Workplace Stress Can Lead To Happiness?

It would be hard to walk into a workplace today and not find anyone who is experiencing stress in some format. Stress is unfortunately one of the most common health hazards found in the workplace, and the most alarming thing is that it often causes other health problems in turn.

According to statistics from the Labour Force Survey for the period of 2015-2016, there was 488,000 cases of work related stress, anxiety or depression. This means a prevalence rate of 1510 per 100,000 workers.

Stress Has The Potential To Lead To Happiness

It is common knowledge that stress has wide reaching negative repercussions. In terms of the workplace, work related stress can lead to lost time. In fact, in 2015-2016 the total number of working days that were lost was 11.7 million days.

A new study from the University of East Anglia however looked into how dealing with emotional exhaustion at work can potentially increase happiness. The research drew on three samples from 500 participants in Portugal and the United States who worked in diverse occupations to draw the conclusions.

What the study found was that in some cases, those people who feel that they are being supported by their manager, which is called perceived supervisor support in the study, found that this support can actually be helpful in preventing emotional exhaustion.

While this is good news for anyone who finds themselves in a managing position, it is also important to note that the support from a manager should not take away from a person’s own ability to face their stress on their own.

When people engaged in plans to try and cope with workplace stress there was an indirect yet positive effect on their happiness. This means that if people try and plan to cope with their stress, it can potentially result in an increase in happiness.

Useful Links For Workplace Stress

Reducing workplace stress can sometimes involve simply improving the ergonomics of a desk as this will help to reduce the risk of any workplace injuries. The Premises Management section on OPInfo.net has plenty of products that have been designed to help reduce stress.

If you feel like you are suffering from workplace stress, or if someone you know or an employee is then take a look at these useful sites:

http://www.hse.gov.uk/stress/

https://www.unison.org.uk/get-help/knowledge/health-and-safety/stress/