It is good that companies are paying extra attention to a major problem during Work Stress Week. But with that, stress has not been chased out of the office, argues MT/Sprout columnist Hidde de Vries. How do you encourage moments of rest within your organization?
Many companies are paying extra attention to work stress this week. It is, in fact, Work Stress Week. This year the focus is mental strength. It is good that companies are paying attention to topics such as work stress and its counterpart (mental strength). I am surprised that companies think a week is going to make a difference.
Work stress serious problem
Work-related stress is a serious problem. In 2018, over 37 percent of employees reported that work stress was the leading cause of their work-related absenteeism. Mental strength is therefore a serious necessity. You don't tackle that in a week.
Reducing work stress within your organization requires structural changes. It requires a shift from a focus on treatment to a focus on prevention. And preferably a focus on amplification: strengthening the well-being and functioning of employees.
From curation to prevention
Still too many organizations do not intervene until it is already too late. Employees in burnout or with serious psychological complaints end up at the company doctor's office and have to go home to recover. This approach, focused on recovery, is completely dated. And extremely costly.
Basically, as a company, you want to shift your focus from treatment and expense to prevention. Such a Week of Work Stress is helpful in that context. Employees are made aware for a while, inspired and motivated to improve their working methods and lifestyle.
But one week definitely doesn't get you there. And if it stays with that one week, it really is lost time.
Rest as an essential factor
Harvard Business Review wrote back in 2016 that mental resilience is determined much more by how you relax, rather than how you just keep going. We don't work too much, we don't recharge enough. Within organizations' prevention policies, more attention should be paid to employees' recovery moments.
The model I developed that fits this well is the energy mindset quadrant, a derivative of the energy model of researchers Tony Schwartz and Jim Loehr. Just a little less American and more practical in my opinion.
The model assumes your amount of energy and the quality of your mindset. If you put the two against each other, you get four zones.
In our busy and performance-oriented society, we spend much of the day in the upper two zones, where energy is high. If you manage to keep your mindset positive, then you are in the performance zone. If you are dealing with a more negative mindset, then you will tend more toward the irritation zone. And if you're not careful, you may even end up in the burnout zone.
The only way to ensure that employees within your organization can continue to perform without ending up too often or too deeply on the left side of the quadrant is to make sure they are sufficiently recharged. Taking sufficient rest and relaxing qualitatively. And then, of course, when the mindset is still positive, not when it is already too late.
Enabling relaxation during workday
Sufficiently incorporating quality rest into (and after) the workday is, of course, a responsibility that lies with the individual employee. But, with the employer lies a responsibility to create an atmosphere where it is possible to actually take that rest. Do you give or get that opportunity?
Think back to the leaked report from Goldman Sachs last year. First-year analysts begged if they could please work 80 hours a week, because with work weeks as long as 105 hours, showering, eating and sleeping are barely there.
This example is extreme, of course. But it does indicate that if an organization does not create an atmosphere in which relaxation is accepted or even possible, mental strength in the individual employee is far from forthcoming.
So, how do you encourage these qualitative moments of rest within your organization?
- Create an environment where taking breaks and rest periods are not only accepted, but are the norm.
- Give employees the ability to completely disconnect during recovery moments by allowing them to be unavailable for a while.
- Organize challenges (e.g., step, sleep, detox challenges) and knowledge sessions to emphasize the importance of relaxation and rest.
- Be a role model for your employees: if you lead by example, the rest are more likely to follow (even if you are not the boss yourself).
But most importantly: repeat, repeat, repeat. Let this come back again and again.
Actively promoting employee wellness
As an organization, you can also take it a step beyond prevention by focusing on amplification. As opposed to treating (curation) or preventing (prevention) negative situations at work (such as work stress), amplification provides for the active promotion of the positive elements at work, of the psychological well-being of employees. This includes the promotion of engagement.
Literature shows that engaged employees are more productive, make fewer mistakes, are more innovative and creative. They derive more satisfaction from their work, have higher job satisfaction, are more engaged and feel energetic, vital and proud.
In addition to this, engaged teams perform better, turn over more revenue and provide higher customer satisfaction. In short: engagement leads to more profit, less turnover and more growth. All the more reason, therefore, for organizations to want engaged employees.
Ways to promote engagement
In his 2009 research, occupational and organizational psychologist Wilmar Schaufeli lists several types of (happiness-enhancing) interventions that could be considered in the context of amplification and promoting engagement:
- Promoting friendly behavior within the organization.
- Sharing good news and successes with each other.
- Nurture social relationships and support each other.
- Expressing gratitude and counting blessings.
- Forgiving one another and encouraging optimism.
- Enjoying life (and as a leader or manager actively setting an example in this).
- Set and pursue personal goals.
- Increasing mental resilience.
An important starting point is that as a manager or executive, you naturally lead by example.
From Work Stress Week to structural change
So I heartily recommend: use Work Stress Week as a kickoff event for your team or organization. Use the moment to see where you can make structural changes. And then try to keep that up throughout the year. Not every day, but at least monthly. Only then will you really start to make a difference.
