Work stress: 7 keys to control it
The work stress It appears when the demands prevent us the ability to work and deal with them or keep them under control, a reality that 59% of Spaniards suffer, according to INE figures. However, is it healthy to work under pressure?
20% of European employees claim to look like Burnout syndrome or burned worker, according to a study by the European Foundation for Improvement of Living and Working Conditions. Thus, 6 out of 10 Spaniards suffer some type of work stress, according to figures from the National Institute of Statistics (INE).
Working under pressure is for many the main cause of work stress, a long-term malaise, which provides irritability, mental and physical exhaustion, and even depression.
7 keys to control work stress
Learn to fight it. Keys to be able to carry it in a healthy way:
1. Organization Taking care of the order in your workplace will allow you to finish on time. When planning it will be easier to deal with a considerable workload and meet delivery dates. But not only that, maintaining orderly work and documents helps us save time and have less work stress.
2. Priority list. It is something that we have all heard ad nauseam, but few carry it out. Clearly order pending activities depending on their priority in the short, medium and long term, without including the deadline to avoid pressure, favors the reduction of stress.
3. Ability to say "no". Committing to what we are aware we can not do increases the feeling of pressure. Sometimes, just saying "no" would end many endless days.
4. Update. Another cause of work stress is the lack of knowledge of new technologies and their methods. Staying up to date can help you gain time when doing an activity that would otherwise take much longer.
5. Breaks between hours. Being eight hours in a row sitting in front of the computer decreases productivity. A tip: disconnect at least 3 minutes every two hours to stretch your legs and hydrate a little.
6. Sleep at least 8 hours a day. It will help us recover and renew the energy necessary to face a new journey, new projects and challenges.
7. Holidays. To avoid the dreaded Burnout syndrome or burned worker, which 20% of European employees suffer according to a study by the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, it is essential that workers enjoy rest periods. Moments in which to forget about daily tasks and forget the phone, tablet or PC so that they are not distracting factors in their rest time.
Something that seems impossible, but that is taking place in countries like France thanks to the right to disconnect outside working hours. Labor reform that came into force on January 1, after being included in the labor code.
Carlos Martínez CEO of IMF Business School
