Pressure: How To Cope With Stress From Work
Apart from work pressure, we all face a certain amount of pressure. But work pressure stands out the most out of all other sources of pressure. A healthy workload helps the employee to perform extra, but a negative workload actually lowers your performance at work. In this article, we show the best way to cope with stress from work.
Case Study
Sven Kramer made an interesting comment during the interview, after his “golden race” at the 5000 meters at the Olympic Games in South Korea:
“These are the damn Olympic Games!”
As the strongest Olympic skater ever, what did he mean, especially when he had just won the gold medal in the 5 kilometers just before?
The Wrong Turn of Sven Kramer
Please be patient and walk with me here. A little sports fan knows what happened to Kramer during the 10-kilometer race 8 years ago: he took the wrong turn at the direction of his coach Gerard Kemkers and was disqualified. Although he had skated an extra outer curve, he was the fastest of them all, but he went empty-handed and had a huge frustration with the ice. That traumatic experience has been haunting him for years and he wanted to get his revenge in South Korea.
Sven Kramer felt busy. He is the best – at least in the 5000 meters; so he’s in shape – and nobody has to worry about it. At least, that’s what everybody would think.
He was asked by the reporter of the NOS where that pressure comes from. “By myself” was his answer. Having to or wanting to achieve sport performance results in stress.
On the 10 kilometers is where everything went south. Everyone expected Sven to finish with a gold medal but instead, he came sixth; with no medal at all. This was one frustration that would continue to haunt him.
It is safe to assume that stress was most likely the fatal factor.
The relaxed way in which he seemed to deal with this disappointment was striking. The media “jumped” him but he reacted soberly. It was as if a burden had fallen from his shoulders.
“I wasn’t good enough; I didn’t hit the ice well’
Is “busy” something that is beyond your control and that quietly, and unnoticed, enters you and causes mental unrest? Is work pressure something that actually exists and is therefore measurable? Are you sure you are not the one who causes the pressure and imagines that you are under pressure? Who then puts that pressure on you? These are important questions every employee must answer if he or she is ever going to give their duties a hundred percent.
What is Work Pressure?
Work pressure is an important cause of stress and too much work pressure results in chronic stress and can seamlessly turn into burnout. Everyone experiences moments of busyness and pressure at work. Tasks must be completed, deadlines must be met, good returns must be achieved and products must be delivered.
Your manager, your team leader, and your colleagues want you to perform. In most cases, it is about making money and often indirectly about providing a customer-oriented service.
Long-term stress, for example at work, is certainly different from the stress that arises in a short moment. Ireen Wust received a gold medal and said she can only perform under pressure. However, delivering a sports performance is of relatively short duration and has a “head and tail”.
In other words, stress does not have to be a disadvantage and is often the opposite. A short period of stress makes us sharper, keeps us awake and alert. A sports performance or an exam causes stress and therefore makes people mentally more active than normal, which means that the performance can actually be delivered. The adrenaline that is produced works in our favor.
Work pressure, we can all agree, is a subjective experience. The experience is different for most people. While some experienced mental stress, others might be physical stress or even emotional stress while at work. Worst scenarios will find some people having to combine two or three levels of this stress.
This is an area that most people suffer from and it must be discussed.
How Can You Manage the Workload as a Subjective “Experience”?
It appears that people who feel (work) pressure often unconsciously experience pressure that cannot be described. The pressure that is felt is often an experience. It is near impossible to completely feel or understand another man’s stress. This is because experiences are different. It is important to gain insight into your experience and also to have insight into the actual situation. How do you prevent you from feeling that you have to do all sorts of things, that you continue to have that rushed feeling? Did you know you can transform this imagined feeling of stress into something insightful and very useful? How? You might ask. Before we answer that question, let’s look at the major causes of work pressure.
3 Major Causes of Work Pressure
Problems at home with adolescent children, an unresolved fight with your partner, not being able to make ends meet, lack of clarity at work or being unable to get along with your colleague. With everyone, it is different from what causes stress.
These factors that cause stress are called stressors. At work, there are various things that can cause stress. But you may also have to deal with private problems that may inadvertently affect your work.
It is important to recognize stressors so that you can do something about it and you can deal with stress better. In principle, of course, everyone is responsible for tackling stressors.
To be able to tackle these stressors, you have to first discover what they are.
Some of the popular stressors at work include;
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Excess Workload
This is one of the major causes of stress in the workplace. When an employee is saddled with too many responsibilities, then this could affect overall productivity.
