Reducing Work - Related Stress

Bupa Global partners with leading psychologist OLIVER JAMES to provide tips for achieving better workplace wellbeing.

- Oliver James

Many of us spend around a third of our lives at work. Long hours, deadlines, ineffective management and difficult relationships with colleagues can all contribute to stress, affecting our physical and mental wellbeing. Managing and avoiding this stress can not only improve our professional and home life, but help us to live longer.

“Evidence shows that if you suffer depression or anxiety from stress, you’re more prone to heart attacks and other illnesses,” says Oliver. “You’re also more likely to be short-tempered at home, and to struggle with personal relationships.”

The fundamental problem, he adds, is that most of us now work in sectors where it’s difficult to measure the contributions made within our organisations. “Whereas once you needed to make 100 items a day to be paid a certain amount, today you have to be evaluated by your boss’s personal, subjective judgement of the value of your contribution.”

Here are just a few ways to tackle work-related stress.

#1 Meditate, exercise or do yoga