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Experiencing stress is a part of life. Stress can often provide you with the focus you need to complete a particular task. However, too much of it can be dangerous and lead to strains in your body that make it impossible to function. This is why it’s crucial to know how to manage stress and maintain a positive well-being.Â
Workplace stress, for example, requires attention to how it can affect employees in the long term to avoid concerns and sustain productivity. The National Institute of Stress indicates that 80 percent of workers feel stress on the job. This is why organizations opt for a stress management program that provides employers and employees a means to prevent and reduce workplace stress. So if you’re wondering how to have stress-free and happy employees, read on to find out.
What is a stress management program?
Stress is a human’s ability to respond to a particular situation. It’s mostly a feeling of emotional or physical tension that can work to your benefit if appropriately managed. Some stress can be a good thing at work, especially when it leads to a sense of urgency or a manner of motivation for people to be at their best.Â
However, when the stress response becomes prolonged or unmanaged, it can also lead to physical and mental illness, poor engagement, burnout, absenteeism, or a reduced ability to focus.Â
This is why establishing ways to manage stress, such as a stress management program, is vital to promoting well-being in the workplace. Stress management programs aim to empower employees with the proper tools and skills to combat life’s expected everyday stressors to be equipped enough to face each demand and challenge.Â
It also plays a massive role in developing a culture of health and wellness within the workplace, providing more than the additional vacation or sick days you might need.Â
The essential mission of a stress management program is to enhance the health, well-being, and productivity of workers as an individual and as part of a team. Pairing this with a productivity management program will provide your employees with a more organized system.
A stress management program mainly works on these basic principles:
- Stress has no boundaries. It can arise at home, in the workplace, and in the community, with every individual carrying a composite of all these factors.
- Stress is highly contagious. It affects the individual and those around them.Â
- Coping with stress is an individual responsibility.Â
- Coping with workplace stress is a managerial responsibility.Â
- Employee involvement in identifying stressors and developing ways to manage stress is vital to any program’s success.
- A successful stress management program needs an intimate understanding of the employees and the environment they conduct work.
Through support, encouragement, guidance, and counseling, methods can be established to reduce and prevent stress at work. A stress management program will provide a path to maintaining the productivity you need. But it can also lead to your employees’ happiness and overall well-being.
5 Types of Stress
There are different types of stress that people often deal with. Not all of these types are negative or harmful to an individual. Understanding what type is vital to finding a technique that would fit one’s personality and the situation to relieve the stress. Here are five types of stress that you might experience:
1. Acute Stress
Acute stress refers to short-term types of stress that can both be positive or more distressing. We encounter acute stress most often in our day-to-day lives. This type can throw you off balance quickly and unexpectedly and doesn’t last long before making the required response. Examples of acute stress can be having to take a surprise exam or reacting to someone’s sudden argumentative outburst.Â
With acute stress being your body’s immediate response to sudden stress, it can also be countered with quick relaxation techniques. Breathing exercises and cognitive reframing can help you calm your body quickly and manage your stress levels.
2. Chronic Stress
Chronic Stress is the type of stress that can be prolonged and regularly occur. It often occurs when the body experiences stressors with great frequency and intensity that the autonomic nervous system doesn’t have the chance to activate a relaxation response due to its frequency. Instances such as a traumatic experience or an extremely taxing job can lead to chronic stress. If left untreated, it can negatively affect your health and overall well-being.Â
This type of stress can leave you feeling drained and can cause you to burn out. Therefore, it’s essential to effectively manage chronic stress through a reliable stress management program to avoid health issues such as cardiovascular disease, anxiety, depression, and other conditions.
3. Emotional Stress
Emotional stress usually comes from an experience that invokes a strong physical reaction and a greater sense of distress. The pain from emotional stress can hit much harder than most other types of stress. This type of stress can be encountered from a conflicted relationship, financial crises, unpleasant work environments, and other significant stressors.Â
It’s vital to seek ways to manage stress of this type as it can often lead to unhealthy coping behaviors to escape the feeling of pain. Stress management programs can help you process, diffuse and build resilience against emotional stress in order to feel and function better.
4. Burnout
Burnout is often the result of prolonged chronic stress that can leave people feeling a lack of control. Mostly work-related, high levels of demand, lack of recognition, unclear expectations, and the risk of adverse consequences can lead to a person feeling burnt out. When a person feels this way, it becomes difficult to maintain motivation for work, often having the inability to complete specific tasks. This happens when you become chronically overwhelmed and unable to manage the stress from your current job.
5. Eustress
Eustress is a positive type of stress that is considered fun and exciting. It can keep you energized at your task since it is associated with surges of adrenaline that increase your focus. Activities such as downhill biking, having to complete a deadline, and the first day at a new job are examples of eustress. This type of positive stress can help keep our vigor in life and is vital to our overall well-being.
5 Stress Management Programs that Work
A reliable stress management program is key to avoiding unhealthy habits, burnout, and substantial harm to an employee’s mental and physical health. These methods can address workplace and personal stress and reduce its effects in the office:
1. Foster a culture of wellness
To have your employees living their happiest and healthiest lives, it’s vital to foster a culture of wellness at the workplace. This means implementing ways that encourage your employees’ well-being by creating healthy habits in their professional and personal lives.Â
Promoting healthy habits such as getting proper rest, sleeping regularly, and maintaining a balanced diet are viable ways to manage stress. Having this culture of wellness can boost your employees’ morale and increase positivity, which can help maintain productivity and overall well-being.
2. Stress education
Stress education and other means of information to relieve stress are valuable methods that negate its effects. Unfortunately, most employees don’t know how to deal with their stress, leading to adverse health consequences. Ways such as inviting a healthcare professional to discuss stress management techniques or providing tip sheets on managing stress give ample support to your employees.
3. Stress-related challenges
Hosting regular activities built on wellness are healthy exercises to manage stress. These fun and engaging exercises can build healthy habits that contribute to positive well being:
- Self-care challenges where employees need to practice at least ten minutes of self-care every day.Â
- Breathing challenges where employees can learn different breathing techniques that help manage stress
- Meditation challenges where employees are asked to meditate for at least five to ten minutes per day.Â
- Journaling challenges where employees write in mood journals to track how they feel when at work.
4. Meditation Classes
A popular stress management program that works is offering meditation classes on-site. This allows employees to relieve stress and build healthy coping techniques they can use. Meditation can improve work performance, develop inter-work relationships, and lead to better health.Â
On an average workday, set aside just five minutes of your time for reflection and deep breathing, which can lead to tension release and decrease stress levels. You can also host meditation classes for your employees, such as bringing in a meditation specialist to have thirty-minute sessions, promoting productivity, and boosting office morale.
5. Develop a positive work-life balance
Having a positive work-life balance is vital to reducing stress and taking away the stressors, including having a strict work schedule. Allow your employees to have more flexible hours through policies that support their well-being. Employees can even opt for remote working, which can also boost productivity. In addition, provide mental health days in which they can take a much-needed break if they are feeling too stressed.
Conclusion
Stress is an inevitable part of life that doesn’t have to hamper our potential and productivity. By implementing the proper ways to manage stress, we can create better habits to reduce its impact and avoid its effects. When we recognize the overbearing stress that can affect our well-being, we can focus on managing it and providing a better means that leads to happiness and health at work.
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