Usually, in recruiting personnel in an organization, the job description is overtly spelled out. On accepting the job, the dynamics tend to change and the responsibilities begin to increase. And usually, this continues to happen even while such an employee remains on the same salary. It may be as a result of inadequate staffing or the assumed capacity of the employee. This could lead to stress on the part of the employee, trying to meet up with deadlines and unrealistic targets.
2. Job Security
Although a company wants you to think differently, the truth is that every employee is dispensable. These alone plants fear in the heart of such an employee. In order not to be laid off or have their benefits cut off, employees tend to go over and beyond in meeting up with company expectations. This is a major stressor. Imagine consistently worrying if you’re going to have a job the next day because you were unable to meet a target. Stress levels to the roof!
3. Poor Working Environment
The working environment does not only cover the physical environment but also the psychological environment. Is the workspace conducive? Is the chain of command spelled out? Is management really doing their job? Is it employee-friendly? Do the employees have a healthy working relationship? Is a healthy working relationship encouraged? What is remuneration like? Is it timely? As agreed?
When questions like this are not answered in favor of the employees, then this particular working environment will definitely affect the employees negatively. The stress that comes from having no control over the events in your workplace can place a strain on an employee. This would, in turn, bring about a reduction in the quality of productivity.
Although there are several stressors that can be found in the workplace, the three above are some of the major ones.
Now, to the major topic.
5 Ways To Cope With Stress From Work
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Identify Your Stressors
Like we have previously discussed in this article, your stressors are the issues that cause you stress. As we well know, the first step to solving a problem is identifying the problem first. To do this, you must first be attentive to your environment and the way you respond to it. Calm down and realize what triggers you the most.
What gets you tense and fidgety? What puts your nerves on edge? You have to find the patterns in your behavior. You could also take notes to keep track of these patterns and the ways you respond to them. This would give you a better perspective of what you are dealing with.
2. Control Your Responses
After identifying the issues that stress you, you must then go on to observe the way you respond to these stressors. Your response or reaction to these stressors usually determines how much they affect you emotionally, physically or mentally. Some people react to stress by eating, some by drinking, some by substance abuse and in extreme cases, some might even fall into depression.
Although some of these options might work temporarily, there’s nothing like a permanent solution. You can train yourself to respond better to these stressors. When they rear their ugly heads, you can decide to respond with any physical activity (you could go for a run, yoga, etc.). You could watch a movie, go for a walk, sleep, or listen to music. Do whatever works for you but don’t forget to take a breather.
3. Speak Out
Most times, stress is a cry from our bodies. Protesting. When you realize that the stress is becoming unbearable, then please, do not be scared to speak out. It might be that the workload is too high or your supervisor simply gives unreasonable deadlines. Whatever it might be, do not be afraid to have a conversation with your superiors about the adverse effects of such responsibilities on your health.
Emphasize the fact that your health is directly linked with your productivity at work. Therefore, your well being should be one of the company’s top priorities. Do not be scared to stand up for yourself. While doing this, you can also suggest to your supervisor ways in which these issues can be better managed.
4. Relax
Please, breathe. The world will not come to an end if you do not meet that deadline. Yeah, it is so important but not at the expense of your own self. The sad truth is that as a worker, you’re dispensable. If you break down today, a replacement would be waiting to take your job the next morning. You must not forget that you are all you’ve got.
So, please, take the time to engage in activities that relax you. It might be a swim, listening to music or simply partaking in some basic deep breathing exercises. Whatever it might be, don’t stop doing it. Learn to value time with your friends and family. Sometimes, it is those little moments that keep you going.
5. Make New Plans
Maybe it’s time you hit the drawing board again. Now that the dynamics of your job had changed and the demands of your workplace are increasing by the hour, maybe it’s time to re-strategize. When it starts feeling like you just can’t get a breather, then maybe you’re not doing something right.
To get over the constant feeling of being overwhelmed, you have to learn how to prioritize and organize your tasks. In making a priority list, you must realize that not every task can make it to this list. Select the tasks that are needed urgently or that will help the company reach it’s set goals faster. After making this list, then you start attending to them, one after the other. This gives you a clarity of purpose, that in turn gives peace.
While making this list, you might even find some easy tasks that could be resolved with a single phone call. You could also take a step further to create realistic deadlines for these tasks. It could be one hour, three hours, one day, and so on. And please, while making this life-saving list, remember to put little break periods here and there.
Learn to declutter the space in your mind, so you can think and make the best decisions for yourself.
Dealing with workplace stress is a universal problem. The good news is that there is a solution. You just have to be more intentional about taking care of your overall health. Once the intention is in check, then fifty percent of the job is done. Put yourself first when you decide what goes and what stays.
You’ll do great. I know it.
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