How to cope with stress at work. What to do if work has become a source of stress? Causes of stress at work

In modern conditions of the frantic pace of industrial development, stress at work is a constant companion of a specialist in any professional field. Work takes up a huge part of a person’s time and the psycho-emotional overload resulting from the activity negatively affects other areas of life.

Stress at work and its consequences

Any extreme influences, for example, extracurricular work, additional obligations, strict time frames for completing a project are factors that trigger professional stress, negatively affecting the employee’s psyche. Causes of stress at work:

the journey to work takes considerable time and effort;
difficult working conditions;
unhealthy psychological atmosphere in the team;
the nature of the work is monotonous;
excessive workloads given the current shortage of specialists;
lack of career growth and development prospects;
low resistance to stress as an individual characteristic of a person;
threat of layoffs or;
excessive responsibility;
inability to delegate authority and share responsibility.

Stress at work - consequences:

performance decreases noticeably;
professional burnout syndrome occurs;
desire to relax with the help of alcohol and other psychoactive substances;
deterioration of stopping in the team;
formation of neuroses, .

Constant stress at work

In order to effectively cope with psycho-emotional stress, you need to understand what kind of stress there is at work:

informational– occurs as a result of information overload, when working in emergency mode;
communicative stress more often occurs in workers whose professions involve direct communication with people; often such stress is the result of the inability to cope with manipulative influence;
emotional stress– this is a conflict between what one has to do at work and a person’s deep psychological values and attitudes.

How to cope with stress at work:

distribute the workload according to the importance of tasks;
learn techniques to counter manipulation and aggression;
stop taking work home;
increase resistance to stress through sports, hardening;
in case of a conflict of values, analyze what is important and valuable this work activity brings.

Stress when changing jobs

It’s easy for someone to change jobs every 2–3 years, but for most people who have worked in one place for a long time, it’s a huge stress, even if it’s a simple transfer to another branch or city, there’s always a lot of doubts and fears: how will they be received in the new team, “ Can I handle it?”, “Is it worth it?” Stress at a new job still arises due to a change in the usual, because for a long time it drags you back, the previous team and place of work have become family. If stress arises at a new job, psychologists advise the following to reduce it:

nothing lasts forever, so a new job is a new stage in the development and revelation of greater professional potential in a person;
treat changing jobs as some kind of exciting adventure;
improve your qualifications if the job involves higher functional responsibilities.

Stress at work during pregnancy

Pregnancy is both a pleasant event in a woman’s life, but at the same time an alarming and exciting one. Pregnancy itself is a strong stress for the body, because the whole body is undergoing restructuring. How to deal with stress at work while pregnant - advice from doctors and psychologists:

avoiding stressful situations (not participating in conflicts between colleagues);
if an unpleasant situation is inevitable, you need to change your attitude towards it, find the positives, instead of focusing on the unpleasant;
increasing stress resistance: walks in the fresh air, light warm-up in between work, timely balanced nutrition and rest;
taking care of yourself and your body - listening to your body’s signals and meeting its needs in a timely manner;
understanding that pregnancy is the most important thing at the moment.

Stress from job loss

Stress associated with work, or rather with its loss, is considered a great emotional shock for a person, bordering on divorce or the death of a close relative on the Holmes Ray stress scale. What to do if you lose your job, recommendations from experts:

It’s urgent to change your thinking and look at the situation from the positive side - if you didn’t like the job, it’s time to find yourself in what you love.
Losing a job is not the time to withdraw into yourself and suffer; it is important to start making new contacts, turn to friends for help and turn this period of life into no less fruitful than your previous job.
Learning a new profession and improving your qualifications will give you confidence in your abilities and increase self-esteem.

How to overcome stress at work

Stress at work is a situation that needs to be taken under control, and the sooner the better. Analyze your current work affairs and moments - this helps to identify where the most energy flows and as a result, tension arises, then powerlessness and stress. How to deal with stress at work:

Time management can help you organize all your affairs correctly;
keep a diary in which you describe in detail all situations that cause negative emotions and psycho-emotional stress and once a week analyze whether it is possible to influence the situation or whether you need to change your attitude towards it;
clearly differentiate between work and the rest of your life;
during the work process, take breaks after a certain amount of work completed and reward yourself with something pleasant like a cup of coffee, meditative relaxation, if space allows, a walk in the fresh air.

Stress at work - calming

How to relieve stress at work if little helps and your psyche can’t cope. Herbal medicine can also be a good support for the nervous system, because modern pharmaceuticals have in their arsenal many drugs for stress of plant origin:

motherwort or valerian extract is a good sedative that reduces agitation and nervousness, normalizing sleep;
Persen – calms, reduces anxiety;
Novo-Passit – fights irritability and fatigue;
Negrustin - a drug based on the herb St. John's wort has antidepressant properties and keeps the body in good shape, helping to resist stress.

