Personal Pulse Check: Work Stress
Use a simple method to find out: Is it solvable, is it exciting, or is it hurting your life?
When the demands of the workplace do not align with our abilities, resources, or needs, a series of negative physical and emotional reactions happen which all of us have experienced in our life. The boogeyman called work stress. And no job is stress-free. Particularly for hard-working professionals who have strong work ethics.
We all need to be conscious of the existence and level of work stress so we can live lives that are actually worth living. No matter what responsibilities your job entails, there are steps you can take to protect yourself from the negative effects of work stress, boost job satisfaction, and promote both your on and off-the-job well-being.
Recently, I gave it some thought and came to the conclusion that all we need to do is do a regular Work-Stress pulse check. Every now and then. Here is a method that might be useful:
By adopting and using this routine stress check-up, you can prevent seeing the final effects of stress on your environment and health and take action before it’s too late. Hopefully, using this approach you will avoid long periods of:
- Waking up anxious every morning
- Honestly detesting Monday (and every other day of the week)
- Always feeling uncomfortable at work
- Having little to no energy for life after work
- Having no motivation to do a good job on a daily basis
- There are rising levels of self-doubt, submission, and insecurity
- Experiencing mental health issues
- Having a negative effect on close relationships as a result of constant complaining and mood swings
- Physical exhaustion and illness
Employees should not, however, be the only ones who are aware of the stress that comes with their jobs. Employers should do that too. Leaders must commit to redefining what “workplace wellness” looks like in order to combat this spreading stress epidemic and foster healthier workplaces, and doing so has emerged as the top priority of the leading business across the world.
Here is my favorite quote on this by Simon Sinek:
“The responsibility of a company is to serve the customer. The responsibility of leadership is to serve their people so that their people may better serve the customer. If leaders fail to serve their people first, both customer and company will suffer.”
What actions can businesses take in this age of increasing workplace stress to win the war for good employees? Find out more in my upcoming article.
Until next time!
