We all know that workplaces can be pretty stressful from time to time. It’s normal for the odd high pressure day to come along and cause employees to feel a little strung-out. However, that situation should ease the following day, or the day after, and everything should be back to normal.
Far too often, the office environment becomes a hotbed of prolonged, chronic stress. That’s not a healthy environment for your employees to work in, and it’s also extremely damaging for your business.
Check out this infographic which gives an eye-opening assessment of workplace stress.
Source - https://advertisingrow.com/infographics/psychology/psychology-infographic-have-you-ever-wondered-what-the-most-stressful-job-is-in-the-uk-do-you-suffer-f/
Implementing strategies for managing stress in the workplace is a key part of your management responsibility. Without that, your business is doomed to fail over time. Here’s why growing workplace stress will ruin your business over time.
- Stress lowers morale - A stressed out workforce, or even just a couple of members of your team who feel that way, will automatically lower the morale in your office. When that happens, all manner of problems occur and you might find it hard to hang onto your experienced staff as a result.
- Stress makes conflicts more likely - When people are feeling stressed, it’s far more likely that they’re going to misunderstand a colleague, snap at someone without meaning to, and generally makes a conflict situation all the more likely to happen.
- Stress increases the likelihood of mistakes - It’s not easy to concentrate properly when you’re under stress. Mistakes can cause major issues and customers will start to notice that the quality of service is starting to go down.
- Stress reduces productivity - All of the above affects the productivity of individual employees, as the business as a whole. When productivity is low, so are profits.
- Stress increases the chances of employee absence - Chronic stress can cause employees to miss work with stress. Sickness absence causes a business a huge amount over the course of a year and actually puts more stress on existing employees who have to pick up the slack.
Understanding why stress can cause major issues for your business is the first step. After that, taking steps to reduce workplace stress in your office is key.