Feeling stressed in the workplace is a serious issue that can manifest itself in physical illnesses (more prone to colds and flu through to a higher propensity of heart disease and problems with mental health) and will often mean your team are not working at their best.  Happy staff equals productivity, so it's in everyone's interests to address stress in the workplace head on.  With Stress Awareness Day coming up on 2nd November, we're looking at ways in which we can reduce stress at work.

We've identified three common stressors in the workplace and look at ways to minimise them.

Timekeeping

Mornings can be a stressful time, particularly when you've got others to factor in - getting kids ready for school, managing the shower rota, sorting lunches etc. but they can be made easier if you have time on your side.  For example can you work flexibly, thereby avoiding stressful commuter traffic or could you have a clear diary until 10am so you are not under time pressure to arrive at your desk ?

Interpersonal Conflict

Heavy workloads, poor leadership and uncertainty over job roles can all lead to conflict, and that's before taking into account colleagues that may have quite different views from you. 

Reaching out to your manager should always be the first step, take time to really understand what the problem is so you can be clear what course of action you would like to see.  If you are confronting the problem head on, again be clear what the problem is and then be quiet.  Let them talk and actively listen to their response, often just being heard and understood can help resolve the conflict, but if you do need to come to a compromise then it will be much easier if you understand where they are coming from.

In general though, steering clear of sensitive issues (like politics and religion), not getting involved in office gossip and avoiding situations that could get heated will go some way to help avoid conflict in the first place.

Multitasking

Once being able to multi-task was considered the pinnacle of bossing it at work, but why ?  There are very few people who can consistently produce their best work while simultaneously doing two tasks.  If you're a mere mortal like the rest of us, forget multitasking (most of us are not really designed to do it for more than about 10 minutes) and look into planning your workload so you are more productive.  In the morning our brains are sharpest and least open to distraction, so plan tasks that require focus and concentration for this period.  Group together all the little 10 minute tasks that mount up and allocate an hour each day to sorting them all out.  And finally do work that requires creative thinking in the afternoon when our brains are less sharp and more open to creative influence from other areas