The Case of the Never-Ending Workweek: How to Manage Employee Stress in the Face of Overwork

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StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article |Workweek|The Case of the Never-Ending Workweek: How to Manage Employee Stress in the Face of OverworkIt’s no secret that the American workweek is long. In fact, it’s been getting longer for the last few decades. The average worker now puts in 47 hours each week, and nearly one-quarter of employees report working more than 60 hours per week. For some people, this overwork is a choice – they love their job and can’t get enough of it. But for many others, the never-ending workweek is a source of stress and anxiety. In this post, we’ll explore the causes of employee stress related to overwork and discuss ways to manage it.

The first step in managing employee stress is to understand its causes. There are a variety of factors that can contribute to work-related stress, including:

Long hours: As mentioned above, the average workweek is now 47 hours long. This leaves little time for anything else, including family, friends, and leisure activities.

Pressure to perform: With competition for jobs at an all-time high, workers feel pressure to be productive every minute of the workday. This can lead to burnout and anxiety.

Lack of control: Employees who feel like they have no control over their work or their career are more likely to experience stress.

Poor working conditions: Unsafe or uncomfortable working conditions can also be a source of stress.

Job insecurity: In today’s economy, many workers worry about losing their jobs. This fear can lead to stress and anxiety.

Now that you understand the causes of employee stress let’s discuss some ways to manage it. Here are a few tips:

1) Communicate with your employees:

Ensure you’re regularly communicating with your employees about their workload and stress levels. This will help you identify problem areas and develop solutions. Communication also allows employees to feel like they have a voice in the workplace.

2) Encourage breaks:

It’s important that employees take breaks during the workday. This will help them recharge and come back to their work refreshed. Encourage your employees to take a few minutes each hour to step away from their desks, walk, stretch, or just relax.

A healthy and relaxing break can be in the form of the following:

  • Taking a quick walk outdoors
  • Listening to calming music
  • Doing some deep breathing exercises
  • meditating for a few minutes


3) Promote a healthy lifestyle:

Encourage your employees to live a healthy lifestyle. This includes eating healthy foods, exercising regularly, getting enough sleep, and drinking supplements that help combat anxiety and stress. Your employees can have a look at cbd oil for anxiety as a possible supplement to help them cope with stress. CBD oil is known to have calming and relaxing effects, which can help reduce stress levels.

4) Schedule workshops relating to stress management:

Educate your employees on stress management. Schedule workshops or lunch-and-learns on the topic. There are a variety of stress management techniques that employees can learn, including deep breathing, meditation, and visualization.

5) Offer flexible work options:

If possible, offer your employees flexible work options. This could include flexible hours, working from home, or job sharing. Flexible work options can help employees better manage their work-life balance, which can reduce stress levels.

The case of a never-ending workweek is a real problem for many employees. However, by understanding the causes of employee stress and implementing some stress-management strategies, you can create a healthier and more productive workplace.

4 Reasons Your Staff is Lacking Productivity

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When it comes to productivity, your team is only as strong as its weakest link. So it’s crucial that you make sure everyone is on board and doing their part in order to reach maximum efficiency as a team. Before you can get to this point, however, you have to find out where the kink in the hose is.

Once you identify the reason for your lack of progress, you can make adjustments where needed. Here are some of the most likely reasons why your staff isn’t where it needs to be, and what you can do to remedy a productivity issue.

Unspoken Frustrations

Even though all of your team may be completely professional, humans are still emotional beings. If your team has a poor working relationship with each other, then they’re going to have low morale. It’s important that you keep your team motivated, and encourage communication among staff. If there are any issues coming up, make sure that they’re addressed immediately so that you can identify any work-related frustrations.

One of the best places to start is having a meeting so that you can go over any pending issues that need to be discussed as a team.

Lack of Praise

If staff members feel like they’re not being recognized for their efforts, then it won’t motivate them to continue working hard. Besides monetary reward, employees also require verbal encouragement and recognition.

