Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

By Henry Brown

Workplace pressure is not fun, and it’s not a joke. People spend their lives in their office, travelling to their workplace and generally thinking about how their work life is always more prevalent than their personal life. The fact that pressure is piled on top to work faster, to meet deadlines and do better? Well, that can become all too much sometimes.

Before you became a small business owner, you may remember the pressure of being an employee and the anxiety that it caused you as a result. Sure, there are healthy amounts of pressure in the workplace, but if people are starting to burn out, you need to fix it! So, let’s take a look at how you can relieve the pressure.

– Be supportive. It’s not always easy to support every single person individually in your business but that doesn’t mean that you can’t work on being supportive all around. So, if your front of house admin team is dealing with unprecedented demand on their time, bring on an answering service for small business who can help with answering the calls while your team is meeting people and handling paperwork. Your job is to make life easier for them, and that in itself can help to be supportive.

– Find balance. No one – and really, not even you – should be burning the midnight oil. You need to think about their priorities and it’s not always going to be your business. Your staff are more likely to thrive when they work in an environment of supportive, flexible working. So, come up with a plan and allow people to work from home and in the office if that’s what suits their lifestyle. No one can build everything around the kids so let them choose their working hours – as long as the work is done, you can be flexible in that! Don’t hold them in the office until 6pm and expect happy staff every day. Let them float where they work and you’ll see people thrive far better.

– Be communicative. There is nothing more frustrating than a boss who isn’t talking to their staff. Give your team a purpose and let them know what they’re there for and what they can get out of business with you. If people need some reference point to help them to cope with change, be that reference point for them. Communicate any changes and issues and keep the communication open so your team can come to you.

– Work on skill building. People thrive better when they are given the skills to cope with the workload. So, if you can see people under pressure, reward their hard work and offer further training and skills support. The most important thing here is to ask your staff what would work most for them and go with it!

– Provide counsel. Whether you have an in-house professional to hear the woes of your team or you are the counsel of which you provide, you need to give your staff the chance to talk to you. Don’t be offended; hear their unhappiness and their need for change and then make the changes. Don’t be afraid to change things if they need it; you’d be surprised how many will talk to you if the opportunity is there. The next step is what you plan to do to change things!

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Henry Brown is an online marketing executive. When he isn’t talking shop, he’s roaming the streets of London, uncovering the extra-ordinary in the ordinary.