With working days getting longer, commutes increasing enormously and the general stresses of work and home life, it is perhaps unsurprising that office stress is an increasingly apparent problem. In fact, it is believed that the issue costs US workplaces around $300 billion every year, whereas in the UK it is believed to cost employers 9.9 million working days per year.
That makes it a problem that employees and managers need to focus on in order to get it stamped out. The first step in this is actually identifying the symptoms that lead to stress. In doing so you will become more aware of the problem, be it one that you suffer from yourself or an issue that you have noticed in a staff member, and can take the necessary steps to resolve it to create a more productive workplace environment.
With that in mind, there are a few key indicators that somebody may be dealing with work-related stress and an examination of the issues that this can cause.
Exhaustion And A Lack of Motivation
Have you ever woken up in the morning and dreaded the thought of going to work? Instead of conducting your normal morning routine, you drag yourself out of bed, quickly get changed and think of nothing but how much you don’t want to go to the place that you’re heading to.
We’re sure that it’s a feeling that has been experienced by many and it is often one a red flag that you are dealing with severe burnout. If you bring a complete lack of energy and enthusiasm into the workplace, you lower your own productivity enormously, which could place you in the firing line should cuts need to be made.
Perhaps more importantly, you also up your own stress levels. After all, dreading going to work can affect your sleeping patterns, with many staying up into the early hours because they can’t take their minds off going to work and the “horrors” that await them there. This is backed up by the stats, as 48% of people claim that stress, which is related to work and money in 76% of cases, keeps them up at night.
However, this is also a dangerous symptom to misinterpret. While exhaustion and a lack of motivation are symptoms of office burnout, they may also be indicators that you are in a job that does not challenge you or that you don’t feel is right for you. As such, if you identify these symptoms in yourself you may need to take a long, hard look at your career choices to actually confirm that you are on the career path that serves you the most.
Negative Emotions
Another astonishing stat is that is that 73% of people believe that stress has caused them to suffer from psychological issues, which often manifests in negativity and a confrontational attitude that affects their work and personal loves.
So what sort of negative emotions may start swirling around your brain if you are starting to burnout and get stressed with your work? The most common is the feeling of disillusionment and that your work no longer matters to the company. This is often an issue that is compounded by poor management that is unable to set goals for employees to focus on and doesn’t provide the level of feedback needed to keep employees engaged.
You may also find yourself sniping at fellow employees, having less patience for what you perceive to be mistakes and becoming more irritated by the little things that would normally be easy to dismiss.
Most troublingly, you may find your negative emotions starting to manifest in your personal life. An astonishing 54% of people believe that stress has led them into getting into fights and arguments with loved ones that might otherwise have been avoided and, if left unchecked, these negative emotions can have a massive effect on your personal life, creating a vicious cycle where you are getting stressed out from work and life in general, leaving yourself with no escape.
The Inability To Solve Problems
In most workplaces you are going to be asked to put your problem solving abilities into action in a number of ways. However, as fatigue starts to develop and you become so engrossed in your efforts that you forget to take the breaks that your body and mind need to perform to the optimal level, you are going to find that your cognitive thinking deteriorates and you are less able to solve problems.
This affects your productivity in the workplace, resulting in you spending hours doing empty work on problems, leading to you becoming more stressed out and less able to think clearly. The most obvious solution to this is to take regular breaks to allow your mind to recharge and come up with a few different perspectives on the matter, but this is not always something that your employers will allow, plus you may find that you end up feeling duty-bound to work for the time that you are being paid to work, rather than taking breaks.
However, there are a number of statistics that demonstrate that working solidly can actually decrease productivity rather enormously. A study published in The Atlantic claims that the most productive and efficient employees tend to work for 52 minutes at a time, with a 17-minute break in between each work session. Couple that with the fact that working fifty hours or more per week will make you less productive and it becomes even more apparent that cognitive thinking can be affected by burnout and stress.
The key point here is that you can often be more productive for your employer if you take a step away from your work every so often to give your mind the chance to recharge. This is often difficult, especially for those who are scared about losing focus on their work, but you will often find that doing so allows you to come at problems from perspectives that you hadn’t considered when you were deep within your work. It’s the whole “can’t see the forest for the trees” situation, only applied to the problems that you need to solve at work.
Not Taking Care Of Your Personal Appearance
We touched on the issue that stress-related sleep deprivation and the issues caused by a lack of enthusiasm can have on your morning routine earlier. For many, this manifests itself in less care being taken in terms of their personal appearances. Messy hair, five o clock shadows and creased clothing in the workplace are all signs that somebody is burning out and struggling to care, with some being so deeply affected that their personal hygiene starts to deteriorate.
