Balancing Job Demands and Job Resources

Psychology research has made great headway in relation to uncovering the factors that influence
the interplay between job resources and job demands. However, finding a practical balance between the two within your workplace is often quite challenging. This article aims to introduce you to the various factors that may come into play if you are feeling stress within your workplace. Stress within the workplace is often attributed to high demands and low resources.

Bakker and Leiter in 2010 drew up a model of how demands and resources interplay and the effect they have on engagement and stress. The most popular model at the moment is the Jobs Demands Resources (JDR) Model, which highlights the following relevant factors:

Job Demands:

• Increased workload beyond what might be reasonably completed
• Role Conflict - when conflicts arise between the multiple roles that have to be filled
• When there is a low amount of resilience in terms of handling change
• Role Ambiguity
• Work pressures from employees or managers internal to the business or, customers and clients externally
• Emotional demands – this is particularly relevant to Allied Health as we work so closely with individuals, especially when they are requiring assistance
• Mental demands – this relates to when the role is mentally exhausting and there is an inability to have rest break
• Physically demanding work

Job Resources:

• Increasing the amount of social support
• Seek extra feedback, specifically relating to your work, but also your general behaviour in the workplace
• Increasing the amount of supervisory coaching that you are receiving or rather putting a slightly different spin when you request feedback
• Increasing the amount of autonomy or control you have in your job
• Finding ways to increase your optimism within the workplace whether this be through increasing the social aspects of your work or taking a needed break
• Increasing your competence in the role – this may be through seeking extra training or gaining clarity about your role

Reducing the amount of job demands and increasing the amount of job resources has been shown to have a positive impact on:

• Mental and physical health factors which decreases the likelihood of energy depletion and burnout
• Motivational factors
• Levels of engagement
• Increased job satisfaction
• Overall happiness and levels of enjoyment

If managing stress in the workplace is something you would like to know more about, we recently wrote an article on Mindfulness in the Workplace, which you may find useful. You can read more about that here. 

  

Simple Strategies to Prevent Workplace Anxiety

Workplace anxiety is more common than you might think. The ‘2014 Stress and Wellbeing in Australia Survey’ conducted by the Australian Psychological Society found ‘issues in the workplace’ was one of the top five sources of stress among Australians aged between 26-45 years, with a massive 44% of Australians identifying work as a key cause of stress. Work related sources of stress can include things like; starting a new job, lack of autonomy, heavy workloads, poor resources and limited support. Constant anxiety, worry, apprehension, fear, and feelings of impending doom can arise from stress and be long-lasting, even when the original stressor is gone.

With the fast-paced environments and pressures of meeting client demands, deadlines, and keeping on top of your game, it’s easy to develop work related anxieties. Struggling with anxiety at work can be debilitating; even the simplest tasks can become difficult to complete. Stress is often unavoidable in the working world, but it is helpful to identify key sources of stress, and have some strategies at hand to prevent it developing into a more serious problem.

Here are six simple ways to prevent stress and anxiety in the workplace.

1. Slow down. Close your eyes and focus on slow, deep breathing for several minutes until you feel yourself physically relax. This will make it easier to focus and gather your thoughts for the task at hand.
2.  Break it up. Sometimes when faced with a difficult situation, rather than tackling it head on, break it down into smaller tasks. That way, you can set goals for getting each part done. Reward yourself by taking a break in between set tasks; go for a quick walk to clear your head. 
3. Exercise. We’ve all heard that exercise plays an important role in keeping mentally healthy, and it’s true. Find and join a gym close by and go before, after or even during work. If you think you can’t handle those spin classes, make an effort to walk to and from work. Not only does being physically active improve mental health, just being outside with some natural greenery has been shown to have positive impacts to emotions and self-esteem. Every bit counts!
4.  Enjoy your social life.  Don’t forget you have a life outside of work. Catch up with friends and family to keep yourself socially active. Organise things for after work, so you have something to look forward to and keep you going throughout the day. 
5. Face your anxiety. That feeling of frustration, anger or nervousness might seem normal at first, but when it lasts a little longer than it should, it can be a good idea to talk it out to yourself, write your worries down, and actually stop and think about what is worrying you and accept the stress or anxiety might be more serious than you thought. Self-understanding is important to finding a resolution. If you think it’s weird talking it out to yourself…
6. Talk to someone else. Find a co-worker, friend, family member or a mental health professional that you are comfortable talking with. Sometimes just saying what you’re going through out loud can bring an immense amount of relief.

Stress is a normal reaction when something at work is a little more demanding or challenging. However, it’s good to learn to recognise the signs when it’s getting a bit too much for you. Many organisations have an Employee Assistance Program available to help employees enhance their health and wellbeing, and some even accommodate leave of absence from work so you can have a day away to mentally recharge. If you’re finding anxiety is getting the better of you, take a minute to discuss your options with your manager or supervisor, or contact a medical professional for extra support.

