Can You Identify Employees Close To Breaking Point Due To STRESS?

Welcome again to Naked Insider. I'm the host and my name is Buz Fischer. And we have Peter Natterer. Good to have you back.

It's great to be here.

Today's discussion is stress. What is it and what's the breaking point? Very important, very important. So let's start defining what is stress?

Stress can be divided into two groups, which is good stress, which is what gets us out of bed in the morning and makes us motivated to do stuff, and bad stress, which is what actually ends up demotivating us because we've got too much on our plate. I guess that's probably the layman's way of looking at it.

So why does it happen?

I think there is an amount of creep that happens where people take on more and more. I mean, as a saying, if you want something done, give it to a busy person. And while that person is motivated and flying, they can most certainly handle it. But at some point in time, their plane is going to be full.

Yeah. And it's interesting to know that people react to stress differently.

Oh, yes. Oh, yes.

So what are the typical symptoms that you see regarding stress?

So the most typical symptom that I see is that people become short, curt, almost harried is the word that springs to mind. They're always busy and they're always frenetic in one way or another. But there are other types as well, too. One that I like to nickname the submarine. And the submarine is when somebody goes very quiet, it's like they go under.

Oh, okay. Yes.

The problem with that is you never know when the next torpedo is coming from.

Well, here's a question. So how easy is it for employees to sort of identify, oh, is a person who's going through stress?

It's much easier for an external person to realize than for the person who's actually experiencing it. Because there is almost I can do this hero attitude for the person who's piling on more and more. They want to be known as a person who's the go to person, the one who gets things done. But oftentimes they're way past their boundary before they actually say, hey, I've got a problem here.

So how does work environment contribute to sort of stressful situations at work?

So most work environments work to deadlines and most deadlines are thrown out almost automatically because this is just the process of doing business. And what happens is that a lot of times that people who are competent tend to get more thrown at them because it's like, you know, the, this guy always gets these Things done or this gal always gets these things done. So just give it to Joe.

Correct.

And at one point in time, Joe's going to actually have an overload of stuff. So that's one thing. I mean, there's also other things as well, too. You can have customer stress. You can have financial stress that could be internal from the organization or that could be external to the family situation.

You can have bullying. Yeah, I was going to mention that. Because the internal pressure, having to work with people you don't like working with.

And also I've noticed that there's also a bit of a tall poppy syndrome that goes on as well, too. Somebody's really competent.

Yes.

Other people kind of take little sideswipes.

Yes. Yeah. And it's also another form of criticism on the side.

Yeah.

Okay. What about underperformance? Because there's sort of an inherent. That if you, for example, a salesperson and they've got quality targets, for example, and realizing that they're not meeting the performance target, there is that stress as well.

Actually a really interesting analogy. There is inside of a tennis game. I don't play tennis, but there you go. Relate to what I'm talking about. So if you are under the pump, this is the set match, this is the winning point. And you've internally assessed that you're not doing too good in this game as you should be. Now you're under stress to actually make that serve or that shot count.

Correct. Correct.

Chances are the more you are stressed, the less you're going to achieve it.

Correct. And it's interesting, even other sports like golf, great classic examples. What are the. I was going to say five negative effects of stress on the workplace. And it could be more than five.

But yeah, just sort so lack of concentration, the mind is elsewhere, inattention to detail. And that could be either deliberate by way of shortcuts, or it could also be like, oh my God, I just didn't do that. Oh, I forgot to do that. Or not even realizing that you've done something and skipped a step in the process. That sort of thing. You can. And that can have financial loss on the organization. But then all of a sudden you also start finding that the person is not. Not feeling well. You've got increased sick times. If the person is totally overwhelmed, they go, that's it, I'm leaving.

Yeah. So I'm going to ask you questions. Stress leading to also potentially low morale.

Absolutely. If we don't feel that we are able to deliver what we promised to deliver, that will cascade us into A lower morale. The funny thing about lower morale is it actually is contagious.

Yeah, I was gonna say that. Yes. Because once you have a. Maybe it's the wrong set of words, but I just saw once you have, let's say a rotten apple or that, you know, infests.

Absolutely.

Yes. I'm not saying because an employee is a rotten person.

But the good news is that a positive and can do attitude is also as contagious.

Correct.

So I think from a managerial perspective it's a really good tool to be able to say, okay, let's turn this around, let's give some positive morale. And that, that can, that can actually make the whole team much more effective.

And I was going to say. So another area is turnover. So high turnover can also be self perpetuating.

Yes.