There are some who may argue that such things should not affect the quality of work offered, but it is important to remember that business is often as much about image as it is the quality of work or service provided. Professionalism is important in the workplace, as is the need to make a good first impression with potential clients and business partners.
There is a common stat that is bandied around that claims that you have seven seconds to make a first impression when meeting somebody for the first time. If that first impression consists of you turning up looking dishevelled and stressed, you will find that new contacts think negatively about both you and the business that you represent.
It can also affect your prospects in the workplace itself. That promotion that you’re angling for, the one that may be the source of your stress in the first-place? A Canadian study claims that you have less chance of getting it if you don’t present yourself well, which can only compound the issues caused by work-related stress.
Your Physical Health Deteriorates
While all of the above can affect your performance in the workplace, with some issues being caused in your personal life as a result, the fact that stress can contribute to a range of physical health problems is the biggest concern that you are going to have to deal with.
Stress has been related to a variety of ailments and statistics in the UK claim that 35% of all work-related ill health cases are caused by stress. This may be something that you think will only affect your mental health in the ways that we have previously discussed, but it is possible that prolonged periods of stress will also cause you to experience issues with your physical health that could cause long-term problems.
For example, while there is no evidence that stress can cause heart disease, the British Heart Foundation states that it can exacerbate symptoms. Angina is often a problem for those suffering from heart conditions who are placed under a lot of stress, for example.
Obesity is another issue that often arises out of stress, which can lead to circulatory problems, heart disease, issues with joints and increased risk of strokes, some forms of cancer and Type-2 diabetes.
So while stress is not often the direct cause of a number of the physical ailments that you may experience, it is often a major contributing factor.
So What Can You Do About It?
So now that you understand a few of the symptoms of work-related stress and how they can affect you in terms of your working life, personal life and overall health, it is important to consider some of the things that you can do to alleviate the problem and reduce the amount of stress in your life.
This is a tricky problem and, as with many things, there is no fool-proof solution that you can follow that will cause your stress to evaporate. In all likelihood, there are always going to be things that cause stress in your life and it is usually the proper management of these issues that allow for their effects to be mitigated.
The following are all things that are worth considering if you believe that stress is having a negative impact on your life:
- Take a break every so often. You need some time away from work, which is why most countries have laws in place that ensure people get a certain amount of holiday time every year. Take advantage of this by doing the things you enjoy and taking your focus away from the problems that stress you out.
- Try to maintain a balanced diet and do some exercise every once in a while. Doing so will ensure your body gets what it needs to function properly, plus exercise leads to the release of a number of chemicals in the brain, such as serotonin, that have been linked to improved moods.
- Cut out the toxic influences in your work and personal life. This is often one of the more difficult things to do, especially if you have built close bonds with people who can be identified as sources of your stress. If you need to be around somebody in the workplace less often, consider speaking to a manager who you trust to discuss your issues or try confronting the person that is causing the stress.
- Understand your limitations and don’t take on more work than you are able to handle. Many of us feel as though we can’t say “no” in the workplace, especially those who have been identified as having talent and are thus relied upon by management to get jobs done. Be honest with yourself and your managers.
- Don’t be afraid of seeking therapy. Many people attach a stigma to undergoing counselling for stress and work-related issues, which leads to them failing to look for the help that they obviously need. You may not feel it is for you, but you should at least give it a try before seeking alternatives.
- Find a hobby that takes your mind away from work when you are not at work. Many who feel stressed are often overburdened at work, which results in them taking their problems home with them. You need to achieve some separation between your personal life and work.
- Get plenty of sleep. Again, this is difficult to do as stress is related to sleep deprivation, as we discussed above. You need to find a way to break the cycle, which can often be done by establishing a bedtime routine that prepares your body for rest.
- Cut out negative habits, like smoking, drinking too much alcohol and consuming large amounts of caffeine. Disregarding the health issues that these habits can cause, engaging in a combination of them can lead to chemical changes in your body that severely affect your moods.
- Rely on your friends, family and support network to help you through specific issues. You are not an island and you shouldn’t be expected to shoulder your burdens alone. A little bit of time spent talking about the issue can help, plus it is always good to get an outside perspective on the things that lead to your stress.
- Finally, accept the things that you can’t change. Too many of us allow ourselves to become stressed by things that we can’t do anything about, which often acts as a foundation for more stress to develop.
The Final Word
Work-related stress is an issue that affects the economy, businesses and, most importantly, people. This makes it all the more important that people are able to identify the symptoms of stress, the problems that it can cause and, crucially, some of the things that they can do to alleviate the problem.