How do you know if there’s a problem with individuals experiencing worries and stress within your company? Stress amongst team members can often go unnoticed, especially within busy working environments as in many small businesses.
As a business owner, it may be upsetting to hear that a member of your team is suffering from work-related stress, depression or anxiety.
In the world of work, you need to make sure that your workers are treating each other with respect and are feeling calm enough to get on with their work without feeling overwhelmed. All of you are individuals and outside of the workplace you have your unique problems and stresses. That’s why it’s important to practice mindfulness. Be of aware of everyone else’s feelings and problems. Here is how you can encourage it amongst your colleagues and workmates.
Meetings and Communication
Honestly, if you want to get through to your colleagues, and talk to them about mindfulness, you should start by having a little meeting with them about it. Encourage them to understand that everyone has their own individual struggles and workloads that they need to bare. When you make requests of other people, both you and your employees need to be aware of what the person is already dealing with. Whether they are struggling under a tight deadline, have problems with mental health issues or have a difficult home life, be understanding and give your employees the space they need. If you communicate this through your meetings, your workers will understandably put more emphasis on the importance.
Empathy
Although you may think that life is going well for you, for someone else in your workplace they may be struggling. Perhaps they’ve had too much pressure put on them or feel like they don’t fit in. They may even be dealing with a toxic workmate. If you want to practice mindfulness, it is as simple as just asking your work colleague how they are doing if you can sense that they’re having a tough time. They might just need someone to talk to or get some things off their chest. Remember to keep their confidentiality if they do express anything to you. That way they will know that they can count on you in the future.
Relaxation Spaces
When it comes to your office design, it’s important to have a space where your employees can relax away from their daily work load. This space should have a lot of light that comes from windows, plants that can add some vibrancy to the room and some comfortable furniture. You may even want to consider creating a napping space or a game area where people can start chilling out. This way when they get back to their workload, they can feel refreshed rather than drained.
Flexible Working Hours
If you think that one of your workers is struggling, perhaps they’re not coming in on time or have informed you of a mental health problem, it’s your job to be mindful and offer them support. That’s why it’s important to give them a timetable that they can adhere to. That may mean that they work on flexible hours or work from home. Either way, you need to modernise your “working day” to accommodate the needs of your individual workers. If you want to make sure that all of your workers are happy with their work hours or individual duties, invite them up to your office for a meeting. Getting some feedback is a great way to improve or implement new mindful techniques.
