English
English
SpanishStress can be harmful to our health and increase mental health challenges. Mental health challenges can include clinical mental illness and substance use disorders as well as other emotions like stress, grief, feeling sad and anxious, where these feelings are temporary and not part of a diagnosable condition. While there are many things in life that induce stress, work can be one of those factors. However, workplaces can also be a key place for resources, solutions, and activities designed to improve our mental health and well-being.
Workplace stress and poor mental health can negatively affect workers through:
- Job performance
- Productivity
- Work engagement and communication
- Physical capability and daily functioning
UNDERSTANDING THE PROBLEM
Loneliness. Isolation. Uncertainty. Grief. Fear. Stress can increase these and other mental health challenges and can be harmful to our health. The amount and type of stress experienced varies from person to person due to many factors, including those experienced at work.
GUIDANCE AND TIPS FOR EMPLOYERS
Workplaces can have many stressors. Issues in the workplace can exacerbate the risk of experiencing mental health challenges. Combined, these stressors can make it more difficult for workers to get their tasks done; threaten their productivity, happiness, and well-being; and lead to burnout. Because of the many potential stressors employees may be experiencing, a comprehensive approach is needed to address stressors throughout the community, and employers can be part of the solution. More than 85% of employees surveyed in 2021 by the American Psychological Association reported that actions from their employer would help their mental health.
TRAINING RESOURCES
The idea of talking about stress and mental health at work might feel scary or too personal. These can be sensitive topics that require a foundation of trust and goodwill to broach, or alternatively, the support for a worker to seek external resources and assistance outside of the workplace.
REAL WORLD SOLUTIONS
There’s no one-size-fits-all strategy when it comes to alleviating workplace stress. The most effective approach is to identify the specific stressors associated with a particular job or industry and take concrete and practical steps to remove or lessen those stressors. Much can be learned by exploring what others are already doing and tips experts in the field have identified to address workplace stress. Some of the approaches discussed below can be applied to any workplace; others focus on specific groups, such as hybrid and remote workers, working parents and other caregivers, young workers, frontline workers, those in customer service roles, and workers who do manual labor, among other workers.
FIND THE FULL ARTICLE and resources here on OSHA.GOV :
https://www.osha.gov/workplace-stress