Stress, Anxiety Cause Problems, Not Solutions

There are a lot of reasons for workplace stress and anxiety these days but letting them take over your business is not a good idea.

Some small business owners and managers believe that a certain level of stress, or as they may call it, “motivation,” is a good thing. There’s logic there. With all the stress in today’s business environment, everyone on the team needs to be motivated. Stress, anxiety, and fear are good motivators, at least for a while.

But as psychologist and others who study human behavior have found, these negative motivations bring as many problems as benefits. Such long-term stress can impact performance and even health negatively. Like an automobile engine forced beyond safe limits, human can maintain that unnatural level for a while, but at some point, people will burnout or give up. Chronic workplace stress.

The word “chronic” is a key. Humans are resilient, but if they feel trapped in a no-win situation for too long, most of us will go into a shell, leave, or even become antagonist.

One likely scenario involves an owner/manager who is extremely driven. Like a lot of entrepreneurs, this often involves someone who chronically works long hours and expects staff to.

The telltale signal was a high turnover rate among employees, including upper-level staff. Equally telling, new staff often joined with visible excitement then, after a few months, they started to resemble la deer in the headlights.

A smart business is aware of these issues. They are often unavoidable, but smart businesses don’t wait to act until staff members start suffering. They keep an eye out for problems that can lead to stress before they cause problems.

These challenges can be somewhat complex, but it is critical to eliminate as many major issues as possible. Try to honestly examine operations: are expectations and responsibilities clear for team members? Are goals and deadlines realistic and achievable? Even rats in a maze will give up if it becomes obvious that they simply can’t win.

Policies and job descriptions are relevant. If a staff member has tasks for which they are not equipped or authorized, that can be a problem. If it’s been a while since you took a hard look at such issues, you may be building unnecessary stress into your office.

Many businesses have up and down demands. If crunch times are too severe and frequent, consider staff adjustments that help level the load.  This may vary by your business and personalities, but you may have staff members want or need some extra hours, and if you can identify enough of these as on-call staffers to cover a period of high workload, that may help your workplace in several ways.

Don’t forget stress at the top. Some owners and managers fall into a macho mentality and think they handle stress when in fact they just take it out on everyone else, adding to overall problems. Personal days or even 20-minutes of down time at the office can help. For everyone, it’s even possible that a break will increase productivity in the long run.