Techniques for dealing with stress

Psychologists have many simple techniques for coping with stress and anxiety at work on their own:

Working with the body. You need to tense your hands as much as possible, squeezing and unclenching your fists, do the same with your feet, then shake, relieving tension. Blood circulation improves and norepinephrine produced by the adrenal glands during stress is utilized more quickly.
Grimaces. Go to the mirror and make faces at yourself or at an imaginary colleague with whom you had a conflict.

First, let’s figure out what the recently popular word “stress” hides. To do this, let’s turn to Eastern wisdom, since in Chinese, stress means “danger” and “opportunity.” That is, stress implies “the possibility of danger,” a kind of state on the verge of health and illness.

Why is work one of the main sources of stress?

Yes, because it is to her that we devote a good third of our lives. This is where we spend 8 hours a day. And it’s good if the work brings satisfaction, the opportunity to realize oneself as a professional and an individual, if the team is friendly and united. But it also happens that relationships don’t work out, there is too much work, and so little time to complete it...

Just think about it: according to the results of research conducted by the HeadHunter Belarus research center among 820 respondents, it turned out that almost all citizens of our country experience stress at work. Moreover, 27% of them - every day, 50% - occasionally, and 20% can say that this is a rare phenomenon for them. But there are practically no people who are never exposed to stress at work.

What are the consequences of being constantly stressed at work?

The consequences of constant stress on the human body are complex and varied. In this case, not only the psychological state suffers, but also the physical one:

Yes, they arise muscle clamps, which are dangerous for the further development of stoop, radiculitis, vegetative-vascular dystonia, osteochondrosis and headaches.
On the part of the nervous system, due to constant tension, there may be neuroses. In the future, when stress becomes chronic, irritability, pain without cause in healthy organs, and fatigue may appear.
From the cardiovascular system it is observed overvoltage heart muscle (myocardium) due to vasoconstriction during stress. After 10 years of such a life, the heart wears out so much that it looks like it has had a heart attack.
In addition, due to the normalization of hormone levels due to the reserve of calcium, protein and vitamins found in our bones, teeth, skin, their demineralization, devitaminization, which is fraught with a decrease in bone mass density, the development of caries and skin problems.
Immunity also reacts with its weakening. A person becomes susceptible to viral, bacterial and autoimmune diseases.

What makes us nervous at work?

Scientists have conducted a number of studies aimed at identifying main reasons occurrence of stress in the workplace:

According to data obtained by Dutch scientists, the main source of stress is, oddly enough, Colleagues. Moreover, it is not even the leader’s habit of making public reprimands that is prevalent (this irritates only 37% of respondents). The most hated was the condescending manner of communication and tone of colleagues. This reason was indicated by 44% of respondents. Another 32% cited the presence of employees with very loud, loud voices who constantly distract from work by talking on the phone or with colleagues as the reason for constant stress in the workplace. And only 11% of respondents said that they do not like it when colleagues pester them with personal questions during work.
As it turned out, boredom and idleness The workplace can also cause stress! People who are bored during work hours have higher levels of aggression and hostility. In addition, such employees are more likely to experience emotional breakdowns and changes in blood pressure.
And, of course, the notorious rush at work and lack of time are another cause of stressful situations at work. Of course, constantly being late in completing our work makes us nervous and panicky. And if the situation becomes constant, emotional stress begins to accumulate and can lead to serious health problems and depression.
In addition, stress can absolutely lead to domestic reasons, from the lack of air conditioning in the room to disorder in the office or workplace.
And if you add to this fear of job loss, or the salary level remains in one place for many years, then stress is practically unavoidable.

What are the signs of developing “chronic office stress”?

Physical signs of stress include:

fatigue,
headache and toothache,
frequent dizziness,
shiver,
stomach pain,
constipation or diarrhea,
cardiopalmus,
pain or discomfort in the chest area,
feeling of lack of air, suffocation,
sudden increase in body temperature or chills,
increased sweating,
loss of sexual desire,
insomnia,
numbness or tingling of the extremities.

Psychological signs of stress are:

anger,
fear,
anxiety,
fixation only on the negative,
memory problems,
feeling of powerlessness
obsessive anxiety,
irritability,
panic attacks.

In a state of stress, a person becomes very susceptible to external influences, sensitive. Mood swings, apathy and slower reactions may occur. A person can go from one extreme to another: either eat nothing, then absorb incredible amounts of food, smoke cigarettes one after another, or start drinking.

Nervous habits may appear (snapping fingers, biting nails). In addition, when under stress, some people prefer to isolate themselves and distance themselves from others.

So how can you prevent all this from happening and overcome constant stress?

Effective techniques for dealing with stress

In order to effectively deal with stress at work, first of all, it is necessary to establish and eliminate its cause.

