How To Manage Stress At Work & Gain Your Lost Productivity?

Are you experiencing overwhelming stress, caused by workload, tight deadlines, endless demands, and poor work culture? And you are not alone. 80% of US workers reported experiencing workload stress, costing $1 trillion in lost productivity, and 17 million working days in another study. So, whenever you feel, “I am too lazy at work”, think twice, because it can be a sign of work-related stress.

Work stress is real. But it’s not something that you have to fear, act overwhelmingly, or become annoyed. And the thing is, it can’t be avoided. Means, at work, you can’t skip tasks or bypass steps as self-defence. But it can be managed.

Today’s blog highlights different ways that can help you manage stressful situations at work. Also, we will learn how workplace therapies help you maintain a balanced work-life. This guide helps everyone experiencing high stress at different job levels, from entry-level roles to top executives. Even those who are just starting their careers respond better to the most common interview question: how do you handle stress at work?

What is Workplace Stress?

Workplace stress is a mental burden, emotional discomfort, and physical strain caused by job demands that exceed someone’s capacity to handle tasks at once. World Health Organization defines workplace stress as a response to work demands and high pressure.

How Common is Work Stress?

Burnout at work is common. It silently enters people’s personal lives, especially in demanding jobs, and begins to affect their productivity, overall well-being, and relationships. To assess people’s mental state at work, Headspace surveyed more than two thousand professionals, including employees, HR leaders, and other professionals, in 2024. What that study reveals is below:

• Work stress significantly impacts our physical well-being, said 77% of employees
• 47% are those who say a major portion of their overall stress is caused by work
• 71% of employees said they experienced unbelievable relationship challenges caused by work stress

While stress at work affects lives, many professionals also have positive feedback. More than half of surveyed professionals show satisfaction, as they say that through work they find people who match them and have gone through similar experiences.

In the US alone, 120 thousand deaths are reported every single year due to work stress, according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).

What are the Signs You Have High Stress?

When work demands exceed the ability to manage tasks efficiently in a specified timeline, people often feel mentally drained and experience uncontrollable symptoms, listed below:

• Chronic fatigue
• Sleep disturbances
• Irritability
• Difficulty concentrating
• Decreased productivity
• Thinking of “switching off” from work

Alongside these, the physical symptoms might include:

• Frequent headaches
• Muscle tension
• Upset stomach/nausea

Understanding the signs of stress, the next most crucial step is to identify what actually causes work tension and pressure. Does it always mean busy days, continuous meetings, or breakless hours? Or something invisible that most people don’t even notice.

What Causes Stress At Work?

Does having too much work to do actually cause stress? Not always! For most people, work stress is just work and a timeline, although these are the core causes; but what about sleepless nights due to the repeated question: “What if I can’t do it perfectly; does it cost me my job?” Such intrusive thoughts make peaceful nights restless. Also, think of replying to awkward boss emails about the project status, facing pacing issues, even when you actually lack resources. This is actually the invisible pressure, often overlooked.

Here’s how work stress actually comes in.

• Excessive workloads
• Unclear expectations
• Poor communication
• Lack of support
• Undefined roles and responsibilities
• Bad working environment
• Unrealistic timelines
• Fear of job security

These are some of the most stress-inducing factors in a job. This is not something you can consider normal as a part of a job; it’s chronic and hazardous to overall well-being.

How to Manage Workplace Stress & Pressure?

Managing stress is necessary. It doesn’t just enhance productivity, but also keeps you mentally strong, emotionally reinforced, and physically active, as ignoring stress, when it becomes too much, results in depression and anxiety. And at that stage, mental health conditions become chronic, because at work, it can cause unexpected anxiety attacks, especially when projects exceed specific timelines.

Moreover, as the brain’s prefrontal cortex is most affected by stress, it increases the risk of impulsive behaviours and habitual actions, as this specific area of the brain is responsible for self-control.

The good thing is that work-related stress can be managed in several ways. You can practice or adopt the strategies that psychiatrists often recommends to individuals as a job routine. They can help you feel relaxed and ensure better performance at the office by enabling you to cope with stress more effectively.

Here’s what the strategies are:

1. Take regular breaks

Brain contributes the most in completing every task. It understands information, processes it, maintains focus, and handles other activities. After a while, the brain gets tired due to continuous energy depletion and elevated levels of stress hormones. At this point, it requires rest. That’s why taking regular breaks becomes an effective way to avoid burnout. It’s great to take a break of 5 to 10 minutes after a task is completed.

2. Improve Time Management

Managing time is the actual wealth. Investing it carefully in tasks that actually matter helps ensure alignment with specified timelines. Building such valuable skills allows you to organize necessary tasks that have to be done as a priority while also saving energy for other smaller ones, building a structured workflow.

3. Connect with Supportive Coworkers

Seeking help is not something you feel hesitant about, and it’s not a sign of weakness. Asking coworkers for help or guidance is far better than acting impulsively on a task with no clear understanding or goals. If you get stuck at any point, go to supportive people and get guidance. If workload persistently overwhelms you, discuss it with your manager, and ensure you are assigned realistic tasks.

4. Reward Yourself for Achievements

After completing one task, your next step should be celebration. Rewarding yourself for achievement, even a small action that makes you feel happy or relaxed, like having a short walk or a cup of coffee, makes a significant difference in overall performance. This prepares you for the next task with increased focus and encouragement.

What If Stress Management Strategies Aren’t Enough?

If you are tired of practicing these strategies? But the stress still doesn’t allow you to get peaceful sleep at night, it can be a sign of chronic stress. People with such a condition often struggle to fall asleep, become emotionally exhausted, and may also experience significant memory gaps.

