Yesterday’s post was about increasing employee morale. One of the biggest morale busters is “job stress.” As a business owner or manager, if you can find ways to reduce job stress for your employees their morale is bound to go up.
When the demands of a job and the efforts put in by the employee are matched, there is a feeling of “flow” for the employee. They feel satisfied and productive with their job.
Not all stress in the workplace comes from work. Many times what is happening in the employee’s personal life will be the cause of the stress that they bring with them to work.
Since people are all different, it may be difficult to place the right person in the right position all of the time. It is important for a manager to make sure the match is correct. If it is not this can cause stress overload not only for the employee, but those they work with also.
Here are a few areas in the workplace that may add stress to employee’s jobs.
1. Unclear directions: When employees do not know exactly what it is that they are to do and in what order. There are no clear guidelines on workplace ethics or accountability. When a workplace has unsure expectations for it’s employees, chaos is not far behind. Unknowns in the workplace cause stress for all involved.
2. Conflicting instructions: When more than one person wears a captain’s hat in the office things can be confusing. For example; the business owner may ask an employee to do something for them one way, yet the employee was told to do it differently by their manager. This creates a stressful situation for the employee. Employees need to know who they directly answer to at all times.
3. Over worked or under worked: Both of these situations are stressful. Make sure as a manager that you review employees job task with time allowed to complete them. Realistic expectations need to be understood by everyone.
4. Conflict among the team: Open conflict between co-workers makes the workplace very stressful. This can happen when you have multiple teams under one roof competing for customers or just competitive employees. Managers need to be able to keep peace in the workplace.
5. Lack of positive feedback or appreciation: Employees feel stress if there is a lack of feedback or appreciation. They are unsure if they are doing a good job or not and that can be stressful. Giving daily praise and review of what has been done right or wrong will keep the line of communication open between managers and their employees and keep stress levels down.
No one likes to work in stressful situations. What are other stressful areas that you have noticed at your workplace? How were they handled?
10/17/14
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