Often, the cause of stress at work may not be overload and rush, but a simple inability to plan the work day. This is where it can help time management or the art of managing your time. It is important to learn to take on important matters first, to plan your day, highlighting certain blocks in it. However, it is worth warning those who like excessive planning: you should only write down the most important things and meetings in your diary. When caught up in planning, people may spend more time planning than completing tasks. In addition, the pleasant feeling that a person experiences when crossing completed tasks off a to-do list can be achieved by completing secondary, unimportant tasks. At the same time, important ones remain unfulfilled.

To become familiar with the basic principles and rules of time management, you can take the time to read books such as:

“The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. Powerful Personal Development Tools by Stephen Covey;
“Get out of your comfort zone. Change your life. 21 methods for increasing personal effectiveness" by Brian Tracy;
“Time drive. How to have time to live and work” by Gleb Arkhangelsky;
"Time management. Workshop on time management" by Sergei Kalinin.

The following publications are devoted to specific time management tools:

“How to put things in order. The Art of Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen;
“How to Stop Procrastinating” by Leo Babauta;
“Tight time management. Take Control of Your Life by Dan S. Kennedy.

Since the main principle of time management is planning, you can start a paper diary the old fashioned way, or you can use smartphone applications: Iso Timer for Android; Plan, Clear, Workflow for IOS.

Prevention is no less important. To cope with stress, learn to realistically assess your capabilities and don't try to jump over your head. Whether the task takes two days, two hours, or two months to complete is immaterial. The important thing is that you should not try to complete it in one hour or day. And don’t be afraid to tell your manager about this.

An excellent incentive that will make you look at your work differently can be own reward system. For example, after completing some boring task, you can treat yourself to a piece of chocolate. And when solving a complex problem - a purchase that you have long dreamed of. Don't forget about the ultimate incentives like salary increases and promotions.

Short breaks during the working day are extremely important, as well as sports after hours.

Besides don’t forget about your family, loved ones, friends. After all, they are the source of energy, the best advisers and will always come to the rescue. And a fair amount of optimism never hurt anyone. And stress fears him like fire.

Here's exactly what to do no need, so this to confront. Of course, you may not like your colleagues, but think about what you will achieve by arguing with them? Especially if you cannot answer the question of what is the purpose of the conflict? And even if you know the answer for sure, there is no point in conflict. It is much more effective to achieve your goal through negotiations.

And under no circumstances should you leave everything as it is. If you are really unbearable, and even a short vacation cannot bring back your former passion, and the team only evokes negative emotions, you can always change your place of work.

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6 278 0 Hello! In this article we will talk about how to overcome stress at work.

Unfortunately, now it’s becoming less and less common to hear: “I go to work as if it’s a holiday!” and phrases like: “My job is sheer stress!” are heard more and more often! And it’s not just that many people engage in activities they don’t like. Even those who have chosen a field to their liking and consider their work a calling are susceptible to professional stress. Still would! Indeed, in an era of economic instability and high competition in business, there are a great many factors that increase mental stress in the workplace.

Facts about stress

Stress, according to the concept of the physiologist G. Selye (researcher of this phenomenon and developer of the concept), has three stages of development:
1 - stage of anxiety: there is an impact of an unfavorable factor, anxiety, fear arises, mental stress increases;
2 – stage of resistance: the body begins to react to this adverse effect (there is a fight against stress, getting used to it or further immersion in stress);
3 – stage of exhaustion: If the impact is too strong or no measures are taken to eliminate the source of stress and stress becomes chronic, then the body's resources are depleted. Serious health problems may arise.

Stress always takes hold of both the “soul” and the body. Under its influence, physiological reactions, emotions, thoughts and behavior simultaneously change. This is, of course, a big minus. But the plus is that you can get rid of stress in different ways: by influencing the body, and with the help of psychological techniques.
Exposure to stress is always associated with individual characteristics. For some, even a little criticism against them will be a difficult test, while for others, a serious conflict is a common thing. In this case, the term “stress resistance” is used. And the good news is that this trait can be developed even if you are naturally anxious and fearful.

Causes of stress in the workplace

Factors that contribute to increased mental stress are called stressors. Let's consider the main stressors in professional activity.

Interaction with people. This factor includes communication with the team within the organization, and contacts with outsiders if the work involves providing services or establishing partnerships with other companies.

Team. It's like a second family. It’s good where they support, help, treat you kindly, don’t envy or gossip behind your back. But often in your work team you may meet people who, for some reason, you don’t like or treat you unfriendly (they make fun of you, put pressure on you, criticize you, quarrel, etc.). In most cases, this leads to stress in your professional life.
Management . Some people are lucky and come across understanding and democratic leaders. But there are also those who are convinced that subordinates need to be kept under stress in order for them to work effectively. Of course, there will be an effect, but it’s emotionally difficult to be in such an environment all the time.
Subordinates. The need to manage people, find an approach to everyone, motivate, set tasks, control their implementation, monitor discipline - this is not the entire list of functions of a manager. And communication with “difficult” subordinates heats up the situation even more.
Clients. The “person-to-person” sphere is considered one of the most stressful, because in it, in addition to the basic skills associated with performing work, you also need to have a number of important personal characteristics that improve the process of communication with others. The ability to persuade, evoke sympathy and trust, be polite and competently defend one’s position are qualities necessary for working with people. You are dependent on the position of “Please the client”, otherwise he may go to competitors and not play well on the company’s image.
Partners . Establishing mutually beneficial cooperation with another organization requires considerable effort and negotiation skills. Why not stress?

