Preventing and managing stress in the workplace

Most of the time people don't pay attention to psychological health like they do to physical health which should be taken into consideration as physical health. When we consider a workspace, mental stress is the most common psychological health hazard people have to deal with.

Stress is the feeling of being overwhelmed or unable to cope with mental or emotional pressure. Work-related stress can cause due to several reasons such as,

• low or high job demand
• low control
• Lack of clarity of job role
• Lack of support from management and colleagues
• poor working relationships with management and colleagues 

Identifying someone in mental stress is tricky, but paying more attention, can be identified before it's too late. There are some key indicators of stress and those are,

• Change in their normal behavior.
• Change in their appearance.
• Sudden Lack of concentration/commitment.
• Absenteeism.

In a workplace, employees can be exposed to mental stress easily due to one or a combination of reasons which are mentioned above. It's the responsibility of the management to protect their employees from the risk of harm from work-related stress. So the management of the establishment has to regularly check for employees' mental health risks by,

• looking at systems of work design and management
• paying attention to key indicators
• undertaking one-on-one discussions with workers.
• reviewing past incidents with a view to minimizing reoccurrence.

In this case, workers also have a responsibility to pay attention to their colleagues and let the management know immediately if they see any indicator of mental stress from a colleague.

If any mental stress risk has been identified, management should have worked to eliminate the risk as soon as possible. Even there is no stress risk, management should maintain a healthy and stress-free environment by following positive management behaviors such as,

• Ensure all health and safety requirements are met
• Identify if additional resources can be brought in.
• Be aware of team members' abilities and provide training where appropriate.
• Monitor workload and refuse additional work when the teams are under pressure / set realistic deadlines.
• Steer employees in a direction rather than imposing.
• Provide opportunities for employees to air views and hold regular meetings.
• Encourage staff to develop and review development.
• Communicates clear goals and objectives.
• Clearly define roles, expectations, and lines of communication.
  
• Supporting and investigating complaints.
• Dealing with conflict at an early stage and flowing upon actions.
• Having a positive approach and staying calm when under pressure.
• Keeps employees' issues private and confidential.
• Treats all employees equally.

Workplace-related stress directly affects productivity. Maintaining a stress-free environment is highly beneficial to the management of the workplace as well as to the employees.

References:

https://www.safework.sa.gov.au/workers/health-and-wellbeing/psychological-hazards