From snoozing to snoring in early Monday mornings to crazy deadlines; workplace anxiety is for real.Â
A toxic workplace environment can make you anxious, exhaust you mentally, and can affect your mental health, and creates a vicious cycle of stress-which never seems to end. But the good news is that there are many effective ways to cope and not just survive but thrive in the workplace.
Here at The One Liner, we believe everyone deserves a healthy and positive place to go to work.Â
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In this article. We dig deeper into practical strategies on how you can make your workplace less anxious. Maybe you’re feeling stuck in a stressful work environment or maybe you just need some tools to manage job stress-that’s where these tips come in.
Now, let’s get into 10 proven ways to overcome workplace anxiety and reclaim your peace of mind.
How can we overcome workplace anxiety?
1. Identify Your Source of Workplace Anxiety
First and foremost, understanding what creates workplace anxiety is the starting point for dealing with it. Is it perhaps the toxic work culture? Are unreasonable deadlines leaving you stressed out? Or perhaps it’s a heavy workload that seems to never end?Â
Identify the source because once you identify what is triggering your anxiety, you can take specific steps to tackle it. Reflect on your daily experiences-keeping a journal can help you track when and why your stress is spiking.
Cool Fact:
Do you know that, according to studies, simply acknowledging and naming your anxiety reduces its intensity!
2. Set Boundaries to Protect Your Mental Health
It is easy to get overworked when the environment is rather stressful. You end up coming to work to meet deadlines, checking your emails way after your work hours, or just putting extra hours in to get things done. The bad news is that overcommitting can actually exacerbate stress related to your job.Â
Learn to say no when your plate is full, and set clear boundaries between work and personal life. Maybe turn the notifications off once you leave the office or come up with a time on weekends when absolutely no work gets done.
3. Practice Mindfulness
Mindfulness is great for managing on-the-job anxiety. It keeps you in the moment, the current situation, rather than allowing your mind to get drawn into future tasks or what-ifs. Taking a few minutes each day to just focus on breath can make a huge difference. Headspace and Calm are some of the popular apps that offer guided meditation sessions specifically designed to manage employee anxiety and occupational stress.
Did you know?
Now, according to various research studies conducted, mindfulness results in the reduction of anxiety up to 58% .
4. Improve Your Time Management Skills
Often, workplace anxiety is caused by the perception of too much happening in a too short period of time. Developing good time management skills can melt away some of that tension. Divide your workload into easier pieces to work with and rank them based on urgency.Â
Consider organizing yourself with tools like Trello or Asana. This way, you are in charge of what you have to accomplish every day.
5. Hold An Open Communication
Don't Bottle Up Your Feeling!
Bottling anxiety in the workplace won’t fix a thing, but effective communication—speak up when you’re overwhelmed or feel unsupported—can address many of these issues. This can be with your manager, a trusted colleague, or even HR. Open communication creates transparency and allows your workplace to make changes that would help all involved. It also relieved an awful amount of pressure.
6. Build a supportive network at work
It really makes a huge difference to have supportive colleagues at work. Sometimes, just talking to someone who understands what challenge you are dealing with can relieve some of your anxiety. Seek a mentor or confer with an employee resource group and do not hesitate to seek the services of a mental health professional when things get too overwhelming. A therapist or counselor specializing in workplace issues may provide you with insight into tools on how to cope with workplace-based anxiety problems.
7. Build a Positive Work Culture
A toxic work culture is the major contributor to workplace anxiety. Though you cannot change the entire workplace at once, it will largely depend on how you influence your immediate environment. Make your workplace comfortable by personalizing it with things like plants, motivational quotes, and even your favorite coffee mug. Small changes can really make a difference in your work environment and help decrease stress levels. You would be surprised how much of a difference it makes working in a comfortable space.
8. Manage Conflicts with Colleagues Effectively
Colleagues could be the biggest reason for fights at work. Be it a clash of personalities or some form of misunderstanding, sometimes unnecessary stress gets added to your life when you cannot resolve tension with colleagues. To take care of conflicts, approach the situation calmly and with an open mind. Don’t let your emotions override your actions; rather, try to understand where your colleague is coming from and try to work out on both your benefits.
