Help! My workers are too stressed!

Dear Aunty B,

Do you have any tips for getting workers to just relax?

I don’t know how it is has happened but my sales team have been stressed to the max for the past six months and no matter how many times I ask them if something is wrong or if I can help, it doesn’t seem to make a difference.

It is a busy time of the year for our company but they have all been meeting their targets and I can’t pinpoint one incident or issue that could have increased the stress level across the board for a team of six people.

What can I do to help them de-stress?

Sarah,

Adelaide

Dear Sarah,

Stress in the workplace can be insidious and, unfortunately for business owners and managers, a difficult cycle to break.

Without one single incident or issue to address, some general de-stressing techniques might be what your sales team needs. You could suggest a team outing or perhaps you could create a quiet, technology-free space in your office where your team members could take short breaks for some quick meditation, but one technique that caught my eye recently was colouring books for adults.

Yes, you read that correctly – colouring books. Big companies like ANZ Bank and Bupa have recently started giving their workers a colouring-in book designed by Melbourne neuropsychologist Dr Stan Rodski. And Rodski says the potential benefits for smaller companies are “huge”.

The idea is that when individuals focus on an activity like colouring-in, the behaviour of their brain changes.

Rodski says an individual worker’s stress level is not necessarily about what is going on in their life, but how many things they have going on at once, whether good or bad. This might explain why your team feels stressed even though they are meeting their sales targets.

“If you have a million things going on, it can be hard to turn off for five minutes,” Rodski says.

Why not give it a go? It can’t do any harm and with any luck, you will soon have a more relaxed and creative sales team!

Be Smart,

Aunty B