Workplace anxiety can take various forms. You may be in your dream job when one day you hear the news that one of your colleagues has been given the pink slip. Then without any warning a fear grips you. Are you the next? You imagine horrendous situations where you are sacked, and you have to trawl the streets again looking for a job. The fear does not subside even when you get to know that your colleague was under notice for being incompetent at work. Then you start worrying whether you also have made any mistakes or failed deadlines. When this tension and fear grips you, it seems very hard to shake off. It’s enough to shatter your idyll workplace. Or consider yourself in a situation where you have only a week left to complete a project. With the clock ticking in front of your eyes your mind suddenly enters a dead-end. You worry and fret shouting at your team to buck up. When someone cares to remind you that the work is almost done you simply don’t believe it. You feel that may be there are mistakes, may be something is not right. The tension doesn’t let you sleep, and you come to office haggard and tired. With your mind at a record low, you push and bully everyone, and the result is that the work gets suffered. This is what anxiety at the workplace can cost. Not only do you suffer mentally and physically, but your productivity also goes downhill. With a drastic change in the nature of work, employees nowadays have to complete huge workloads in specific time. And with the cutthroat competition it is no wonder that more and more people are suffering from anxiety at the work place. So, it is absolutely necessary to adopt measures to manage anxiety at the workplace. Read below to know more on how you can do it.
How To Manage Workplace Anxiety
- Don’t let things get to you even if you have missed a deadline. Instead, try to stay calm and composed. Pressure at work can cause excessive stress, and so you are more likely to burst out in fury or blame others. So, when you feel stressed out, take a break even if you have pressing work.
- Deep breathing helps calm the mind and also relieves the stress. Every now and then take a break from your work, and relax your muscles. Close your eyes and then practice deep breathing for at least two minutes. Get back to your work when you are properly relaxed.
- As often as you can, try to loosen up your muscles by standing up from the chair and stretching your arms and legs. Rotate your neck in the clockwise direction and then in the anticlockwise direction. When all your muscles are relaxed you will feel a lot less anxiety.
- Do not dwell upon any frustration and anger at the workplace. Expressing frustration and anger is sometimes necessary but dwelling on them constantly will only increase your anxiety.
- Most often anxiety is caused by dwelling only on the negative aspects of the job. So, shift your focus and concentrate on the positive aspects of your work. When you shift your focus to the positive aspect of your work then it will lead towards a positive attitude that will significantly reduce your anxiety related to your work.
- Another cause of anxiety is related to treating work as a burden. People who view their work as such are more prone to symptoms of anxiety at the workplace. Instead, you should shift your perception about your work. Note down all those things that attract you to the job, and then focus on those points.
- Don’t live your life in relation to your work. Remember that your work is just another aspect of your life. So, treat your work as such. Have an attitude where you work to live and not the other way round.
- If your work fails to stimulate you then inject your work with something that does. That does not mean that you convert your workplace into a discotheque. Instead every now and then, listen to music or read something that helps you to remove your mind from the work for a few minutes.
- The best way to manage workplace anxiety is to have a robust family life. After office, relieve your stress by being with your family. Spend time with them so that the next day when you come to work, you are refreshed.