Lack of self-realization. If an activity is not to your liking, it will not be performed with maximum effort and enthusiasm. This is very depressing for many and makes them think about changing jobs. Stress can also be caused by a discrepancy between the organization's goals and a person's values. For example, if a person is not close to the field of sales or he generally considers it a “bad” business, then he is unlikely to be able to achieve success in it.
Dissatisfaction with work results. Here, either the employee makes little effort, or places very high demands on himself, or does not value enough what he has already achieved. Or perhaps he wants to get results too early. Be sure to figure out the reason.
Lack of time. Time management training is becoming increasingly popular, aimed at teaching employees how to correctly prioritize tasks and use time more efficiently. For many, staying late at work is becoming the norm. Although in most cases this has an adverse effect on family relationships.
High responsibility. For many people, their work involves responsibility for their lives or the lives of others, as well as great financial risks. This usually results in significant stress.
Low earnings. The purpose of any work activity is to earn money. Dissatisfaction with salary often affects self-esteem and mood. Especially for men.
Insufficient understanding of professional tasks. Here we are faced with either an unclear formulation of these tasks, or a lack of skills to perform the work. Most often, such a stress factor occurs at the beginning of a career or when changing professional activities.
Working conditions. An uncomfortable workplace, insufficient lighting in the room, lack of fresh air, unpleasant odors, noise, prolonged use of the computer, etc. do not have the best effect on health. The inconvenient location of the enterprise (being far from home or in an industrial area) is also stressful for some people.
Intensive work. High load leads to depletion of the body's strength. Sooner or later, resources run out and rest is required. It is important to understand this before the critical point comes.
Monotonous work or, conversely, the need to constantly switch from one task to another. Everything here is individual. Some people cannot stand routine activities, while others find it difficult to be flexible and multitask.

Types of professional stress

information stress(associated with high mental load);
communicative(arises due to difficulties in communicating with other people, the inability to find an approach to them and resist other people's influence);
emotional(associated with the inability to adapt to working conditions, dissatisfaction with the results of professional activities, and also arises as a result of conflict situations).

Is stress always bad?

Some people claim that they work more efficiently under stress. Is it so?

At the first stage, stress can indeed “encourage”, shake and spur you to do work. It is important that its impact is situational and not regular. Constantly being under stress definitely worsens your health.

The Positive Value of Stress in the Workplace

Stress manifests itself as a protective reaction of the body to excessive stress.
It’s as if he’s saying: “It’s time to stop, we need to rest” or “We need to change something.” That is, stress is designed to protect a person from a nervous breakdown. This is its warning value.
At the initial stage, stress can motivate action and help mobilize strength to overcome difficult situations.
If a person is faced with any professional task and he does not know how to solve it, he first feels confusion and anxiety, then collects his thoughts and begins a creative search. This gives the employee the opportunity to grow personally and professionally and gain the necessary experience.

Negative impact of occupational stress

Stress depletes the body's resources and weakens health.
Under its influence, immunity decreases, the functioning of the digestive system deteriorates, and cardiovascular diseases appear.
Stress often causes an inhibition reaction.
A person in a state of tension usually contracts their muscles and stops breathing. At the mental level, the same thing happens: there are hesitations in decision-making, there is no desire to act, and faith in one’s own strength is lost.

Consequences of professional stress

Stress can cause various diseases and cause problems in the emotional sphere and behavior of a person.

Health effects:

the risk of cardiovascular diseases increases;
disturbances in the functioning of the nervous system, deterioration of memory and attention;
decreased immunity;
sleep problems;
deterioration of the digestive system;
headache;
deterioration of skin and hair condition;
weight problems.

Consequences of the influence of stress on the emotional sphere and behavior:

Irritability, short temper;
Absent-mindedness;
Apathy;
Depression;
Dissatisfaction with yourself and your work;
Conflicts in the family, deterioration of relationships with others;
Loss of purpose and life guidelines.

Try to prevent the harmful effects of stress before you notice any of these effects.

