Simple strategies millennials can cope with stress at work

Excessive workloads, unrealistic deadlines, and long working hours are just some of the many causes of stress. Some big companies still believe that working long hours can increase productivity, but the reality is otherwise. Today, many studies have shown that working overtime is pointless, let alone increase productivity. It will only lead to work-stress and poor performance.

Through an online survey, Deloitte Greenhouse asked a sample of 2725 workers, a series of question regarding their stress level, how effective they work under stress, and whether they use a variety of coping strategies. The research found that millennials, which defines as born between 1981 – 1997, are the most stressed generation followed by Gen X and Baby Boomers.1

As a generation that is full of creativity and productivity, many millennials are experiencing some kind of peer-pressure to prove their existence within their roles in an organization or work. On some people, the pressure gets worse and often followed by bad sleep pattern, high consumption of unhealthy food, and having no time to exercise. This will trigger the level of stress, hence change someone’s behavior that leads to reducing productivity and frequently cause depression.

IDN Media - as the company with the majority of its employees is millennial - has a strong core values applied to maintain Timmy’s (called IDN Media employees) productivity. One is to maintain the happiness level of all Timmy through educational training and workshop. Last November, we held Stress Management Training, invited speakers Audya Medina, S.Psi, M.M, Senior Consultant of Mercer Indonesia. This training was intended for all Timmy to be more familiar with their character, the type of stress they often faced and the right form to handle it, so it will not continue to cause stress let alone have negative impacts on productivity.

In the training session, Audya explained that there were 4 stress categories often encountered by professional workers, Time Stress; worry about the number of things that you had to do or the fear of failure, Anticipatory Stress; stress that you experienced concerning the future, Situational Stress; great concerns when you were in a scary situation that you had no control over, Encounter Stress; worry about interacting with a certain group of people you might think they were unpredictable.

Everyone reacts to stress differently. However, there are common signs and symptoms that can be seen, including frequent headaches, sweating, stomach pain, feeling nauseous, panic attack, insomnia, and difficulty concentrating. Some of them may face more acute symptoms which are compulsive behavior, constant fatigue, angry episode, significant weight loss/gain, feeling overwhelmed.

Furthermore, Audya explained that there were 2 simple strategies to deal with stress, as follows:

- Problem-Focused Coping, where it helps you deal with stress by identifying the fundamental cause in an objective manner. This strategy involves problem solving, time management and strategy development.

- Emotion-Focused Coping, which aims to eliminate one's negative feelings such as anxiety, depression, and frustration. This technique can be done in various ways, namely Random Acts of Kindness, Mindfulness and More Exercise.

Random Act of Kindness is that we sincerely do good to others such as saying thank you, sending someone a note of appreciation, giving team members an impromptu afternoon off for doing a great job, volunteering, or just simply smiling at people you work with. Mindfulness is a condition of a person paying attention on purpose, with compassion, and open-hearted curiosity. This stage encourages someone to live in the present moment, rather than brooding about the past or worrying about the future. While More Exercise is a physical exercise to reduce the anxiety level by maintaining body fitness.

Anxiety is not unavoidable. By applying the above method, it is expected that we can improve our mood and maintain happiness that will give positive impacts on productivity. In the end, working is not just about the number of projects taken or working hours, but the employee happiness is the foundation of the company's success.