Tag: holiday stress

woman sitting in front of macbook
December 12, 2021
Blog, Employee wellness

Employee Stress: How You Can Help During the Holidays

Discussions about employee stress often focus on what the individual can do to help themself, but have you thought about how you can help your employees manage their holiday stress?

Chronically high stress is a key ingredient in the recipe for burnout. As such, it’s important for managers to recognize the signs and the areas where there is the possibility for them to contribute to or subtract from that stress. 

Here are some simple, yet powerful ways you can start doing that.

Assisting with Employee Stress Management

  • Check in with employees regularly. You should have a good idea of their workload and their stress levels. Check in with them to see how they’re doing and look for nonverbal cues.
  • Redistribute tasks as necessary. Following from tip # 1, if workloads are too heavy for some, redistribute as is appropriate and doable. Also, help employees prioritize. Some things may need to be back-burned for the time-being and you need to communicate that it is OK when that happens.
  • Infuse some fun into the season. I don’t mean the obligatory office “fun” folks roll their eyes at. Seek out the activities and events employees actually enjoy and host those, whether it’s a Secret Snowflake gift exchange, a surprise lunch on the company dime, or in-office chair massage. 
  • Foster an environment that prioritizes mental health. Encourage employees to take their lunch break. Don’t “ding” employees for using PTO. Ask them about how they’re doing and show genuine interest in their responses. Remind them of the resources they have available to support them, such as EAPs. And model work-life balance to them through your own actions and choices.
  • Give staff some liberty in how they work. Gone are the days when seats had to be kept warm until 5 pm. Employees want flexibility and trust and they aren’t tolerating micromanaging. It’s important for management to be open to different ways of achieving the same goals and tasks. Being able to work from home and get the work done when it works best for them can go a really long way towards keeping stress at bay.

As I’ve said before, employee burnout doesn’t happen in a vacuum and it’s critical for management to step in to avoid it as well.

person in brown long sleeve shirt holding black handled scissors
December 12, 2021
Blog, Employee wellness

Managing Holiday Stress

Managing daily stress presents its own challenges, but coupling that with holiday stress can be overwhelming. Stress management is critical for our health as uncontrolled stress has been linked to health conditions such as hypertension, heart disease, gastrointestinal issues, depression and anxiety, and even diabetes. All of this is thanks to a little hormone called cortisol. While an integral part of our stress response, cortisol also plays important roles in a number of other body processes. Thus, when chronic stress raises our cortisol levels for long periods, other processes suffer as well.

How to Manage Holiday Stress

When strategizing about how to manage your stress, remember that there are 2 parts to it:

  1. Limiting how much stress you experience
  2. Mitigating the effects of the stress you can’t eliminate

So, let’s talk about how to manage your holiday stress through these lenses.

Limiting How Much Stress You Experience

  • Cut out the non-essentials. This time of year, we tend to heap a bunch of extras onto our to-do lists. And a lot of those things we don’t have to do and we don’t want to do. Take a good look at your calendar and to-do list and ask yourself why those items are on there. If they aren’t essential, cut yourself some slack and let them go.
  • Enforce your boundaries. People pleasing is a major cause of stress and having strong boundaries is the antidote. Don’t be afraid to say “no” to the things you don’t have to take on that will cause you more stress.
  • Plan ahead. Nothing worsens a stressful situation like feeling completely out of control of it. Look at the items you have control over and plan for them. Make lists, put it is a schedule, and avoid procrastinating so you’re not scrambling at the last minute.

Mitigating the Effects of Stress

  • Get sufficient sleep. We need sleep in order to recover and for our hormone levels to balance out. Do what you can to ensure you get your 7-9 hours each night. This could include: making sure your bedroom is a cool, dark, and restful space; having a bedtime routine; and stopping screen time 1-2 hours before bed.
  • Make time for you. Self-care is the way we recharge. Making even just a little time to do something that you enjoy every day can go a long way for mitigating stress. Going for a walk, making a craft, journaling are all types of self-care. Really, the only requirements are that, 1. you enjoy it, and 2. it’s not another to-do list item.
  • Don’t forget to enjoy the season. At the end of the day, the whole point in this holiday season craziness is that we have fun and enjoy time with those we love. So make sure to squeeze that in.
December 17, 2019
Blog

Managing Holiday Stress

It’s impossible to talk about health or healthy eating without also talking about stress. It’s behind so many of our unhealthy habits and it’s also fueled by them at the same time. And we all know how bad stress is for our health, not just because of those habits, but because of how chronically high cortisol (stress hormone) levels can affect the way our bodies function. Here are a couple facts about stress and our health:

According to the American Psychological Association’s Stress in America survey:

  • 38% of adults surveyed said they engaged in stress eating in the last month
  • Half of those adults said they engage in stress in weekly or more
  • 27% of adults say they eat to manage stress
  • 30% of adults report skipping meals due to stress

According to the NIH, anywhere from 60-90% of doctors visits are due to stress-related conditions

Stress contributes to chronic illness, inflammation, sleeplessness, weight gain, and performance issues and it can also impact our personal relationships. This time of year especially, stress management is particularly important.

So…what should you do?

Stress Management Routine

My biggest piece of stress management advice is to make time for yourself every single day. Yes. Every. Single. Day.

That’s not the tall order it might seem to be. I promise. Because it doesn’t have to be 3 hours at a spa (but if you can pull that off, go for it). It can be just 5 minutes to do something you enjoy.

Just taking 3 deep breaths has been scientifically shown to decrease stress levels on a physical and emotional level. So imagine what taking a 20 minute hot shower while listening to your favorite music can do!

But here’s the thing about stress management activities, things that you would have done anyway because you’re an adult don’t count. Even if you find cleaning to be soothing, that’s not doing something for yourself because it’s still something on your too-long to-do list that you would have done anyway. So you can count cooking, cleaning, or dishes as self-care.

But here’s the thing about stress management activities, things that you would have done anyway because you’re an adult don’t count.

Stress management is as deeply personal as the things that are stressing you out, so you need to find what works for you and those things will change situationally. Some people haven’t ever considered a stress management plan and that’s OK – it’s never too late to create one. Here are a couple ideas to get you started:

  • 5-minute mindfulness meditation
  • knitting
  • take a walk
  • journal it out
  • listen to your favorite song
  • take a long hot shower

Stress management doesn’t have to be complicated or involved – it just has to make you feel better. There’s no reason not to make it a priority – whether it happens just before bed on your lunch break or in between errands. Just make it happen every day.

Set Boundaries

The other biggest piece of advice I have with regards to holiday stress is to set clear, strong, and consistent boundaries. This time of year, the ones we care about can also become one of our biggest sources of stress as we struggle to balance competing interests, demands, and to-dos. If you focus on trying to please everyone, you’re going to end up burned out. Saying “no” and not feeling guilty about it can be your greatest gift this holiday season.

No, I can’t bring a side dish to that party. No, I can’t host your kids at my house today. No, we can’t go to both parties. No, I’m not buying that toy. No, you can’t invite your 3 friends from high school to my dinner party.

Obviously, there are things that you won’t be able to say “no” to. But for those things that you can, that are causing you more stress than they’re worth, that you dread doing – practice using that magic little word.

On Feeling Selfish

Sometimes setting boundaries is going to create a little backlash. Sometimes taking time for yourself will make you feel like you’re being selfish. To that I say this: you can’t pour from an empty cup.

By this I mean that you can’t possibly show up at your best for others if you don’t care for yourself first. In light of that, there is nothing selfish about taking a few minutes or an hour to yourself today and for saying no to something you don’t want to do.

- Theme by Grace Themes

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