Identify, Prevent and Manage stress at work

1. How to identify stress at work:

Identifying stressful situations at work and information on what you can do about them. There may be lot things in your work place that make you feel stressful which leads to mental conditions such as depression and anxiety. these are some relevant situations where there is possibility of stress occur to employees.

• workload
• Bullying and harassment
• Discrimination 
• Conflict with colleague
• Performance management
• Going through process of termination or unfair dismissal
• Violence or threats of violence
• Exposure to a traumatic incident or event

The facts above mentioned effect a person in mentally, emotionally and physically. 

2. Prevention of stress:

• Eliminating risks to health and safety at the source is best prevention one can advice. 
• It is important to raise mental health stressors and risks that you believe are, or could be affecting your or others' mental health with a manager, Human Resources, health and safety representative, union representative or other appropriate people at your workplace. 
• Any discussions about sensitive or personal issues should be private and confidential, and should not be discussed with any other person, unless you have given them permission to do so. 
• Where the issues may be affecting employees more broadly, discussions must be objective and not identify individual employees.

3. Managing stress:

Managing emotional demands:

• Offer support to discuss concerns, workload and challenges.
• Provide training on managing difficult situations.
• Offer debriefing or regular supervision.

Time pressures:

• Encourage employees to speak up at an early stage and raise any concerns over meeting deadlines. 
• Plan for periods of peak demand such as holidays and increase staff resources. 
• Avoid unplanned overtime. If extra hours are required to meet a deadline, give employees as much notice as possible. 

Managing physical demands:

• Manage environmental factors such as noise, vibration, lighting and equipment design.
• Ensure initial training is adequate and regular retraining occurs.
• Manage breaks and consider job rotation.

Managing mental demands:

• Give employees the opportunity to determine the pace and order of tasks, and rotate tasks that require prolonged concentration. 
• Ensure people have sufficient time to complete challenging tasks. 
• Provide sufficient information to enable employees to perform tasks competently, including support for decision-making. 

Enabling a level of control:

• Having a sense of autonomy and control at work contributes to job satisfaction and fulfilment. Consider what opportunities exist for employees to influence their work.