Help Your Stressed-Out Workforce

 

Workers today - including you - are working all day and into the evening with their mobile tools and communications devices. They find it hard to leave stress at work. There is no work and no time to turn off. Many studies have shown that their social lives are suffering for it.  If you you haven't already, you are going to see reduced performance. It's hard to pinpoint stress as a cause, though. Worse, you may find it difficult to manage stress because they have workers who are temporary or transient, or managed by someone else entirely. What to do, what to do? 

It's the little things that count. Recognize accomplishments and effort - often. More often than you think you should. You should have heard of this before. What you may have not heard before is what I call "instant flex." It's not as formal as flex time. When someone needs to leave work to handle something, they naturally are concrned that they will not be available for work. Team mates may frown upon this unexpected loss of resource. Make it clear to your workers at the beginning of the project that everyone can leave to handle family issues or unexpected fixed-time appointments. This will bring great relief and minimize the backlash from other workers when they do leave. It will reduce stress all the way around.