So if you have a high turnover, then other people or the other employees are sort of questioning what's going on and that creates its own stress.

Yes. And look, the organizations become getting a reputation. There's a saying called churn and burn. You know, you churn through people and you burn them and you churn through people. And once an organization gets a reputation like that, the people still in the organization actually pick up on that really quick. It's like, oh, you work for so and so.

Yes, yes, exactly. So the next question I wanted to ask is what are the factors influencing work stress? So for example, culture. So if you've got toxic culture.

Toxic culture, always do it.

And we've talked about it quite often.

Yeah. So let's look at toxic culture as a. For instance, there is a lack of emotional intelligence inside of a toxic culture. People will do something to, for want of a better word, make themselves feel better at the expense of other people. What we're looking at inside of a team is we want to be able to have the emotional intelligence to be able to support our team so that the team becomes the unit which then becomes the deliverable.

Correct.

So toxic workplace environment will cascade that down really quickly.

Correct. Bad management.

Bad management. Yes. I've seen a number of organizations where the hand is not, not on the steering wheel and the organization decides to take itself off on different tangents.

Oh yes.

And it doesn't work. And if it's not working, team's not happy.

Role conflict.

Yeah.

Don't you love that one?

Role conflict, Absolutely. What am I supposed to be doing here?

Yes. Another great one is also relationship at work. So you could have peers that you just don't get on with.

Correct. Yeah. And, and again that gets back into the toxic kind of environment because you, you can have peers that don't necessarily get on with each other but are professional enough to keep it together.

Yes, correct.

Then you also have peers where one might have some perceived sense of seniority or superiority, where they constantly throw little pot shots from behind the corner.

Oh, don't you love that?

Yeah.

And things like that. Or gossips.

Yes, yes.

Say no more. All right, so let's look at sort of the overarching risk to the organization when stress is high and it's pervasive.

So there's definitely a risk to the organization in terms of structures not being followed, which can have implications on security, which can have implications on monetary side of things, which can have implications on other people, other employees deciding they've had enough of this business and decide they want to leave customers being dissatisfied. If you have a culture within the organization of being rude with each other, that will bleed out into customers.

Correct.

And potentially losing customers that way as well.

That is. Yeah. Bit of a disaster, should I say. So let me ask you the question, which is what this video is all about. So how does a manager identify when an employee is at their breaking point?

The tell tale signs are that people who have been previously enthusiastic to take on a new task or project become increasingly reluctant to take those on.

Yes.

They may have a hesitation, they may also become distracted. So their enthusiasm starts to wane because in their own internals they're saying, well, I've got to do this now on top of all these other things that I've got to do.

Yes.

So I'll say, yes. I'm not quite sure how I'm going to manage that. And there is the stress.

Correct. Is there? I mean, this is a side question because people tend to compare. So for example, you're the manager of the person who's given that project forward, so. Well, I can handle it. So why can't this person do it?

Correct. Yes.

And yet you're getting a response, I can't handle it.

Yep. And yes, what I'm trying to say.

There'S a conflict here of expectations.

There is. And sometimes it's also a conflict of understanding the intricacies of the task at hand. So somebody who's saying we need to do Project X and to that person it's pretty straightforward. We need to go from A to B. The person that needs to implement that goes, wait a minute, there's about 16 steps in the middle.

Yes, correct.

And each of those is a task in its own right.

Yes, yes, yes.

And there is There is a difference of perception of what's required to make that task occur. I think one of the worst words that I've heard in management is, oh.

Just, just, just do this, just do that.

Because it kind of dismisses the, the fact that there is a whole process and steps that need to be involved to make that happen.

Yeah. So, last, what is the key takeaway?

Key takeaway is that your stress is good.

Stress is good. To a certain level. Stress, stress is good.

Too much stress is bad. And the reality is that there are many people in your organisation, as a princess in what I could almost call in a functional stressor situation, they are doing, they're just keeping it together, they're managing to do their job. But give them one more task, it's like the straw that breaks the camel's back. Remember that game?

Yes, yes.

So the key task, the key takeaway, is to have the emotional intelligence to look at out the people, especially key people, that you rely on, to make sure that you don't put that last straw on them. Because that means that not just that project but all the other ones that they've got carriage on.

Correct.

Are in jeopardy.

Exactly. So there you have it. Great discussion about stress and managing stress.

Stress. Now.

Peter, thank you very much. And the next video we should be really interesting, which is a step in the right direction, is all about anxiety.

Yes.

So stay tuned, look forward to it. Cheers.