Stress. We’re all feeling it. Whether it’s stemming from work, or it’s coming from the twists and turns that 2020 has given us, it’s the undercurrent of this year’s journey. And while we know the cost of stress when it comes to our physical and mental health, we also have to consider the cost of it on our relationships at work, productivity of our employees and our company’s culture overall.
Long-term stress isn’t productive or healthy. To handle the reduction of stress at work, we first need to really understand how it affects us humans, then, how we can work it to our advantage, and finally, how we can potentially reduce it. Here are a few great Ted Talks to give us the information we need so we can move forward and combat stress in the workplace.
Before we begin to look for answers, let’s understand what stress does to us mentally. In this Ted Talk, educator Elizabeth Cox details the relationship between stress and memory. While some degrees of stress can be good, short-term stress can impact your memory when it comes to retaining basic facts and figures. Losing this ability to quickly recall basic concepts could have a huge impact on your employees. Understand how your brain works through stress to see how reducing it can help you (and your teammates) in the long-term.
Did you know that work-related stress costs the US economy nearly $300 billion a year? Not only does it cost us by crushing our ability to be productive, it also hurts our work relationships and can aid in depression and anxiety. Rob Cooke, a wellness advocate, breaks down some ways to help you realign and put your well-being front and center at work again.
Is stress always a bad thing? Psychologist Kelly McGonigal doesn’t necessarily think so. During this Ted Talk, Kelly walks through ways we can see stress as a positive, and shows us how to use it as a way to build relationships with one another.