A Stressed Out Co-Worker Can Affect You

Stress happens in the office no matter what the situation is. An office or a company may be experiencing record setting profits and everyone is paid well but stress will still be there. The pressure to perform and to work above the expected output is more than enough for any employee, no matter what his or her benefits are, to be in a stressful condition. 

Although stress could be handled at first, there will be a time that stress would be overwhelming that would affect productivity and the physical well-being.

If you are one of the lucky employees who don’t get stressed out with the work conditions, be thankful. At the same time, you should also be on a look-out for employees who are stressed out in their work. They may have their own problems at home, but their stress could affect you directly or indirectly.

Being stressed out too much might trouble the company’s total output or stress might create a toxic atmosphere in the office. Instead of being solely affected by stress, everyone gets stressed out because of a single employee. Eventually, a company that performs well might go down just because of a single stressed out employee.

You should be on a look-out for a stressed employee to prevent the bad things in the office to happen. It’s quite easy to point out someone stressed especially when the office is very productive.

If you think your company is not faring well, everyone that you know might be stressed out or feel pressured with their job. As an employee and most especially as a boss, there are things that you can do to help your stressed out employee in dealing with stress.

Before you do anything, remember that you should only limit your assistance for work related stress. If your employee has a personal problem, the least you can do is listen to ease the stress they experience. This also goes the same if you are a co-worker with the stressed out employee.

Assistance as a Boss

The best help you can give to your stressed out employee is to give him or her time-out. This will benefit not only your stressed out employee but also their co-workers. The stressed out employee should be able to get relief from stress and your subordinates should be able to work without being influenced by the stressed out co-worker. You just have to make it clear that you are not firing the employee because of stress but you are giving them the chance to collect himself or herself and work things out any problem they would have.

Assistance as an Employee

The first thing that will come to mind as a fellow employee is to provide assistance at work. That is a good thing but you are actually enabling the stressed out person to be lazy at work. All you need to do is to give your co-worker a listening ear and encourage him or her to work for the better. Besides, everyone’s productivity will help in getting the company to the next level.