Make sure that you bring up a job well done in front of the entire team. When you can praise your employees openly, you’ll give them a sense of value that keeps them inspired to continue delivering their best work.


Poor Leadership

When working in a group environment, it doesn’t matter how strong each individual is at their job if you don’t have a strong leader behind them. A strong manager is essential for keeping everyone on task, and delegating roles based on individual strengths.

As a manager, it’s your job to make sure everyone is fulfilling a role they’re best suited for. After all, half of the battle is delegating to the right people. If everyone is playing to their strengths, then you’ll move much faster with fewer issues that come up as you go.

Time Lost on Manual Tasks

It’s crucial that you’re constantly striving to look for new updated ways to get work done. Sadly, many teams are stuck in the past when it comes to manual processes. If your team is wasting half of their day on tasks that could be done with software, then it’s time to start thinking about an upgrade.

Automation software can save your team hours of manual work per day, and free up your schedule so you have time to focus more on what matters at your business, like forming new ideas and customer relationships.

Ways to Help Your Workplace Function Smoothly

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StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article |Workplace Function|Ways to Help Your Workplace Function SmoothlyRunning a business means having to do your utmost to run a functioning workplace too. That’s often easier said than done when there’s a lot going on and you have a whole team of people to manage. But when things get too messy and chaotic, it eventually takes a toll on the business and its ability to function as it should and hit its targets.

If you’re having problems in that department right now and you feel like the lack of structure and focus in your workplace is holding your business back in some ways, there’s never a better time than now to act and make a change. The longer you allow these kinds of problems to fester, the more deep-rooted they’ll eventually become, and that’s not what you want to be dealing with.

So if you’re looking to make some changes to the functioning of your workplace and you’re not sure where to start, read on now and find out more. Each of the changes discussed below will put your workplace on a better and more sustainable path.

Create a Culture of Trust

First of all, you should try to create a culture of trust inside the workplace. Thaat way, you’ll find it much easier to get the most out of each member of your team. If your employees feel like they’re not trusted to do their job, that’ll impact their morale and you’ll create a vicious cycle over underperformance that’s good for nobody. So if you want to create a culture in which people trust each other and believe in each other’s abilities. It’ll also create a more collaborative workplace and one with fewer conflicts.

Communicate Standards Clearly

Communicating what’s expected from employees is important in order to maintain high standards and avoid a slipping of standards. You don’t want to allow standards to slip too far because that’s ultimately damaging for the business and the impression you give to clients and customers. At the same time, it’s your task to communicate standards so that everyone in your workplace can live up to them. Inaction will only lead to a furthe erosion of those standards and that’s not what you want. Be sure to communicate them clearly without being dictatorial.

Share Out Authority

Sharing out authority is a concept that’s alien to a lot of bosses and managers. But when you pass on the authority to make relevant decisions to more people within your workplace, it spreads responsibility and encourages more people to step up to the plate. It essentially stops the workplace from becoming too centralized, which is important because over the top centralization of your workforce tends to be bad news for everybody. It’s far better when there’s input from various different sources and decision-makers.

Avoid Micromanaging

Micromanaging is one thing you definitely don’t want to do if you’re serious about making improvements to the way in which your workplace functions. When you try to micromanage every little situation and piece of work, it simply undermines your employees. And if you’re not going to let them get on with their jobs, you have to wonder why you bothered to hire them in the first place. Try to place more faith in them and see how it goes. You might be surprised by what they do and how much they impress you when you set them free and let them got on with the tasks at hand.

Encourage Two-Way Feedback

Feedback is an important asset for your business if you want to continue pushing in a positive direction and making the right kinds of changes moving forward. That’s why you should encourage everyone to participate in giving and receiving two-way feedback. That means you provide feedback to your employees, and they give their own feedback to you. That way, everyone can improve and the business will move in the right direction. You just need to ensure feedback is kept positive and constructive on both sides for this to work.

