Constantly feeling worried, angry, irritable, tearful, unmotivated or unfocused, really tired or not
sleeping well and struggling to make decisions. Does this sound familiar? According to a survey
conducted by CIPHR, a staggering 79% of adults in the UK working population feel stressed at least once
a month and unfortunately 1 in 14 people said they felt stressed every working day! Stress is highly
underestimated and can have very detrimental effects on your body as well as your mood or ability at
work, including; muscle tension and pain, chest pain and severe fatigue. But if you still need to go to
work of course, what can be done about it? Below are our top tips for trying to combat your stress levels
at work and beginning to thrive in your working environment instead:
Track what is causing the stress
Understanding the exact triggers of your stress is a very important factor in trying to combat it. This may
not be the easiest task and is likely to be more than one factor. For example, it could be pinpointed to
just too much of a demand on your time, or perhaps a certain individual within the organisation, or
maybe a lack of clarity with an aspect of your role. To be able to do this task, it will require honesty and
patience to break down all aspects of your job and the environment you are working in. Once
pinpointed exactly, then again break down each aspect of this trigger and make a plan to tackle it. This
could be on your own or with the help from a colleague, friend or your manager.
Relaxation techniques
When you are working in an open plan office environment, you may feel uncomfortable with the idea of
practising a few yoga or hypnotherapy relaxation techniques at your desk. Relaxation doesn’t
necessarily mean a bath with relaxing music and candles or an aromatherapy full body massage
(although they are both lovely!), it can mean as little as closing your eyes for 20 seconds whilst seated at
your desk, to allow your eye muscles to relax. It can mean walking around the office block a couple of
times to clear your mind and get some fresh air. For some, relaxation can come in the form of exercise; a
run, a workout at the gym, an exercise class. These techniques can form part of your daily scheduled
breaks as well.
Scheduled breaks
Taking a break, whether this is just for a few minutes or booking some annual leave to get away
completely, is absolutely vital to your mental health. Tiny breaks throughout your working day help you
to process and retain information better and stay on task, they will help you to be more creative with
your responses and it can also promote better social communication and cooperation. If you really
struggle with this and end up realising that you have only looked up twice from staring at your screen
and stepped away from your desk once in 8 hours, then a technique I have found really useful is to
schedule your breaks into your diary so you are reminded. Even if they are a few minutes in between
meetings or longer periods of time to get up and walk about or get a drink, it is important that your
breaks become habit and feature as part of your working day.
Talk to your boss
Part of your managers job is to make your job more enjoyable. If you have broken down what the
triggers are and can speak to your manager in confidence about a plan to help tackle your triggers, they
should do their best to aid this, as it will ensure their staff are more effective, efficient and happier. If
you are a manager; encouraging communication amongst team members and the management team is
a vital part of an effective leadership team – it is led from the top and should be openly encouraged all
the time. This is not just to ensure people have a better and less stressful experience at work. It will also
positively affect the company’s bottom line.
Seek some professional help
It is very much worth pointing out that the above ideas are useful when dealing with mild to moderate
stress levels. It may well be the case that your stress levels have reached a clinical level in which it is vital
that you seek professional assistance and guidance. If you have tried the above techniques and they are
not even slightly working or you feel your symptoms are continuing to get worse then book an
appointment with your GP and they will be able to refer you to a specialist. If you feel you can, it is
important that your workplace (your manager and HR) understand how stressed you are feeling and will
be able to ask the advice from the designated Mental Health First Aider (if your organisation has one).
Don’t feel you have to deal with stress at work on your own. You don’t.
Live Happy is a Health & Wellbeing company and part of what we do is to help the corporate world
manage their stress more effectively using the correct products and services for you. If you have read
this and want to have a chat, please go to www.live-happy.app and get in touch – we would be happy to
help!