Workplace stress

Everybody experiences stress at work. It can be a helpful motivator for you, providing impetus and energy to get things done. Or it can be a debilitating feeling, detracting from your ability to focus, sapping your energy and diminishing your performance. It can make your work feel like a challenge, adding to your sense of accomplishment, or unachievable, undermining self-esteem and making work and life feel joyless.

Research consistently points to high levels of stress in the workplace. The results of this stress can be large amounts of lost time, reduced levels of operational performance, reduced capacity for change and development, and poorer quality work. Workplace stress has been shown to influence worker wellbeing, attrition, absenteeism, and quality of life. It can increase levels of unrest within teams, impact strategies for recruitment and selection, hinder cooperation, and prevent organisations from functioning well in general. [1] [2]

High-functioning anxiety is increasingly reported as a workplace condition by high-achieving executives, sportspeople, and other people in highly-focussed and emotionally demanding positions.  

Causes of workplace stress can vary widely. Stress might simply be the result of the normal emotional demands of the workplace, or might be a consequence of a culture of intimidation or harassment. Shortage of time, deadline related demands or merely inadequate resources to deliver on responsibilities can all contribute to workplace stress.

Workplace stress is normally accompanied by a feeling of pressure to deliver combined with a feeling of powerlessness to influence outcomes. A feeling that whatever an individual does, they cannot deliver upon their commitments.[3]

But the way that we react to stressful scenarios can also vary widely. Our reaction can be strongly influenced by habits and attitudes and formative experiences, for example.  

Yet there are well-researched and proven techniques that may be used to analyse stressful situations, manage causes of stress, and alleviate negative impacts of stress.[4]

At Aspiory we like to take a broad and open view of causes of stress and what may be done to manage stress. Solutions may vary from the training and coaching of large groups in stress management techniques, to the analysis of cultural influences, or resource provision and allocation. We can work with clients to explore the influence of habitual ways of thinking, working and behaving. We can support teams, selected groups, individuals or carry out organisation-wide interventions.

We specialise in group training programmes, cognitive behavioural coaching, and role consultancy as stress management techniques.

As with all of our interventions, we can provide access to specialist, workplace-orientated psychotherapists (or other therapists according to your choice), with whom we work when stress becomes particularly alarming for individuals.

Please don’t hesitate to contact us to discuss what might be done to help you or your organisation think about and improve levels of workplace stress.

If you or someone you know is feeling particularly stressed or anxious, it might be worth considering getting advice or talking to someone. Please bear in mind the following resources, for example:

Samaritans, available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year: samaritans.org. If you need a response immediately, it’s best to call on the phone. This number is FREE to call: ☎ 116 123 (UK) 116 123 (ROI)

MIND, the mental health charity: mind.org.uk ☎ 0300 123 3393

Rethink Mental Illness: rethink.org ☎ 0300 5000 927

[1] Health and Safety Executive (2016). ‘Work related Stress, Anxiety and Depression Statistics in Great Britain 2016. Taken from: www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/

[2] Russell, H. Maître, B., Watson, D. and Fahey, E. (2018) ‘Job Stress and Working Conditions: Ireland in Comparative Perspective’. Dublin: The Economic and Social Research Institute.

[3] Arnold, J. and Randall, R. et al (2016) Workplace Psychology: Understanding Human Behaviour in the Workplace. London: FT Publishing International.

[4] Gardner, B. et al (2005).  ‘Cognitive therapy and behavioural coping in the management of work-related stress: An intervention study, Work and Stress, 19(2), pp. 137-152