Politics, COVID-19, Work, what’s got you stressed? It seems Americans have several major sources of stress. A recent study by Kevin B. Smith of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln found that over 90 million Americans say they have experienced stress due to politics. Smith states, “Large numbers of Americans are convinced that politics is exacting significant social, psychological, and even physical costs on their well-being.”
Gallup’s research also found that the United States and Canada report the highest rates of daily work-related stress. Not surprisingly, this increase in workplace stress is paralleled by a decrease in workplace engagement.
If you are experiencing heightened levels of stress you may want to consider these five questions posed by NY Times mental-health columnist Christina Caron in her article titled, Signs That It’s Time for Therapy:
- Are you struggling to get through the day or feeling persistently sad, irritable, or anxious?
- Have you withdrawn from loved ones or are you arguing more often?
- Have you thought about harming yourself?
- Have there been changes in your sleeping or eating patterns?
- Are you using drugs or alcohol to cope?
If you answered yes to any of the above questions, regardless of the source of your stress, you may want to consider therapy.
Along those lines, if you are involved in leading an organization, there is a good chance that workplace stress is impacting your employees. In that case, you may want to heed the advice of Gallup authors Jim Harter and Vipula Gandhi. They state, “Leaders must be measuring engagement and well-being of their employees on a regular basis” and “managers need to be trained to have more frequent meaningful and individualized conversations with employees.” Meaning-Centered Leadership offers a pathway to help organizations disrupt this trend in disengagement and the consequent workplace stress. We invite you to connect with us. Together we can reduce workplace stress for workers everywhere.
