Can someone make my employees stress- free?

[Dylan]

Due to the extreme work pressure and hectic working schedules the employees of my company frequently suffer from stress and fatigue and because of which the output of my company gets trembled. I want to exterminate the stress concerning problems in my organization. Any help that you can give me with respect to stress management for my employees would be appreciated.

[cschin4]

What kind of company? Are there alternate ways to do the scheduling and hours? You should consider that including staggered work hours, etc.
Also, why is there so much "stress"? Do you simply have too much work, aren't working efficiently or have unrealistic deadlines?
And, I really don't think your goal should be to eliminate stress. There is nothing wrong with stress. But, rather managing it so that your organization functions more cohesively and less frantically.

[myrdale]

I might suggest reading some of Edward Deming's book. Out Of The Crisis is the only one I am familar with.

He was invovled in restructuring Japana's industries after the war, and did alot with quality control. His book has to do with quality issues are not because of the employee, they are a top down problem. Maybe that can help with some prospective.

How many employees are we talking about? 2? 20? 200? I am guessing 10 or so. One simple idea to help break the stress is have quarterly events. More specifically take everyone out to eat at a local restraunt / pub. You would be surprized what a little time relaxing with food and a beer or two on the company will do for moral.

Ultimately they must realize what they are in control of and what is outside of their control. You must do the same. Try to be as flexable with them as reasonablely possible considering ther "extreme work pressure and hectic working schedules."

[skydivingchic]

The term "hectic working schedules" jumps out at me. If by this you mean that your employees consistently have to work more than 40 hours/week (and particularly if that overtime is unpaid due to having salaried workers), then there is a major problem. Either your employees are inefficient or you haven't staffed the work well. People need a break and people need time outside work (including vacations) to live their lives and recharge.

My old boss was absolutely awesome about respecting everyone's need for a life outside of work. He never batted an eye when one of us needed time off to spend with family or for a vacation. In return, we all worked extremely hard for him during our work week. There were several times that he needed me to stay after hours or come in on weekends. I would happily go because I knew if he was asking, it was a true emergency which required my immediate attention (and he would usually be right there beside me). When the Contractor works a Saturday, one of us has to be onsite. He would never have asked us to work the overtime without either paying us (despite the fact that we are all salary and he could have gotten away with not paying us) or by giving us hour for hour comp time, which we could use at a later date.

If the work environment is such that everyone is consistently expected to work 10 or 12 hour days, then I don't blame the employees one bit for being stressed, fatigued and having low morale. Life is too short and there are too many other priorities (family and friends and a person's overall health come to mind) to spend all one's time at work.

[cptacek]

The first place I worked had about 1,000 people on that campus, and HR sponsored "popcorn Thursdays". People loved it! They could take a 10 minute break from their cubicles, stretch their legs, grab some freshly popped popcorn, and take it back to their desks. I talked to the head of HR and he was amazed about the uptick in morale, all over popcorn! And if they didn't have it one week, holy cow, it was like they halved our salaries!

I've also heard of providing chair massages for free.

[GREENBACK]

I think the model that Google uses is pretty impressive. I remember the story on 60 minutes. They create an almost utopian atmosphere for their employees. I don't remember everything they offered but I think they could do things like bring their kids to work(freedaycare). I believe they could take breaks anytime and the company provided spas and swimming pools and workout facilities. Of course it's a billion dollar buisness and I'm sure this won't work in most places but it's pretty interesting how they make it work.

They of course pay quite well and have highly motivated employees to begin with. It is or was the complete opposite of the "slave driver" mentality.

[maat55]

One of my employees drew a circle on the wall and wrote in it, bang head here, then wrote above it, stress kit.

[Bimmer]

The title of the post is "Can SOMEONE make my employees stress-free?" I emphasized the someone on purpose. If its your company, you are that someone.

Why do they feel stress and pressure? Too much for too few employees? Manager(s) constantly on their backs to keep the working going at a high rate? Have you asked your employees how they feel, what they want/need, etc?

Probably need to know more about the business itself (how it works, what it is, etc).

[jones12]

Re:Can someone make my employees stress- free?

It is quite common to go through stress with the extreme work pressure along with the long working hours, combined with poor diet choices and lack of physical activity. The lack of performance both mentally and physically defiantly hurt the company’s bottom-line which equals that the company suffers. There is a company, CEO Wellness ceowellness.com, that offers audit assessments and are available on the web. This doctor-directed company provides their services to find areas of weakness within your company, helping place both the employees and management in a win-win situation, thus helping them become more efficient in their work. CEO Wellness is founded by Dr. George Kosmides who overseas all the wellness audit information before providing any service to make sure that the program is site-specific. Regardless of the problems, CEO Wellness can help implement plans that work based on company need… This can be stress management sessions, lunch & learns blood sugar courses, weight loss information and coaching that work… the employees are enrolled so as to maintain their proficiency and health in the future also. I will advise you to take their assistance so that your organization also gets benefited by their services.