The Importance of Stress Reduction in the Workplace

Last week, en route to Boston for a corporate entertainment event, I encountered a transit nightmare: the NYC subway train I was riding to Penn Station was going about 2 miles per hour, turning what should have been an easy 20-minute ride into an hour. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the train stopped dead in its tracks about 5 stations away, for reasons unknown. I ran out and into a cab, which dropped me off just in time to race through the station like a maniac and board the Acela – I’m talking one minute before it departed.

The rest of the trip was fine, and the event went perfectly- but you know what? That subway ride was in the back of my mind all day, and in fact I’m STILL stressed out about it – knowing myself, I likely will be for a while, too.

Unfortunately, this and other work-related stressors are all too common; they cause anxiety, distraction, and the stress can linger for days. Now just imagine having multiple stressors at once – or, even worse, multiple people in the office experiencing stress like this, at the same time!

I can guarantee that right now, at this very minute, some of your colleagues & direct reports ARE experiencing stress like this – perhaps not from a subway debacle, but certainly from deadlines, demanding clients/bosses, negative feedback, office politics/drama and a host of other causes. This stress is making your people to lose focus (and perhaps sleep), meaning they’re not working at full capacity and producing their best work – which ultimately means they’re not as efficient, effective, attentive or productive as they could be.

That’s not good.

Take a moment and ask yourself: how stressed are my staff right now? Why are they stressed? What are the stressors within my control that I can help mitigate- and what, if anything, can I do to alleviate it?