How Work-Related Stress Affects Your Employee Health and Productivity

Work-related stress can have major effects on your employees' health and productivity. The working environment is a stressful environment; however, it is important that you pay attention to your employees' stress levels so that you can properly manage them. It is also important that as a manager, you are able to identify the symptoms associated with high-stress levels, as well as knowing the effects of stress, to better manage work stress and health. This assists you in better being able to identify when you may need to intervene or assist your employees with whatever is causing them to experience stress.

What is Work-Related Stress?

The term work-related stress is often described as the response that people have when faced with demands and pressures from their job that they are not properly equipped to deal with. An example of this would be asking the secretary to balance the books for you. This is certainly not a good idea for multiple reasons. Firstly, the secretary does not have the necessary skills to complete this task, and secondly, they could experience large amounts of stress as a result of them not being able to complete the task you have assigned them properly.

In recent times, there has been a new introduction to the workforce. This work-related stress symptom relates to the fact that most organizations now have an office team, as well as a work-from-home team. These teams need to be managed differently from one another as they function in completely different ways. However, both teams are susceptible to stress and the effects. As a manager, it is your job to properly deal with the stress that your employees feel, as well as to understand the needs and capabilities of your employees.

Employees who work from home generally experience less stress than those who work in the office; however, this does not mean that they are completely free from stress and its effects. It is important that as a manager you employ different methods for dealing with these teams, as their needs are different from those of a normal office team. It is important to note that even though these teams work in a less stressful environment, they are still susceptible to stress and its effects. Tight deadlines, stressful working situations, and difficult work are all some of the causes of stress in the workplace and can all still be prevalent at home.

Stress Levels and Types of Stress

The level of stress experienced by your staff is generally directly linked to the amount and difficulty of work that has been assigned to them. Mixing this in with tight deadlines and various other factors makes a pretty good recipe for stress. Most office workers feel a lot of work-related stress symptoms, as well as in their personal lives. For this reason, it becomes difficult to balance the work of your employees. It is important to build relationships with your staff so that you can be aware of whatever is going on in their personal lives as well.

By doing this, you provide yourself with a unique perspective that could better allow you to manage work from home employees, in stress and work levels. There are many different types of stress and causes of stress in the workplace, all of which have pretty profound impacts on the individuals who are experiencing them. Some types of stress can include anxiety, depression, and even high blood pressure. These are all pretty serious conditions that should be dealt with properly. Failure to do so could have extremely negative effects on your staff’s performance, as well as their general mood and happiness in the workplace.

Signs That Employees May Be Suffering from Stress

As a manager, there are a number of things that you can look out for that could help you identify when an employee is feeling stressed out. Should you identify any of these signs, you should consider intervening as soon as possible. Stressed-out employees perform way below their usual levels of productivity, and also this can affect their general view of the organization. Some signs that an employee is feeling stressed out are:

• They are working for extended hours. Meaning that they come into work earlier and leave later than they normally do. You need to help them manage time pressure.
• They are more irritable than they usually tend to be.
• Visibly exhausted.
• Concentration and memory lapses seem to be commonplace.
• They become overly sensitive, taking general criticism to heart.
• If they tend to shy away from situations, preferring not to be involved.

Should you notice any of these work-related stress symptoms, you should try to speak to the employee in private. By doing so, you can converse with the employee to determine what is causing the stress. You can determine whether the stress is related to work or to other aspects of life. Based on the conversation, you can assist by adjusting the workload of the employee if possible, to assist them in dealing with the issues at hand. Happy employees are always more productive, and it is crucial that you always remember this.

Impacts of Stress Prevalent in Home Offices

Working from home poses its own unique issues. The environment is not free from stress, though. While working from home, employees can still experience problems such as decreased productivity, or even health issues that could cause them stress. You should educate your employees that work from home on how to de-stress at home office. This can do wonders for improving their productivity.

Focus when remote work is stressful but it is one of the most important tools for success. You can assist employees who work from home in this regard. 

Some of the benefits related to Reduced stress levels include:

• Increased productivity
• A happier workforce
• Fewer absences
• Fewer employees who need leave

It is always important to remember that some stress is always necessary as, without it, your employees would never get anything done. Some of the cons associated with having no stress include:

• Decreased productivity
• A lazy workforce

The Bottom Line

Paying attention to the needs of your employees is crucial for the success of the business. By helping reduce stress at work, you can reap amazing benefits.