How Stress in the Workplace Negatively Affects Performance and What Employers Can Do About It

Most of us have experienced stressful periods at work, whether it is dealing with a last-minute project, having a disagreement with a colleague or preparing for an important presentation. Stressful situations are part of daily life, and science suggests that in small doses, stress might even be good for us as it helps boost our immune system and improves our cognitive performance.

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But it becomes problematic when we start to feel stressed at work all the time and become completely overwhelmed by it. And in our post-pandemic, ever-changing world, this seems to have become the norm.

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Our own research last year found that nearly half (43%) of managers reported their team had suffered from a rise in anxiety and stress at work. What’s more, 36.7% of employees stated they now suffer from worse mental health than pre-pandemic and 72.6% of those cited work life as at least partly responsible.

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This reality has stark consequences for performance as it increases the likelihood of employee burnout, team conflict, productivity loss and ultimately higher turnover rates.

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But it doesn’t have to be this way. Teaching employees how to deal with stress and anxiety by building resilience through mental agility training can be a performance-enhancing superpower for companies.

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For this year’s Stress Awareness Month, we want to seriously talk about stress and its effects, as well as inspire action and positive change. That’s why, this April, we’re offering a free Resilience Building session to help your team manage their stress and anxiety levels with our in-house Psychotherapist Stephanie.

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The impact of stress in the workplace and how you can support employees

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Employee burnout

One of the biggest consequences of chronic work stress is burnout. Defined as a syndrome ‘characterised by emotional exhaustion, attitudinal hardening (loss of empathy) and a sense of decreased accomplishment’, burnout can lead to long-term consequences such as depression and psychosomatic disorders.

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Employees affected by burnout are less productive and call in sick more often, which comes at a hefty cost for employers. Job-related stress contributes to 550 million working days lost each year. What’s more, according to recent research, over 10 million workers in the UK have taken sick days due to feeling burnt out, which could potentially cost businesses more than £700m a year. And 46% of HR leaders say employee burnout is causing up to half of annual workforce turnover at their companies.

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How you can help: avoiding burnout at all costs is key, so the best thing you can do to support employees feeling stressed is to teach them coping mechanisms, and our Stress and Anxiety Strategies Session does just that. Get in touch to find out more.

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In this session, Stephanie, a BACP-Registered Integrative Psychotherapist with an MA in Psychotherapy & Counselling, will help your team recognise the signs and symptoms of these conditions and foster open conversations to help tackle stress and anxiety head-on. Your employees will leave this session with a practical toolkit that can be used to create more calm and focus.

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Team conflict

Feeling stressed means our brains are more likely to enter ‘fight or flight mode’ and less likely to have much emotional bandwidth or compassion for others. This can cause a breakdown in communication, and ultimately collaboration, among team members.

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Job stress related workplace conflict can impact performance and productivity if team members aren’t able to find ways to address and resolve issues, often due to a breakdown of trust. And unresolved conflict can be a breeding ground for employee turnover: research found that 50% of voluntary work departures are due to unresolved work conflicts.

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How you can help: if your place of work is a safe space where employees feel they can be transparent about their struggles then, they’re automatically more likely to openly talk and find ways to resolve issues.

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In our 40-minute Stress and Anxiety 1:1 Coaching Sessions, employees will have the opportunity to share any challenges they are facing in a safe, non-judgmental and confidential space. These sessions are supportive, positive and challenging; an opportunity to reflect, offload and develop strategies to help them manage both work and personal life better. Contact our team for more information.

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Lost productivity

High stress levels at work can leave employees feeling mentally ‘checked out’ and significantly impacts their productivity levels. The 2023 Workplace Health Report, which polled 2,200 UK employees, found that 67% were experiencing moderate to high levels of stress, while 28% had seen their productivity negatively impacted within the last two years.

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And more than a third of those polled said that the main causes of stress at work are workload, lack of control and not having any support.

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How you can help: stress and adversity are an unavoidable part of the human experience so instead of focusing on avoiding difficulty or using up all of our energy hoping and wishing it won't happen, you can support employees by offering personal resilience training courses. Being resilient means having the tools to navigate, understand and process difficult situations.

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In our Building Resilience Session, Stephanie will share mental training tools to help your employees build a more robust mind so they can better deal with life's challenges. She will teach them to build a 'resilience threshold' to help prepare them for challenging situations and to cultivate mental agility.

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Boost performance with PUSH’s sessions this Stress Awareness Month

Left unchecked, stress can profoundly impact our ability to function, both professionally and personally. This year, the focus of Stress Awareness Month is taking action. It is about making a conscious decision to go beyond talking and empowering people to act.

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Sign up for our free evidence-based, practical session, Building Resilience, with our in-house Psychotherapist Stephanie, to help with managing work-related stress, boost performance and drive successful business outcomes.

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Get in touch to learn more about all our sessions via the link below.‍

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Sign Up Today.