How to cope with stress at work

Pay attention to your state and admit that you are stressed. This is important in order to take action and prevent irreversible consequences.
It is important to identify the source of stress in order to understand how to deal with it. And is it even worth fighting? Perhaps we should just adapt to it?
Become aware of your feelings and say them to yourself, for example: “I’m confused,” “I’m afraid that...”, “I get annoyed when...”, “I’m annoyed...”, etc. Don’t run from your feelings. , accept them, you have the right to experience them.
Analyze the pros and cons of the current situation. Yes, sometimes even a not very pleasant situation has its advantages.
Develop an action plan to reduce stress and cope with a difficult situation. It will be better if you write it down in a notepad. This way you can look into it regularly and summarize the completed tasks.
Prioritize your work. According to the Eisenhower Matrix, it is always important to do things first. important and urgent affairs. Then the list should include important but not urgent tasks. After them - urgent but not important. And the last to be executed unimportant and not urgent things to do, provided there is time left for them.

The more calmly you learn to work, the less stress you will have.

Delegate authority to subordinates (if your position allows it) and do not hesitate to ask colleagues for help at some points. Often the problem lies in the inability to trust others. Learn to do it. But be sure to control any transfer of cases.
Don't be intimidated by the big projects and goals you need to achieve at work. Break them down into several small tasks, for which you develop a step-by-step action plan.
Be punctual, come to work on time or a little earlier. This will give you the opportunity to collect your thoughts and start your work day smoothly. By being late for work, you create additional stress by rushing and fearing the wrath of your boss.

You may have to reconsider your daily routine and wake up earlier. This way you can calmly get ready and increase your travel time to work.

Take short breaks from work that will allow you to relax a little and relieve tension. It is best if at this time you take a walk, drink a cup of fresh tea or just chat with colleagues.
It is often useful to put things in order in the surrounding space: sort out work documents, tidy up your desk, throw away everything unnecessary. This is a good way to release negative thoughts and feelings and gain an influx of fresh ideas.
Use breathing techniques to relax your tense body and calm your emotions during stressors. There are many such exercises, but the simplest one that can be performed in limited working space conditions: inhale slowly, hold your breath for 3-4 seconds, exhale slowly.
If you are having an emotional hard time, talk to your colleagues, ask for advice, joke, laugh. Humor can often help put a situation into perspective, and the stress may not seem so serious.
Self-hypnosis is a good way to control emotions. “I’m calm,” “I can handle the situation,” “I have enough strength to overcome stress” are phrases that will help you resist negative influences from the outside.
Keep a diary with life-affirming phrases in the style: “Today is my day”, “Every day I am developing and becoming more confident in myself”, “I am a successful person”, etc. and look into it when you feel a lack of strength and energy.

How to manage stress outside of the workplace

Everyone here has their own preferred ways to relieve stress. Let's list the most effective ones.

Relaxation exercises: performed in a calm environment, with eyes closed. The greatest effect is achieved when you imagine pleasant images (how you are swinging on the waves, lying on the sea sand, etc.)
Regular walks, outdoor recreation. It is necessary to constantly enrich the brain with oxygen. This has a beneficial effect on health, improves mood and gives an influx of fresh ideas.
Sports, exercise, dancing. They are also good for your figure and provide an adrenaline rush.
Hobbies, creativity. Be sure to regularly devote time to your favorite activity. This is what inspires you, charges you with positive energy and allows you to relax after work.
Music. Listening to music and singing improves your mood and gives you a powerful energy boost.
A favorite book or movie allows you to completely disconnect from everyday worries and immerse yourself in the atmosphere of an exciting story.
Visiting concerts, performances, exhibitions.
Providing help, support and attention to loved ones. A small gift or a few kind words will make them happy and make you feel happier.

Let's see the percentage of the calmest workers.

Preventing stress at work

Be attentive to yourself, try to notice any changes in your condition. Do you feel excessively tired? Have you become more irritable lately? Has apathy towards work or anything else appeared?
Try not to take on unnecessary responsibility. Don't overload yourself with too many tasks if possible. Start a new task only after completing the previous one.
Get more rest. Try not to take work home, don’t think about it on weekends.
Getting enough sleep is one of the keys to avoiding stress. Adequate sleep restores the body's strength and helps process negative impressions received during the day. But if you regularly don’t get enough sleep, you become even more stressed and deplete your body’s resources.
If you don’t like the job, still think about whether you should change your professional field? Listen to your inner voice and your desires.
Don't get caught up in work. Dedicate more time to yourself and family. It is important to feel happy in all areas of life. Then difficulties at work will be perceived as something ordinary and solvable.
Believe in yourself and try to be optimistic in everything. Strength of character, a positive attitude and self-care will always help you cope with stress. It is much more difficult to break a positively charged person than a pessimist.

Stress Management Techniques

Stress permeates our entire lives and signals the need to take action to prevent health problems. And if you don’t give up, but actively use methods to reduce mental stress, you can adapt to stress and become less susceptible to it over time. And also - live now! Not in the past and not in the future, but right now! And enjoy every moment given to us.

