Coping with stress and anxiety in the workplace

There’s a huge (and necessary) conversation around mental health globally. It didn’t start during the pandemic but it sure was more relevant because of it. Right now, we’re in the middle of a spiral that goes from every mindfulness exercise to breathing exercises to therapy to any other technique to take care of your mental health.

However, at this point in history, we’re experimenting with one of the biggest crises regarding this. One huge reason is stress and anxiety in the workplace, generated by common concerns such as financial circumstances or worry about loss of a job, difficulty maintaining focus, and even increased consumption of caffeine, nicotine, alcohol, or other substances.

That leaves us with an unmotivated and insecure workforce, that is barely trying to go through their tasks. Taking care of our employees’ health, especially in these times, is a responsibility for every company and this means thinking beyond well-being and deconstructing the idea of a well-being program.

According to Gallup, one in four employees in the US felt that their employer cared about their wellbeing. The main reason for this is that most of the time we associate well-being with physical wellness, but it implies many more dimensions such as social, financial, career and community.

Implementing wellness programs goes beyond asking your employees if they’re okay, it’s important to listen to them and provide them with the necessary help that will reduce those stress and anxiety levels to a minimum. Not only because productivity will increase, but also because it’s important to understand that we’re working with human beings, and work-life being as important a part of life as it is right now, it will affect other areas of our lives.