Whether you manage a small startup or a department within a larger company, workplace stress has become a common issue in 2019 due to COVID-19. According to Forbes, 18% of workers experienced ongoing nervousness and anxiety since March of 2019, while only 50% of them are comfortable discussing mental issues.
Stress management during a pandemic is a touchy subject, one which executives should tackle carefully to avoid panic, dips in morale and overall productivity. With that, let’s take a look at how to manage stress in your workplace and enable your staff to make the most of the situation.
Recognizing Telltale Signs of Workplace Stress
Before we get down to practical guidelines, it’s worth taking a look at how you can recognize work and COVID related stress in your company. According to the World Health Organization, the virus can spread through respiratory droplets or contact with contaminated surfaces.
In translation, it’s quite possible to contract COVID-19 in an office space, making proper precaution and sanitization essential for staff’s safety. Given that many of your staff are likely family people who live with their children or parents, the risk of further stress is a given. You can preemptively approach your staff members and broach the topic of stress if you notice some of the following signs on time:
- Repeat concern over personal exposure to the virus
- Lack of interest or engagement with the workload
- Statements about personal or professional future uncertainty
- Poor concentration, irritation or denial about the pandemic
- Social withdrawal and lack of communication with colleagues
Openly Address the Ongoing Pandemic
Unfortunately for everyone, the ongoing pandemic is a real event we all have to deal with in some way. You can showcase your workplace responsibility and care toward the staff by directly addressing the issue. Organize a staff meeting in a spacious environment where you can all discuss what’s going on.
Talk about the fact that you are aware of the current situation and that you are prepared to take action to ensure everyone’s health. Open a discussion with your staff and ask about their opinions, suggestions and fears about the pandemic. This will help ease everyone’s mind and help your staff collaborate more closely in the following weeks and months. It will also drastically lower workplace stress for individual employees given that you have proactively talked about the subject instead of ignoring a global issue.
Facilitate a Healthy & Sanitized Workplace
You can do a lot to ensure the health and safety of your staff through proper sanitization of your workplace. Purchase hand sanitizers, masks and gloves and subsequently place them in strategic locations for your staff. The best places to put them are at the entrance, in bathrooms, as well as junctions in your office such as the kitchen.
Communicate your intent to keep everyone safe and encourage the staff to please use all the health equipment you’ve acquired for their convenience. While masks may not be an ideal long-term solution, they are a mandatory precaution, especially if your staff-to-space ration is in favor of the latter. It also might be a good idea to limit clients and/or customers from visiting your offices in droves to maintain a healthy and stress-free environment.
Limit Media Exposure during Working Hours
Using TVs or radios to keep your staff motivated during work hours is a great step toward a more positive workplace. However, this can lead to unnecessary exposure to media related to the pandemic and the inevitable rise in staff’s stress.
Instead of putting news channels on, try playing more motivational and positive content on your office devices. YouTube is also a great choice for motivational content given its plethora of different creators. While you can’t control what news outlets and media individual staff members consume, you can still preemptively communicate your concerns over alarmist and fake news. Express your worry about the effects of media on their mood but leave the final decision on what to listen to up to them.
Put Remote Work Management in Place
Depending on your workplace’s logistics and office space, shifting the workflow to remote management might be a good idea. Platforms such as Asana and Trello are available for your convenience, while Google Docs and Drive can be used to edit and share work-related files. Remote work management has become a staple of many industries in recent years and can drastically reduce workplace stress for your staff.
It’s important to communicate the shift to remote work conditions to your staff properly before taking any drastic steps toward it, however. Organize a short seminar or meeting with department leads or staff members themselves to discuss the temporary solution. Managing your workplace remotely and keeping only minimal staff in the office can significantly improve not only everyone’s mood but mental and physical wellbeing as well.
Temporary Measures for Long-Term Wellbeing (Conclusion)
Your staff’s stress levels can quickly spiral out of control due to the ongoing pandemic if you don’t act to protect them. While some of these measures may seem drastic at first, they are a necessary step toward a productive and solution-oriented work environment. This situation won’t last forever, and with global immunization already underway, these temporary preventive solutions will help your staff deal with workplace stress more favorably.
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