Train Your Team in New Areas When it Becomes Necessary

As your business grows and its priorities and focuses change, you might need different things from your workforce, and that’s something you should be mindful of. If you’re expecting new and different things from your employees, you’ll need to offer them the relevant training to smooth that transition. You can’t expect their jobs to change and for them to adapt immediately, especially if they’re not being supported and provided with the right training to make that possible. So whenever something changes for your business, explore whether your team needs to be trained differently.

Promote From Within Your Team

When you promote people to higher positions within your business, you should definitely think about promoting people from within your own team. When you do that, you give people the motivation to keep pushing and working hard because they’ll know they’ll have a chance of eventually clinching a higher position within the organization. Whereas, if they don’t see that opportunity ahead of them, they may lack the drive to keep pushing to achieve more, which is definitely not an environment you want to create. It’s a small change but it can make a big difference.


Offer Flexibility

These days, people tend to want and expect a little more flexibility in their work and work hours. That’s certainly something that your business should think about offering if it’s not doing so already. When your team is able to work in a more flexible way, they can set their own hours and balance the different priorities in their life. That results in a happier and generally more positive workforce. If you want everyone to be on their game and working as they should, flexibility will definitely help you get there.

Put the Stuff You Don’t Need Right Now Into Storage

One of the reasons why your workplace might be currently lacking a bit of structure and clarity is an abundance of stuff. When you have lots of stuff that shouldn’t really be there, you should move it out and make some extra space. Use a storage solution so that your employees don’t feel crowded out by excess clutter. If something isn’t serving a genuine purpose and doesn’t have a real reason to be in your workplace, simply don’t leave it there. A more minimalist approach to the workplace should serve everyone’s interests.

Use Project Management Software

It definitely makes sense to start making use of project management software if you’re not doing so already. Keeping everyone on track and working on the right tasks will help ensure the team meets deadlines and clients are kept satisfied. In the end, that’s what really matters more than anything else when you’re trying to create a workplace that functions in a smooth and cohesive kind of way. It’ll help you to operate things in a much more productive way and ensure that your projects get to where they need to be on time.

Facilitate Opportunities for Collaboration

If you’re going to get the most from your team, you want the members of that team to be operating together as a cohesive unit. That’s why you should find ways to facilitate collaboration among the different members and even among the different departments of your business. Of course, how you go about doing that will depend on the kind of business you run and how big it is. It’s up to you and the rest of the management team to find ways of pulling the team together and making the most of all the talents being brought to the table.

Put as Many Tasks on Autopilot as Possible

It’s a lot better for you if you can put things on autopilot and avoid getting bogged down in unimportant details when trying to run your business smoothly. If there are tasks that can be automated with the use of software, make use of those tech options. When your team has less admin work to take care of, they’ll have more time to focus their efforts on the things that really matter most to the business.

Maintain a Positive Attitude, Even When Times Are Stressful

Finally, you should try your best to maintain a positive outlook and attitude when you’re managing your team. When things become negative at the top of the business, that can feed down to the rest of your team and everything else that happens in your workplace. So even when things are stressful and stretched, you should try your best to remain positive. A generally more positive attitude will also yield better results when working for clients and trying to impress them too.

A smooth functioning workplace will ultimately only aid your business in getting closer to its long-term goals. So if you think that your workplace needs a little more organization and structure, be sure to make the most of the tips and ideas we’ve shared here today. Each of them will serve you well.

Creating a Happy Workplace For Your Employees

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StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article |Create a Happy Workplace|How Can You Improve Your Marketing Strategy?People need to work to pay their bills and so forth, but that doesn’t mean that the only thing they look for from an employer is a paycheck. They also want to work in an environment that’s pleasant. Indeed, this is something that’s becoming increasingly important to employees, so it’s worthwhile looking at ways to make your space more enjoyable. In doing so, you’ll be helping to retain your existing staff and attract new candidates, and that’s something that can have a significantly positive impact on your business.

If you’re not sure how to improve the quality of your workplace, then read on below, where we’ll run through some of the most effective methods.

