Spotting The Signs Is Easy… Right?

You may believe that having too great a work load is easy to spot; however, many cultures seem to thrive on a pressured, deadline driven environment. This means many staff can work for months assuming that the stress they feel is normal. The build-up can also be so subtle that they learn to accommodate the increase in pressure.  In some cases, the overload is internalised so that your employer could be blaming themselves for being unable to cope.

This overloaded feeling could happen to any of your employees at any level of your organisation, but as an employer it’s your responsibility to identify those whose workload is becoming an issue. Reducing an employee’s workload or changing working practice is easier said than done.  So, what can you do?

The CIPD and HSE have published a management competency that encourages managers to adopt stress-reducing behaviour at work. One of the four competencies is ‘managing and communicating existing and future work’ which spells out clearly that that workload management is vital in preventing stress.

What Are The Key Aspects?

The competency focuses on three aspects:

• Proactive team management in order to monitor workload, stop extra work being taken on and prioritising future workloads

• Problem-solving – following up problems on behalf of your team and dealing with problems as they arise

• Empowering/Participative to correctly judge when you should consult and when you should make a decision to ensure team members are given appropriate levels of responsibility and kept informed of changes within your company.

Rule By Example!

Few people would argue with the fact that a good line manager is a problem-solver and empowering/participative. But the first of these makes the assumption that a line manager has direct control over workload. This isn’t always true, and unfortunately, often new projects, case or client work is ‘forced’ onto you and your employees. It is uncontrollable workloads that cause the most stress.

There is no easy way to avoid workload stress, but, the stress management competencies are a really good place to start for line managers needing to spot and monitor when workload might become a stress trigger.

Every manager is firstly responsible for themselves, not just their staff. If you don’t monitor your own workload and cannot act calmly and rationally when put under pressure, being a consistent role model could be difficult. It isn’t easy to accomplish, but if you can achieve it for yourself it will become much easier for your staff. And if you succeed, you will be avoiding possible mental and physical anxiety for everyone.

What Do You Think?

We would love to know your thoughts and opinions on this. Please leave your comments here.

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