Good Stress Vs. Bad Stress

Stress is often a dirty word surrounded by the thought of last minute deadlines, juggling a career and family life and even sleepless nights. However, that’s only half the story as stress can also be the drive to complete tasks on time and push you beyond your comfort zone toward new achievements.  In essence, stress occurs when there is a perceived discrepancy between the demands of a tasks and an individual’s perceived ability to cope with the demands of the task. Though when properly managed and understood, stress can actually act as a positive pressure that motivates us to push ourselves and achieve our potential. As long as the gap between perceived ability to cope and demands of the task is not too overwhelming! Here’s how you can identify between good and bad stress, and use good stress to your advantage:

Good Stress

Stress is necessary for survival, hence why your ancestors survived; they saw the big bear and ran! Stress can often be a good thing, it helped your ancestors survive and now it can help you perform in your job. Such stress is called ‘Eustress’ which helps one make those difficult decisions, meet deadlines, get over a rejection letter, and help you prepare and work towards goals. Good Stress is what stimulates us to go out and get things done. Good stress is what adds that fuel to our fire, and keeps your thought process on its toes for those activities that require that little extra effort such as presenting to colleagues or a job interview.  So stress can be ok in safe amounts.

Bad Stress

Distress is when the level of stress begins to be harmful where we perceive that a task is just too much and we go beyond just pushing ourselves a little. This is when stress should be dealt with through positive coping strategies such as talking about it with others who will listen. If negative coping strategies are used (such as too much caffeine during work or alcohol afterwards ) and the distress is not dealt with that when things can get ugly, resulting in higher blood pressure, unforeseen aggression, and loss of sleep.

Negative coping strategies allow stress to build upon itself and there are long term negative psychological and physical consequences of elongated periods of stress.

Optimal stress is a healthy balance between ‘keeping busy’ eustress and avoiding overload distress stress and is what needs to be focused on in the workplace environment, as it allows peak performance and gives you or your employees paramount work levels.

Managing workplace ambiguity

At times, having to work through ambiguity in the workplace is inevitable. From handling tasks with incomplete or poor directions to structural changes at the workplace, at one point or another you will face ambiguity and uncertainty at work with no option to pass things onto someone else. Although experiencing ambiguity can be anxiety-provoking, effectively dealing with ambiguity is an important skill to have. Here are some useful strategies to manage workplace ambiguity:  

 

1. Learn to let go of your desire to control

Most of us like to think that we can make a powerful change in the challenges presented to us. However anxiety and stress can often result when you are dealing with ambiguous situations that you feel the need to be in control of, or that you feel should be done an exact way. In order to deal with ambiguity effectively, you need to be comfortable with uncertainty and suppress your need to control the situation. To do this, it is important to identify what you can and cannot control or influence, and accept and be comfortable with what is beyond your control. Ask yourself "can I change the way this process is right now?" If not, then stress has no value for you.

2. Learn to make decisions without having all the facts

 Unfortunately, in ambiguous situations, you will often receive insufficient information required to make assured decisions. Don’t wait around until you receive every bit of information to take action; it may never arrive. This is where people who are 'risk averse' often struggle to try things out or take a chance when time is an issue, try to limit yourself to definite pieces of information you absolutely need.

3. Be flexible

 Ambiguous situations can go hand in hand with constant and unforeseen changes, so a willingness to adapt to these changes and incorporating them into your decisions can ease the anxiety and stress. If you are in the planning phase of a project or update, make sure that there is a contingency to follow and each step only contains general objectives, not direct pathways that may be altered easily.

4. Be confident in your abilities 

A great way to reduce ambiguity and handle uncertainty is by having confidence in your abilities and how you respond to things you cannot control. Those who are confident ask for assistance, are not afraid to be wrong and hold themselves accountable for their mistakes. Having these characteristics will assist you in adapting and responding to ambiguity and uncertainty.

5. Communicate and clarify 

When facing ambiguity, communicating with those involved in the situation can be very useful in clarifying the situation. Ask for clarification or feedback. Make sure that updates are frequent and everyone is on the same page.

6. Develop and expand your network

 Having a large network of professional contacts can prove useful for support and information sharing, which can be helpful in facing ambiguous work situations. To make the most of networking opportunities, attend conferences and seminars to connect with people from different businesses, or join professional organisations outside of the workplace.

7. Effectively manage stress

 Stress may be experienced when faced with ambiguous tasks. It is worthwhile to find coping techniques to manage this stress, especially since there is greater chance for you to deal with problems and challenges efficiently when stress is under control.

Hopefully these techniques will help you overcome unnecessary stress or anxiety and even get through certain tasks or changes more effectively!