Before moving to other effective options to handle depression and panic attacks due to excessive workload, it’s crucial to understand how the body’s stress response works. This gives you an overview of how stress develops and how your brain actually sees job stress.

Why Doesn’t Stress Go Away? Understanding Your Body’s Stress Response

For many people, it might be surprising that our brain consistently observes our surroundings. For instance, you are at an office desk, scrolling pending tasks, seeing emails written “the work needs to be done as instructed, it’s urgent”, receiving signals through eyes, ears, and other senses; the brain understands the demands exceed abilities.

With pressure and never-ending work requirements, the very small part of the brain named the amygdala, responsible for scanning danger, considers workload a threat. Even if such demands are not life-threatening, the amygdala can’t differentiate whether it’s a physical danger, a psychological condition, or simply a heavy cognitive workload. Its job is to identify how serious the situation is and how urgent it is to take action.

When it considers workload as a threat, it sends signals to the hypothalamus. It is another brain region. When this region of the brain receives signals of threat, it starts communicating with other cells that help prepare the body to take necessary actions.

It might be shocking for some that the hypothalamus, while being in the brain, connects or can communicate with organs throughout the body. It signals the adrenal glands, the organs on top of our kidneys, to produce an essential hormone to make the body react, named adrenaline. That’s why, within seconds of seeing work pressure, you experience increased heart rate, high blood pressure, etc.; it’s all done by adrenaline, which is produced in the adrenal gland’s cortex.

At this point, everything is perfect, helping boost attention and faster actions to complete tasks as expected.

For example, you are assigned a task to prepare a report within 30 minutes. Now, you have a time limit, so to meet it, you require energy and have to be attentive. As discussed, the brain considers it a threat, and the cycle repeats. When the report is ready and approved, as the stress ends, the body returns to a normal state.

But we all know that in a job, stress is not a one-time event, it’s persistent, especially in demanding jobs. This leads to activation of the HPA axis, which further releases cortisol, helping keep the body alert.

Encountering stressful events at the workplace again and again, this system remains activated and alert. That’s the reason stress management techniques don’t help some people. Also, this is the main reason people with chronic work stress find it hard to fall asleep.

Do People With Chronic Workload Stress Ever Feel Relaxed?

Yes, people with unmanageable stress at work can absolutely recover from such a condition. For them, workplace therapies and counselling for stress can be beneficial, ensuring balanced work-life, efficient stress management, and a relaxed, focused mind.

How Can Counseling and Therapy Help Manage Workplace Stress?

There are several therapeutic techniques and counseling options available that help employees handle work pressure effectively. These methods deliver mental support to workers, enhancing self-esteem, crucial for outstanding job performance and teamwork, and also preventing burnout, ensuring a great level of job satisfaction. These include:

Therapeutic Care

Psychiatric care is necessary for workers dealing with uncontrollable worries at work. With acceptance and mindfulness techniques, people learn how to manage stress.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

CBT is one of the most effective techniques. It helps workers get understood. Also, it plays a significant role in changing their negative perception or belief about workload into a positive attitude. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy consists of three main elements: recognition, understanding, and replacement, resetting thoughts and ensuring better cognitive skills.

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (CBT)

ACT can also help avoid burnout in the workplace. It teaches people that stressful situations at work are simply unrealistic demands or common job events, not your incapability. Through acceptance and commitment therapy, psychiatrists offer mental and emotional support to workers. ACT focuses on accepting current situations and regulating emotions to support productivity and encouragement.

Mindfulness Techniques

Through therapy sessions, psychiatrists often teach mindfulness and behavioral techniques to highly depressed people due to workplace anxieties. This helps lower pressure, making the mind feel calm and peaceful.

These are some of the ways that not only offer mental support but also ensure emotional healing. On-time psychiatric care prevents job stressors from turning into nightmares, avoids mental exhaustion, and also lowers the risk of other mental disorders developing. The effectiveness of such therapies is doubled when paired with the above-discussed self-practices recommended by a mental healthcare doctor.

Despite this, some other ways to overcome chronic stress include:

Workplace Therapies

Another better way to support and encourage employees is to offer work therapies and team counseling. It becomes necessary when a study named “The Lancet Psychiatry” by the WHO shows a 4:1 return in work performance. According to this study, an increased productivity of $4 can be achieved in return for every $1 invested in worker mental health. Offering work counseling and group workshops about goals, followed by small sessions based on stress management practices, gives workers the feeling of being prioritized, not pushed. Also, it can result in better team communication and overall achievement.

How Can Advanced Health Preference Group Help?

Advanced Health Preference Group is a mental healthcare provider, helping workers become aware of their mental health and recognize their true abilities. At work, unexpected demands impact their psychological health deeply and often cause low self-esteem. Through our personalized treatment standard, our certified psychiatrists provide mental support to every individual. From career stress management to overcoming ongoing job stress, we can help people maintain a balanced life by prioritizing their mental wellness.

In our clinical practice, we commonly notice that people with chronic, long-lasting job stress are often diagnosed with mental disorders like anxiety and depression. For them, we have prepared a specialized treatment workflow, which includes comprehensive diagnosis, evidence-based treatment, follow-up care, and ongoing support, ensuring holistic, whole-person care.

If you are looking for high-quality therapy for work-life balance in California, choose Advanced Health Preference Group. We offer in-person care and telepsychiatric services to busy professionals, allowing them to access care even from the office. Call us at (213) 474-1173 and book your appointment!