Avoid Overcrowding

It’s not nice to work in a cramped space. Feeling like you’re surrounded by too many people or things can have a negative impact not only on your enjoyment of work but on the quality of the work. So it’s in your interest to try to make your workspace feel as large as possible. One way to do this is to move to a new office, but you don’t necessarily have to. There are ways to make your existing office seem bigger by removing clutter, getting rid of bulky furniture, and spacing out the desks.


Let In Light

Light is another thing that comes up time and time again when employees are discussing their office preferences. It’s easy to see why someone would prefer to work in a place that lets in a lot of natural light rather than a dark, windowless basement. So take a look at improving the light quality of your workplace. You could find that by changing the windows (or just cleaning them) and getting rid of any blinds you may have, you can help to bathe the office in sunlight.

Think of Temperature

The decor of the space is important. But what really matters is the temperature of the office. If it’s too hot or too cold, then your employees will begin to complain. In this day and age, there’s no reason not to have the right temperature, so make sure you’re taking action if you have problems. As well as the temperature of the air, look at your hot water taps — cold water can be grueling during the winter months — a heater or water pump repair could be necessary. You can go above and beyond by supplying fans during the summer months and fresh tea or coffee during the colder time of the year.

Social Spaces

Finally, what about allowing your employees the chance to spend time with one another? Studies have shown that employees are much happier when they feel that they have friends in the office, but that can only happen if they’re given a chance to spend time with one another. Look at adding a social area to the office where people can get to know one another in an informal way — you never know what collaboration projects may happen when employees get together and get talking.

How To Improve Your IT Team Performance

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StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article |IT Team Performance|How To Improve Your IT Team PerformanceYour employees consist of people from different walks of life with different skill sets and temperaments. Since you are responsible for ensuring they all get along and accomplish organizational goals, you can see how taxing the role can get. Fortunately, with a few effective tactics and a nudge in the right direction, you can encourage your team members to work together and become more productive. This article will discuss six ways to improve your IT team’s performance.

Ensure communication is clear and concise

Poor communication, or a lack of it, leads to confusion, misunderstandings, failure and disagreements in the workplace. As a manager, you must communicate your expectations of your IT team, the deadlines within which they should work and how they should conduct themselves while on the premises. Communication is also key during the onboarding process when you are training new employees.

Consider team building

If members of your IT team cannot get along with each other, the office becomes a miserable place. In addition, they will not be able to achieve the shared organizational goals. Since productivity depends heavily on teamwork, we suggest you engage your employees in team-building exercises to help them learn how to rely on each other. The fun activities during team building also help to dissolve any bad blood between members.

Create an amicable work environment

You can’t expect your employees to thrive in a poor environment. An excellent way to create an appropriate and wholesome work premise would be to let the sunlight in, incorporate green elements like flowers and potted plants and add comfortable furniture. It would also help supplement natural light with artificial light sources like table and floor lamps.


Outsource key IT functions

With rapid technological developments, having an IT department is no longer a luxury. However, your IT team might be overwhelmed with all the tasks that require their attention. In addition, your in-house team might not have the expertise your company needs to scale to greater heights. Outsourcing key IT functions can reduce their workload and allow them to focus on more pressing matters. Look for one of the best staff augmentation companies that will offer you flexibility and control over the external team and grant you access to a vast and specialized set of skills and technology.

Understand their strong and weak points

As a manager, one of your duties is understanding your employees’ skill sets. Once you grasp their strengths and weaknesses, you will be better positioned to assign them tasks you know they can handle. Employees that are given an avenue to exercise their expertise and knowledge make the greatest contribution to the company and are the most productive.

Make your team accountable for their actions

Lastly, an effective way to improve the performance of your IT team would be to avoid micro-managing them. Giving your employees control over their schedules and projects brings about a sense of accountability, builds their self-esteem and indices responsibility. You could grant your IT team ownership by appointing a leader from within the team or letting them handle a task independently without supervision.

Wrapping Up

No matter how good a team is, there is always room for improvement. Know your team’s strength and weaknesses, empower them and outsource some tasks to off load their workload. Above all ensure that you create a conducive working environment for your team. All these efforts will eventually improve their productivity and your IT business will grow.