09 Sep 2018

Stress management is said to be vital in improving work performance in the work place.  

This was said by Ministry of Health and Wellness’ senior health technician, Ms Botlhe Phakedi during Ministry of Agricultural Development and Food Security wellness day in Francistwon recently.

Ms Phakedi told the officers that stress could deter one’s performance at work adding that stress was as an interaction of a person’s mind, body, emotions and surrounding environment and could be caused by many things.

She explained that whatever that was causing stress was identified as stressors, both internal and external.

She said internal stresses were what she described to be negative self-talk, whereby one overthinks themselves into stress.

This, she noted, could ultimately lead one to develop self-doubt and at that level, an employee loses self-esteem to a point where they doubt their capabilities, even though they had potential but end up doubting their worth thereby affecting their work.

Furthermore, she said sometimes it could be about personal traits and she gave an example that one could develop a character she identified as people’s pleaser.

This is whereby a person is always trying to please other people and then left miserable if those people do not return the favour, leaving them in stress.

Ms Phakedi also added that there were workaholics, who were always buried deep into their work so much that they extend working hours beyond normal work hours.She said they allowed themselves to be absorbed into their work load and end up ignoring other important activities and this caused them to lose their social life, while others ignored their marriage duties, which also caused family conflicts.  

Furthermore, she said external stressors were usually influenced and caused by events taking place on people’s everyday lives, such as a new baby at home and maybe divorces.

Ms Phakedi said all this had side effects on people’s lives and health and could cause chronic diseases, mental and poor work performance.She said some people when stressed tend to resort to eating, some abused alcohol and in turn such abuse could cause heart disease, explaining that stress was the most cause of non-communicable diseases.

Ms Phakedi said all these ailments would consequently cause an employee to suffer, which would in turn affect their work.

Hence, she advised them to engage in exercises noting that just going out for a jog could help ease stress from a stressed person.

Ms Phakedi said managing stress coulld help employees to perform better at the work place, adding that there was the need for behavioural change among employees to help them deal with stress and maybe avoid it.

She encouraged officers to change their morning routine; to consider waking up an hour early, explaining that sometimes it was all about how people approached their day. ENDS