It is said that the only thing that is constant is change.
[Image courtesy of Matt Brown from Flickr via a Creative Commons license]Change is virtually inevitable – every day is new. Yet we humans don’t take well to changes and we generally get stressed. How can companies manage the stress when change in a workplace occurs?
We humans tend to be creatures of habit. For some, that is how we can mitigate stress is by having a routine, a schedule, a set of procedures that we follow every day, week or month. But when something happens that disrupts some part of that routine, we tend to get stressed in adapting to the change. And when it comes to the workplace, for some people the stress can be come such that it affects their productivity and even their health. Michael Topf of Topf Initiatives wrote about this recently – the topic and importance of managing both the change and the stress.
But is this a chicken-or-egg argument? Which comes first in an office setting, the change or the stress? They seem to go hand-in-hand, except some personalities can actually handle stress in a very positive way, Topf wrote. The goal for companies and workplaces is to leverage that into the changes that are being made and get everyone to see them as opportunities rather than sources of uncertainty.
Topf wrote about how the majority of comments he receives when he asks audiences about the word “change” are negative thoughts – how will this change affect careers, seniority, pensions, fairness. As studies have shown repeatedly, change has led to stress, and stress is one of the leading causes for accidents or incidents. It seems that many companies can note on their incident reports when major changes were implemented because there would be a quick spike in safety incidents right around the time of a major change. Why? Due to the effects of stress – fatigue, loss of focus, distraction, lack of mental clarity, lessened immunity.
Topf talked about the impact change has on workplaces and quoted an interesting study about the affects of change on certain people. The study noted that subjects were basically asked their feelings about change. Those who felt threatened, alienated and out of control when it comes to change were 50 percent more likely to get sick as a result of the change
, while those who where challenged, involved and in control were more likely to be a better health, be at work more and be more productive.
If you want to read the full article and get Topf’s take on ways to handle workplace change and the resultant stress, check out this link.