Opinion: workplace stress is a major cause of mental health issues so what are the steps to combat this?
Everywhere one turns these days, people seem to be talking about mental health or approaches to tackle it, like mindfulness and positive psychology. Mental health was seen as a taboo subject in the past so we are thankfully seeing a move to a more open dialogue about such issues and how to address them. However, with this shift comes many less than proven techniques to tackle it so it's imperative that individuals use techniques that have scientific evidence to support their usefulness.
Amongst other things, workplace stress is one of the major causes of mental health issues. We spend a lot of our time in work and there are many sources of potential stress in the workplace including workload, social interactions with customers, colleagues and bosses, as well as things like lack of clarity with regard to our roles and responsibilities.
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From RTÉ Radio One's Marian Finucane Show, a discussion on how to manage stress with Master of the National Maternity Hospital Rhona Mahony, Enda McNulty of McNulty Performance and fashion presenter and TV presenter Brendan Courtney
Whatever the cause, stress at its core is a perception that we are not able to cope with the demands that our work places upon us. One reason for this is that we perceive we do not have the resources (either personal or organisational) to deal with these demands.
At a very simplistic level, workplace stress can be combatted in two main ways; by changing the workplace or by changing the individual. Here are some ways in which individuals can change their thoughts, emotions or behaviours to better manage their stress.
However, that is not to say that changing the workplace is not also important. If a job is not designed well or an organisation puts undue pressure on individuals, teaching an employee to better manage these things will only go so far. Thus, one of the first steps in tackling stress in the workplace is to accurately diagnose the issues that are causing stress.
One of the keys to successful stress management is a concept termed self-regulation
Typically, individual approaches to stress management tend to focus on improving an employee’s capacity to deal with stress. Many organisations have some kind of wellness programme which can include anything from workshops on stress management, to meditation or mindfulness sessions to couch to 5Ks. While these are undoubtedly positives to have in a workplace, research is suggesting that there are many advantages to tackling stress on a daily basis and that doing so leads to longer lasting changes that benefit our well-being and mental health.
If stress is experienced when we sense that we cannot cope with the demands of the situation, one of the ways to tackle this is to change the way we think about stress. This sounds easy but, in fact, the way we think tends to be habitual and, just like any habit, changing it can be challenging. However, it can be done and one of the benefits of engaging in small changes every day is that they can lead to the development of more beneficial habits that allow us to manage stress on a daily basis.
We have conducted research showing that training people to re-appraise stress can be beneficial, particularly in terms of reducing the negative emotions and increasing the positive emotions that we experience on a daily basis.
Although not commonly known, one of the keys to successful stress management is through a concept termed self-regulation. Arguably, self-regulation, or the ability to manage our thoughts, emotions and behaviours, is one of the most important psychological concepts discovered. People with better self-regulation skills tend to have more success, higher performance rates and better well-being.
For individual workers, developing various types of strategies to improve self-regulation holds substantial promise for tackling stress. For example, reappraisal is a way of managing our emotions and most mindfulness techniques combine the self-regulation of both thoughts, emotions and physiological responses to stress. Research has shown that mindfulness, in particular, is an effective way of separating our thoughts from our emotions and is helpful in separating our work and home lives, thus contributing to work-life balance.
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From RTÉ One's Claire Byrne Live, a discussion on how best to deal with the epidemic of stress in our lives with Stressed documentary presenter Jennifer O’Connell and GP and author Dr Harry Barry
Experiencing a sense of meaning or purpose in our lives and in our work has significant benefits both in terms of our motivation and our well-being. Bringing a sense of meaning into our workday is very easy and, in our research, we have demonstrated that practicing a positive thinking exercise focused on the meaning of our daily tasks for two weeks can decrease chronic fatigue and emotional exhaustion (a component of burnout).
A novel yet simple technique that has been shown to help in restoring our energy at work is savouring nature. Paying attention to nature scenes, whether natural (e.g. if you are lucky enough to have some nice nature outside the window of your office) or pictorial has the capacity to restore our concentration and energy for work.
Even taking five minutes to enjoy a favourite nature scene can help to restore our concentration and go about our day with greater energy and enthusiasm
Small changes in our daily work can change our thinking habits and help manage workplace stress. Thinking about stress in a different way (e.g. through reappraisal), being able to reflect on the positive meaning our work has for ourselves or others and developing our capacity to separate our thoughts from our emotions (e.g. through mindfulness) can heighten our ability to deal with the demands of our jobs, reduce our stress and improve our work-life balance. Even very simple things, like taking five minutes to enjoy a favourite nature scene, can help to restore our concentration and go about our day with greater energy and enthusiasm.
For more information on the techniques mentioned in this article, please see the Bright Side of Work lab.
The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ
