How to throw anxiety out of the cubicle!!

According to the WHO (World Health Organisation) 264 million people live with anxiety disorder.“This figure for 2015 reflects a 14.9% increase since 2005,” says the study.

A packed schedule with back to back meetings, project deadlines etc. wakes you up in the middle of the night and blaming it all to anxiety. A professional counselling company 1to1 Help.net stated that in 2016, one out of every two employees in corporate India showed signs of anxiety. Workplace anxiety can be horrifying if not identified right. Also anxiety many times are mistaken for stress though both are related according to Tanya Percy a psychologist Prolonged stress can lead to anxiety.” “Anxiety can affect your ability to work, relax and enjoy life,” says Tanya.

Tanaya dealt with a case where a female employee working for a legal firm had performance anxiety,here she was extremely anxious about not being good enough in the role assigned to her. The trigger seemed mild, but the state of anxiety it led to, wasn’t. Accidentally she had missed an important email and her co employee was nasty to her about it and for this she started to feel that she is not good for this role and this made her anxious and she pushed herself extremely hard on this she started to reply to emails in middle of the night. This was of course affecting her personal life and hence she started to feel more anxious and ended up feeling exhausted. Director of MukthaFoundation,Ashwini N.V. says  there are various theories explaining workplace anxiety and detailing how it can be dealt with.

According to the ‘Job Demand Control Theory’ anxiety can fail your capabilities in making decisions at work, including to the ones most skilled or adequate. And according to the ‘Effort and Reward Imbalance Theory’,appreciation is the main trigger.The lack of balance between the efforts put in by employees and the rewards and opportunities for growth received by them creates distress and anxiety. So if this balance is not maintained at workplace,one tend to feel bad and hence anxiety triggers. And According to ‘Demand Control Support Theory’, having a social support system can help tackle anxiety and distress.

No matter what the theory states, one should always know from where it started and what led to this! An environment should be created in Organisations where it should encourage employees to seek help for their anxiety.For example Employee assistance programmes (EAP) can do good for them.   Nowadays many organisations include their family and friends and ask their help in dealing with employees who are dealing with anxiety.

Here the Line manager’s role is very important, the manager must be trained, approachable, empathetic towards employee and should protect confidential information of the employee says Tanaya. Organisations should create environment where flexibility in work zero tolerance for harassment and the employees should have a clarity about their roles performance and responsibilities. The line manager should be approachable that when employees gets anxious or if struggling with anxiety, a face to face meeting should be set up immediately before the situation gets worse.“Promoting peer support groups is another way of helping employees cope with workplace anxiety,” says Ashwini.

Also Companies should carry out regular surveys and take suggestions on topic related to employee welfare and if the environment is positive to gauge the emotional and mental well-being of employees and draw a plan on how to improve it. Mental-health volunteers should be assigned who will take up the responsibility of facilitating a system where help is on offer for those employees who may need it. Companies are now expected to keep the workplace anxiety-proof and hence this way employees will be motivated and increase their productivity and also build a pleasant and positive environment to work in.