Top Applicant’s Guide to Handling Stress at Work

For every part of your career, Top Applicant is here. With advice for living with your current job and finding a new one, our hiring experts are a great resource from our own experience as professionals. You may not think about it, but even the bosses get stressed sometimes. Here’s how we handle stress at work every day.

Tips for Stress Prevention

Stress at work can mean different things to different people, but the effects typically remain the same. Common manifestations include poor health, irritability, and burnout. To handle stress at work in the moment, our experts have you covered. Hit pause and check in with yourself by keeping these tips in mind. 

  • Have you eaten today?

Personal health and even hygiene can take a back seat as you frantically try to juggle the causes of your stress at work. A quad americano may be what you think you need, but take it from those of us who’ve been there—it’s just as good as throwing gas on a fire. If you’re stressed before lunch, round up a group of co-workers to go out, or order delivery to skip one less meal today. Your brain and body will thank you.

  • Meditation for Mitigation

Go ahead, Om with us. You don’t have to be a yogi to enjoy some meditation to mitigate stress at work. Whether it’s a broom closet or a local park, find your place to find your peace. Take a breather to close your eyes and just focus on existing for a minute or two. Take a deep breath in through your nose and out your mouth while counting to 5. Do this for about 5 minutes, collect yourself, and continue to kick ass.

  • Find a Seat

If you’ve resorted to hiding in the broom closet to find your peace, it’s time to improve your surroundings. No matter how you got to work today, finding the right seat on the bus is important to move your career forward. We encourage you to talk with your current managers to discuss your stress and develop a game plan together. But if that’s out of the question, we suggest browsing your job options and putting your needs over their profits.

The Employee Hirearchy of Needs

Move over Maslow, there’s a new sheriff in town. The employee hirearchy of needs consists of the 3 things our hiring managers prioritize in their 9-5s and their 5-9s. Are your needs being met? If not, it can be hard to handle stress at work.

Sustainability

We’re all for go-getters who burn a few extra hours here and there, but when 12 hours becomes the expectation rather than the exception, your mental health can plummet fast. Building a sustainable future depends on a sustainable day-to-day. It’s time to finally use that planner you bought last January and build a path away from burnout.

Mindfulness

As you proceed on the path to avoid stress, putting yourself first is only half the battle. Being mindful of your tasks and time is just as important on the clock as it is off the clock. Our experts demonstrate how to handle stress at work by practicing healthy eating habits at work, prioritizing time with family at home, and staying engaged with those around us through it all. We encourage regular therapy, planning your meals, and not being afraid to put on DND mode to focus up.

Actualization

Just like Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, our hirearchy of needs can’t be met without the first 2 needs being met. As you check in with yourself to build better habits, it’s important to remind yourself of why you work so hard in the first place. Stress is another word for pressure, so if you feel like the weight of the world is on your shoulders, make sure you like the world you’re carrying. There’s no one way to professional actualization, but by staying regular and mindful, you will have more time to envision and improve your world. It may be hard to hear now, but you will get through this, and things will get better.

The Modern Way to Work

Maintaining your path to growth takes more than just mindfulness. It takes the right tools at your disposal to build and improve your career. Sign up to put our modern hiring tools to work for you! Every day on the job, you’ll always have what it takes to be a Top Applicant.

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