Identifying stress in the workplace and dealing with it

Every day brings stress, can I pay the mortgage? Can I drive to the shops without crashing the car?  Is Russia and Ukraine going to turn into World War 3?  This is normal life, and we can’t avoid these things, but when our ability to cope with those stressors diminishes, or there are too many stressors for us to cope with, we become overwhelmed, which can impact work, home, and physical wellbeing.

The inability to cope manifests differently for everyone, and the treatment is also different, depending on your situation.  Please seek medical advice if you are suffering unduly from stress/depression/anxiety.

This month’s Free Webinar
This month I am talking about identifying and managing stress in the workplace.  The webinar is on Friday 16^th August, and click here to register. 

How to spot if someone in your workplace is affected
Having personally lived with clinical depression for most of my adult life I am very aware that, particularly the first time, you don’t recognise yourself that there is a problem.  Luckily for me my Boss at the time had suffered from depression, so when I burst into tears over a simple maths mistake, she recognised it and sent me off to the doctors.  

Some of the ways that you can spot if someone is potentially struggling are:

1. Change in personality – becoming more withdrawn, or more snappy
2. Making more mistakes than normal, especially simple things
3. Taking things overly to heart, especially criticism
4. Presentation – taking less care in their appearance than before, looking tired (trouble sleeping is a common symptom of stress/depression) etc.

Is the workplace a contributing factor to the stress?
Stressors come from every part of our lives, but if the workplace is a major contributor to that stress then this is a health and safety issue that needs to be addressed.  So, is the workplace contributing to that stress?

1. Has the workload grown significantly?
2. Are there members of the team not pulling their weight, and thereby putting extra pressure on others to pick up the slack?
3. Do you have a toxic work environment? (bitching, undermining, not working collaboratively as a team, cliques etc)
4. Is there too little work, and staff are worried that the company may be in trouble, but the boss doesn’t appear to be doing anything about it?

What can I do about these things?
Depending on what the issues are, some solutions may include:

1. Reallocating workload to ensure more even spread of work, and/or work allocated to the people who are best at those tasks.
2. Recruit more staff
3. Outsource tasks, especially if you can’t afford to recruit.
4. Performance manage/discipline those who are not pulling their weight
5. Facilitated team discussion to agree acceptable standards of behaviour, and remove workplace toxicity
6. Don’t be afraid to restructure.  This doesn’t necessarily mean redundancy, but it may be a reduction in hours across the board to keep everyone in employment but get you through the lean times

How to address an individual who is affected?

Whether the stress is work-related or not, if someone is suffering from stress/Depression/anxiety, this does impact the workplace.  So, if comfortable to do so:

1. Tell them what you have observed and ask them, is everything OK? The answer may well be “it’s all fine”, but it will hopefully be enough to get them thinking about whether there is an issue
2. Encourage them to seek professional advice and support (counsellor, GP etc)
3. Offer them Employee Assistance Programme support.  This is a counselling service which the company to agree to pay for a set number of sessions (usually up to 3 session).  More information can be found at https://www.raisementalhealth.co.nz/   

If you are going into this conversation, it may be useful to watch the recorded Courageous Conversation Webinar (click here to view) to give you some pointers on how to deal with that conversation.  

Dealing with Stress in the workplace Webinar

Click here to register for this month’s free webinar on identifying signs of stress in the workplace and how to manage it on Friday 16th August at 10am.  If you are not able to make this time, then please register and I will send you a copy of the recording afterwards. 

Here to help
We are here to help with any staff queries, so feel free to call me on 021 741 544 or 0800 HRtoolkit (0800 47 8665).  Or sign up for our DIY document library for only $399 + GST per annum, or our DIY expert package which gives you access to the document library and unlimited phone and e-mail support for only $129 + GST per month (minimum 12-month term)

Cheers
Lisa Mackay
Founder of HRtoolkit Ltd