When is workplace stress too much?

Stress isn’t always bad. A little bit of stress can help you stay focused, energetic, and able to meet new challenges in the workplace. It’s what keeps you on your toes during a presentation or alert to prevent accidents or costly mistakes. But in today’s hectic world, the workplace too often seems like an emotional roller coaster. Long hours, tight deadlines, and ever-increasing demands can leave you feeling worried, drained, and overwhelmed. And when stress exceeds your ability to cope, it stops being helpful and starts causing damage to your mind and body—as well as to your job satisfaction.

If stress on the job is interfering with your work performance, health, or personal life, it’s time to take action. No matter what you do for a living, or how stressful your job is, there are plenty of things you can do to reduce your overall stress levels and regain a sense of control at work.

Common causes of workplace stress include:

• Fear of being laid off

• More overtime due to staff cutbacks

• Pressure to perform to meet rising expectations but with no increase in job satisfaction

• Pressure to work at optimum levels—all the time!

• Lack of control over how you do your work

Stress at work warning signs

When you feel overwhelmed at work, you lose confidence and may become angry, irritable, or withdrawn. Other signs and symptoms of excessive stress at work include:

• Feeling anxious, irritable, or depressed

• Apathy, loss of interest in work

• Problems sleeping

• Fatigue

• Trouble concentrating

• Muscle tension or headaches

• Stomach problems

• Social withdrawal

• Loss of sex drive

• Using alcohol or drugs to cope

Tip 1: Beat workplace stress by reaching out

 

The strain put on professionals can sometimes be overwhelming and a new way to learn how to identify and handle stress has been developed through SEMPI.

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The SEMPI professional model has been created to empower community workers to use their own voices safely within their places of work, reducing burnout and potentially costly mental health issues. 

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Through a structured workplace delivery approach, businesses can learn the tools required to develop professional empathy in the workplace. Our team of instructors are all professionals in the mental health field with wide ranging experience of societal and workplace stress and mental health issues. By engaging a professional instructor we can deliver a training program that will help staff to identify, and speak about gain insight into the causes of their issues.

By teaching the SEMPI Social Communication Model in your workplace, your employees will learn the words to speak up safely while practicing empathetic listening skills with each other. This may lead colleagues to feel empowered to find their own strong inner voice.

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For more information on the professional service, and the engage an instructor please email Alyse Price-Tobler at alysepricetobler@gmail.com