We will talk about the nature of stress at work and its causes. You will also find here interesting and useful recommendations on ways to limit and manage stress in the workplace.
A person in a big city is in a state of constant tension. It is important to do everything everywhere and in time: get yourself in order in the morning, have breakfast, send the children to school. To catch the bus, to work... The work schedule is scheduled for weeks and months in advance, so the lack of time is especially acute in the workplace. It seems that as soon as a person crosses the threshold of a checkpoint or office, he turns from a nice, respectable citizen into a ferocious Cerberus, ready to tear apart everyone he meets. And why? Work stress!
And yet, despite the fact that stress is a normal part of our lives, we should not forget that constant stress at work significantly reduces productivity, physical and emotional health. This is why it is so important to find ways to keep work stress under control. Fortunately, each of us can independently limit and manage stress at work; to do this, we need to correctly identify its signs.

Signs of stress at work

How do you understand that something needs to be done about professional stress? Signs of professional stress will help you with this, because the impact of stress can be truly unpredictable:
Physical signs of stress at work: headache, toothache, chest pain, heart pain, shortness of breath. Increased heart rate, high blood pressure, muscle pain, upset stomach, constipation or diarrhea. Increased sweating, fatigue, insomnia, decreased immunity.
Psychosocial signs of stress at work: anxiety, irritability, sadness, anger. Frequent mood swings, hypersensitivity, apathy, depression, slow reactions or racing thoughts. Feelings of anxiety, helplessness and hopelessness.
Behavioral signs of stress at work: overeating or loss of appetite, impatience, irritability, anger, increased consumption of alcohol, nicotine or drugs, social isolation (reluctance to communicate with other people), neglect of responsibility, low productivity, failure to comply with basic personal hygiene rules, changes in family relationships.

How to cope with stress at work?

By following simple recommendations, you can easily keep stress in the workplace under control:
- Be friendly with colleagues and subordinates;
- Improve your communication skills - learn to speak so that you are understood exactly the way you want;
- Follow the principles of time management, learn to manage time;
- Improve your qualifications - be sure to attend courses and trainings planned at work;
- Regularly perform simple physical exercises before going to work: while lying in bed, you can do 20 repetitions of exercises for the abdominal muscles. Then stand up and stretch upward for 10 seconds. Next, slowly do 20-30 squats, and if possible, push-ups. In addition, after work you need light aerobic exercise, for example, a 30-minute walk at a brisk pace or an hour-long walk before bed at a calm and measured pace.

What can you do to avoid stress at work?

When people are under occupational stress, they become angry and irritable. This condition does not have the best effect on the quality of their work and labor productivity. That is why it is better to prevent stress than to deal with the unpredictable impact of stress on work. In addition, professional stress not only reduces productivity, worsens relationships with management, colleagues and subordinates. Stress in the workplace has the most detrimental effect on health. After all, the most dangerous thing about stress at work is its duration and, very often, the inability to adequately respond to the stimulus. After all, you must admit that it is unreasonable to send the boss when he deserves it - and, as a result, stress.

Why do we experience stress at work? There are many very good reasons for professional stress:

Fear of dismissal. Job loss and stress are certainly related concepts.

Increased demands from management without increasing wages.

The need to constantly maintain a certain level of work.

When work stress reduces your productivity or significantly impacts your personal life, it's time to take action. It is important to first pay attention to your physical and emotional health. It is much easier for a healthy person to resist stress. The better you feel, the easier it will be to cope with stress when work gets overwhelming.

Taking care of yourself does not require a major lifestyle change. Even the smallest things can lift your mood and increase your energy levels. Take just one step and you will soon see that the amount of stress in your life has been significantly reduced. After this, you may want to take other steps to achieve balance and harmony in your life.

Step 1 - life in motion. Sports are a sweaty but effective way to lift your mood, increase your energy, sharpen your focus and relax your mind and body. For maximum relaxation, you will need 30 minutes of intense physical activity every day.

Step 2 - food is a joy. It is advisable to eat what you want right now, what makes your mouth water. If possible, take food in small and fractional portions in a calm, conducive environment for eating. Nutrition culture is an important component of a healthy diet. In addition, frequent and small snacks help maintain normal blood sugar levels - because low sugar levels make you feel anxious and irritable. Let us also recall that overeating makes a person lethargic and deprives him of his ability to work for a long time.

Step 3 - everything in moderation. It is important to reduce alcohol consumption to a minimum. Understanding that a simple overdose of alcohol reduces the performance of the human body by half for 3-4 days is a good argument in favor of moderate consumption during the work week and beyond. Smoking reduces immunity, destroys blood vessels, causes irreparable harm to the pulmonary system and reduces performance by 25-30% - draw your own conclusions. Nicotine also increases anxiety levels, and this is a direct path to depression.

Step 4 - healthy sleep. Anxiety and stress are the main causes of insomnia. However, lack of sleep reduces performance, reaction and ability to concentrate, which inevitably leads to stress in the workplace. Insomnia compromises your ability to cope with stress. It is much easier to maintain emotional balance when you are well rested.

