Work stress is a relatively common affliction among today’s working professionals. But that doesn’t make it any easier to handle! Stress at work can lead to poor job performance, decreased productivity, and a generally lower quality of life.
Luckily, you can learn how to handle stressful situations at work. Whether you have an inconsiderate coworker, a bad working environment, or are finding your home stress carrying over into your work life, you can find ways to manage and mitigate stress in the workplace.
Read on to learn some of our favorite strategies for handling workplace stress.
1. Recognize Stressful Situations
They say that the first step to solving a problem is admitting that you have one. In order to mitigate stress in your work life, you first have to understand where it’s coming from.
A great way to do this is to keep a small journal in your desk drawer and keep track of the times at which you felt most stressed during the day. Then, after a week or two, look through your experiences and notice any patterns.
These patterns could be particular projects, types of meetings, or even certain people. No matter what the stressor is, recognizing it is the first step in limiting your workplace stress.
2. Avoid Stressful Situations
Once you know what your workplace stressors are, You can start considering how to limit them in your work life. If you find yourself feeling overworked, it might be worth taking one or two tasks off your plate. That way, you can more easily focus on the parts of your job that don’t stress you out.
That said, a certain amount of workplace stress is unavoidable. Fast-paced environments or high-stakes positions can cause stress to occur more often. But even in the most stressful jobs, eliminating just one or two daily stressors can help make the rest of your work less daunting.
3. Manage Your Stress
As we mentioned above, a certain amount of workplace stress is just unavoidable. So the next step in managing workplace stress is figuring out how to manage the inevitable stressors in healthy ways.
For example, getting out of the office for your lunch every day or taking a walk around the building every now and then can help you gain some perspective on your work and refresh your mind, decreasing your workplace stress. Others find journaling at the end of the day to be extremely helpful in lowering their overall stress levels.
If you feel like you’ve tried everything to lower your workplace stress levels with no results, it may be time to speak to a doctor about trying medications to help limit your stress.
How to Handle Stressful Situations at Work: Ask for Help
When in doubt, remember that there is never any harm in asking for help. It is in your best interest and your employer’s for you to have a healthy environment that you can work effectively in.
Plus, stress is a very well-known and unpleasant reality of humanity. You would be surprised how supportive and sympathetic bosses can be to workplace stress. In fact, they’re often the victims of it, too!
No matter what the root of your stress is, knowing how to handle stressful situations at work is essential to both your mental and physical health. To learn more about how to amp up your work life, check out our other blog posts!
