Spotting symptoms of stress is important if you want to hold on to your employees for the long haul. Their sources of stress could be due to the workplace or of a more personal nature; either way, you have to be on your guard. In this article we will share some pointers indicating stress.
The symptoms of stress fall into three categories, behavioral, emotional, and mental. Here are 9 signs your employees are stressed out.
1. Working Long Hours
If your employees suddenly start working later or coming in earlier, this could be a sign of an employee who is struggling with their workload. There are employees who may in early or late out of a force of habit, but this isn’t usually grouped into indicators of stress. If their behavior becomes too erratic or interferes with their work, maybe it’s time for confrontation.
2. Extreme Irritability
If you see growing signs of irritability such as nervousness and twitchiness, this could be due to stress. If your employees have sudden outbursts of anger and emotional distress that are rather unusual, then their stress is getting worse and needs to be managed.
3. Too Tired
It isn’t unusual for stressed employees to get les sleep. If your employees who are coming in to work have clear signs of exhaustion on their face, they may be too tired.
4. Shying Away
One of the biggest indicators of stress is shyness. When employees are undergoing stress, the last thing they want is to draw any attention to themselves. This could be difficult to properly judge for yourself, but if your employees are usually outgoing and loud suddenly start isolating themselves, this could be cause for concern.
5. Not Using Their Breaks
If employees are so worked up about their day to day tasks that they simply can’t take out time for breaks, then this is a sign of someone who is too stressed about their workload.
6. Becoming Increasingly Emotional
Stressed out employees are more sensitive to their emotions, especially when it comes to work related talk. For instance, they may get extremely upset if coworkers pass jokes about their performance instead of partaking in normal banter.
7. General Lethargy
Stress takes both a physical and mental toll. If your employees, who are otherwise full of energy, suddenly show signs of constant illness and lethargy, this could be due to their workload taking a toll on them.
8. Time Off
Are your employees reluctant to take time off? Taking time off from work is extremely important when it comes to high productivity levels because sooner or later, their productivity levels will plummet due to stress and mental strain. If they refuse to take their time off due to concerns out of workload, maybe it’s time to do something about it.
9. Low Concentration
High levels of stress can cause serious setbacks to employees, more importantly, low concentration and frequent lapses in memory. Other symptoms include being indecisive and thoroughly confused about their job.
The list pointed above isn’t exhaustive by any means and you will have to be on the lookout for indicators of stress.
Get in touch with JS Benefits Group to learn more about your workforce depending on their behavioral patterns.