How to relieve stress at work? When workplace stress is overwhelming, you can't just ignore it. Fortunately, there are simple ways to regain control of the situation. Your ability to self-control will be perceived as a strength by others, which will lead to improved relationships with colleagues and superiors.

Here are some tips for reducing stress at work by improving organization and choosing the right life guidelines and professional priorities:

Create a balanced schedule. Analyze your schedule, responsibilities and daily tasks. Remember that your job should not be a game of survival. Try to find a balance between work and family life, social activities and hobbies, daily responsibility and relaxation.

Don't overload yourself. Avoid constant tension. Try not to put off many important tasks until the last day.
Wake up earlier. A reserve of 10-15 minutes will save you from rush and morning stress. Getting up early will make your day a little longer and allow you to be more punctual.

Take regular breaks from work. Make sure you take short breaks for your brain throughout the day. At lunchtime, try to leave your workplace. Taking a short break will help you relax, which will help you be productive.

Tips to reduce stress in the workplace:

List of priority tasks. Make a list of tasks that you must complete in descending order of importance. Focus on your highest priorities first. If you need to do something that is not particularly pleasant, do it as early as possible. And devote the rest of the day to more pleasant activities and responsibilities.

Break large projects into parts. If a large project seems impossible, don’t be afraid, just break it down into a large number of small steps and complete them gradually. Focus on completing each step individually, rather than thinking about everything at once.

Delegate responsibility. You don't have to do everything. If you have people in your company who can handle one of your tasks, why not let them handle that task? Let go of the desire to independently perform and control all, even the most insignificant, tasks. And you will reduce your stress level.

Reducing stress at work with emotional self-control

Emotional self-control in the workplace has four main components:

* Self-awareness is the ability to recognize your emotions and understand their impact on your decisions.

* Self-management - the ability to control one's emotions and behavior and adapt to changing circumstances.

* Social consciousness - the ability to feel, understand and respond to the feelings and emotions of other people. Helps you feel comfortable in a team.

* Relationship management - the ability to inspire, influence and interact with other people, the desire and ability to manage conflicts.

The higher your ability to exercise emotional self-control, the easier it is for you to cope with professional stress. Fortunately, emotional self-control is not an innate ability; it is something we can learn throughout our lives.

For example, changing jobs is also stressful. How to emotionally prepare yourself for a new team and survive the first time in a new place with the least emotional losses? You need to gradually develop emotional and non-verbal communication skills, which include the following techniques:

* Admit to yourself that you may be stressed. Prepare for stress psychologically - remember the state of inner harmony and peace. Try to learn to enter this state in any situation. Perhaps deep breathing or memories of happy moments in life will help you with this.

* Be aware of your own emotions. Say to yourself: “now I’m angry” or “now I’m offended,” etc. This exercise will help you remember negative emotions, realize and try to switch to a positive way. This practice will help you learn to understand not only your emotions, but also the emotions of the people around you. For example, if you recently got a job, this will help you quickly integrate into the team and understand who is who.

* Learn to recognize and effectively use nonverbal signals, which make up 95-98% of your communication process. Remember that it is not what you say, but how you say it that matters.

*Laugh. Nothing lightens the atmosphere like a good joke. But know when to stop, because... Joking at other people can backfire. Don't laugh at your colleagues.

Learn to listen. A person who knows how to listen is very valuable.

Coping with stress after leaving work.

None of us are immune from the blows of fate. In our difficult times, job loss is not at all uncommon; companies close unexpectedly and many employees are not ready for such a turn, and after losing their job they fall into deep depression and not only cannot, but also do not want to look for a new job.

There is no universal cure for bad mood and depression, but there are a number of basic solutions that will ultimately bring your condition back to normal. Dismissal is always a stressful factor and the main cause of depression, so in order to survive a stressful situation with minimal losses, you need to adhere to some rules. Symptoms of stress after losing a job can be different - laziness, loss of appetite, irritability, emotional and physical exhaustion, poor mood and well-being.

After being fired, you shouldn’t always rush to look for a new job; you will experience even more stress if you can’t do it the first time and in a short time. Sometimes it's better to give yourself time to rest, especially if your previous work was hard and stressful. However, just lying in bed at home and watching TV all day is not an option. Such a rest is unlikely to help you get out of prostration. Don't let yourself freeze in one place. The longer you lie on the bed, the more difficult it will be to get out of it later. Remember, getting out of a state of deep stress is much more difficult; it will be impossible to cope and eliminate all the symptoms of depression on your own and you will have to turn to specialists - psychologists and psychotherapists.

Movement is life, therefore, no matter what, take a walk, do physical exercise, move, go shopping, cafes, meet friends and spend more time with your family and friends. Visit those places where you could not go in the past due to being busy at work. This could be a cinema, various municipal institutions, a medical examination at a clinic or a visit to the dentist. Sign up for a swimming pool, fitness or advanced training course. Spend no more than 8 hours a day sleeping.