Fun fact:
Conflicting resolutions among teams improve morale and reduce anxiety levels at large.
9. Take HR or Management Help
If your anxiety is related to bigger issues, such as being bullied or harassed or by a failure to provide support from management, don’t even think about it: register a complain. Most organizations have some ways to process complaints-from HR departments to confidential hotlines. Sometimes, just talking to someone who understands what challenge you are dealing with can relieve some of your anxiety.Â
Seek a mentor or confer with an employee resource group and do not hesitate to seek the services of a mental health professional when things get too overwhelming. A therapist or counselor specializing in workplace issues may provide you with insight into tools on how to cope with workplace-based anxiety problems.
10. Practice Work-Life Balance
One of the best solution for work-induced stress is keeping the right balance between work and life. If work occupies all your fun hours, one needs to rethink one’s priorities. Set time aside to have regular breaks, take a few days off when you need to, and allow enough time away from work and in activities you find exciting. Think about it – it’s really all about maintaining a balanced life in order to reduce the likelihood of job stress and burnout.
Fact:
 The American Psychological Association has actually stated that for those people who maintain a good healthy work-life balance, they indicate that the feelings of stress are somewhat less and they also report being happy with their jobs more often.
The Role of Cognitive Wellness
If you’re managing the senior most position in your company, it’s highly advisable to incur some tactics of cognitive wellness as you have to constantly outperform others in terms ofÂ
- Patience
- Mental sharpness, or
- Emotional balance.
A Stress-free Work Environment is always a Win-Win Approach!
When employers acknowledge that stress is real and take proactive measures to manage it, they create an environment where both the business and employees thrive. They can promote ‘Open Communication’, ‘Work Life Balance’, ‘Recognize and Reward Efforts’, ‘Provide Mental Health Support’. Thus, a happy workforce become a competitive advantage, and not just a goal!
A survey conducted by Manah Wellness among urban Indian employees found that nearly 29% of respondents showed moderate-to-severe signs of depression, while 55% had moderate-to-severe signs of anxiety. Additionally, 78% reported moderate-to-high levels of stress.
Measures taken by The Company to address workplace anxiety:
- Regular Employee Pulse Checks: Conduct surveys or discussions to gauge employee needs and design initiatives accordingly.
- Mental Health Screenings: Offer mental health evaluations alongside physical health checks to identify issues early.
- Set Realistic Deadlines: Set achievable deadlines to avoid overwhelming employees with excessive workloads.
- Attend Wellness Programs: Organise team-building activities and open forums to foster communication and reduce stress.
- Be Kind and Seek Support: Encourage a culture of empathy, where colleagues and leaders support one another.
- Introduce Menstrual and Mental Health leaves: Introducing mental and menstrual health leaves can create a safer workplace environment by acknowledging and addressing employees' physical and mental health needs. This promotes inclusivity, allows individuals to manage difficult symptoms without fear of reprisal, and fosters a culture of support.
Did you know?
Australia has taken a significant step in promoting work-life balance by granting employees the right to ignore work calls after office hours, with the new ‘right to disconnect’ law, launching in August 2024.
- Employee assistance programs: Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) are structured, employer-sponsored initiatives designed to support employees' physical, mental, and emotional health. These programs offer a range of services, including counselling, stress management, and psychological support. Many leading companies in India have recognized the importance of EAPs in addressing mental health challenges.
Final Thoughts
In a nutshell!
Small efforts make a big impact. From practicing mindfulness in the workplace or setting boundaries around your time to building a supportive network at work, the power to take control of your mental health is in your hands. So, which one of these tips will you start today?
The One Liner comes from a conviction that every individual deserves to feel empowered and joyful at their workplace. Individuals dealing with workplace anxiety must always remember that they are not alone, and tools and support are constantly available for them to improve performances.
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