During this forced rest, there will be time to think about what your wishes are for your new job. Do you want to do what you did before or would you like to try something new? Or maybe you have long dreamed of finding a new profession, trying yourself in a new “role”?

Try to find inspiration in everything, watch movies, read books, imagine yourself working in a new interesting position, or dream with pleasure of returning to your old profession, only in a new place. Draw images of your new colleagues in your specialty. All this will help you miss work and start looking for it with renewed vigor. A good method to get rid of emotional stress is to pour out your soul, tell a close friend or relative about your pain, cry, remember everything that worries you, but only once. Tell and forget.

Set yourself in a positive mood Whatever happens to you, be it loss of a job or any other stressful situation, nothing can be changed, but you will still have to continue living and working. Stop blaming yourself and looking for negative aspects in yourself, pull yourself together and look for only positive aspects in any situation. Remember your strengths, write them down on paper, thereby raising your self-esteem and easily finding a new job. Good specialists are needed always and everywhere, convince yourself that you are a qualified worker, a positive person and an excellent colleague. Even if you don’t manage to find a suitable job the first time, don’t despair, continue searching and working on yourself, then such a cause of stress as losing a job will seem like a trifle to you.

Material prepared by psychological service

Main Directorate of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia for the Jewish Autonomous Region

Spending most of their time at work, modern people are so oversaturated with various information and “involved” in the process that Often they cannot relax even at home.

Inability to recover both physically and emotionally leads to stress, the symptoms and consequences of which can be quite difficult to cope with.

How to avoid burnout at work? Find out about this from ours.

Causes

Work stress is painful psycho-emotional state, which is formed in the process of labor activity.

The main reasons for its occurrence are irritating factors, under the guise of which they can act:

uncomfortable working conditions, high noise levels, too high or low room temperature;
mental overload, increased demands, combining two positions;
long absence of vacation and frequent overtime work;
inability to adapt to existing conditions, inability to set priorities, plan one’s activities, and complete assigned tasks on time;
monotonous and monotonous work schedule, sudden changes in activities;
difficulties in communication (both with colleagues and with superiors), inability to defend one’s own interests and point of view (or, on the contrary, the inability to stop in time);
low, lack of motivation and clear vision of prospects, increased anxiety.

These factors are constantly present in work activity. With periodic exposure to a person, they cause only short-term nervous stress, while with prolonged exposure, chronic stress occurs.

Another major stress factor is job change. The reason for dismissal plays an important role in this process.

If the employee leaves on his own initiative, while moving to a more promising position, it is much easier for him to cope with the changes.

If his departure has coercive nature(staff reduction or management initiative), stress can be especially severe, accompanied by:

feeling on the part of the former leader;
a strong decrease in self-esteem;
digging in the past, constantly “playing out” the situation with different options for one’s own behavior;
increased fatigue, decreased appetite,.

How it manifests itself: signs

The manifestation of stress at work depends on the characteristics of the body and the type of nervous system. The most common signs are:

All this leads to the fact that There are also disruptions in health, “signaling” about a chronic condition:

high or low pressure;
increased sweating;
rapid heartbeat;
dizziness and nausea;
attacks of chills or fever;
tremor or muscle twitching;
pain in the head, back or stomach (including digestive problems);
allergic manifestations (rash, itching);
sudden change in weight (increase or decrease);
sleep and appetite disturbances;
decreased sexual activity.

The more symptoms a person has, the closer he is to a state of uncontrollable stress, which can become chronic and lead to serious disturbances in the functioning of the body (neuroses, psychoses), which will be very difficult to cope with.

Exists three phases of development of work stress, which are based on the duration of exposure to irritant factors:

It is possible to overcome stress on your own only in the first two stages. When exhaustion occurs, the help of a specialist is already required.

How to be stress-resistant?

If it is not possible to eliminate an irritant at work, you need to try to change your attitude towards it. The following will help increase stress resistance:

How to cope on your own?

Don't hope that stress will go away on its own. The best thing is to learn how to react to it correctly and try not to let it into your work or personal life. Following simple rules will help you cope with this task.

These techniques will help you avoid stress or minimize its impact on the body.

But if nervous tension has reached a critical point and emotions are ready to spill over the edge, it is worth using emergency ways to deal with stress:

Deep breathing. Inhaling for four counts through the nose and exhaling for eight counts through the mouth, repeated 4-5 times, will normalize blood pressure and heart rhythm.
Glass of water. By drinking cool liquid in small sips, you can feel how tension goes away, breathing evens out and self-control returns.
Fresh air. If possible, you need to open the window wide or even go outside - the lack of oxygen will be immediately replenished, eliminating the manifestations of stress.
Sudden movements. The most acceptable in a work environment are rapid clenching and unclenching of fists, which reduce the level of adrenaline.