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Emotional Intelligence - Is Stress-Free Productivity Impossible? Or Not?

IN: Emotional intelligence.27 JUNE, 2024
Emotional Intelligence - Is Stress-Free Productivity Impossible? Or Not?

Did you know that Portugal participated in a pilot project where it implemented a new working model, with a working schedule of 4 days - 8 hours per week? If you are wondering why such a decision was made, the answer lies in one of the biggest emotional intelligence problems that companies struggle with on a daily basis – stress and how it affects employee productivity.

If productivity is an indicator of performance, it’s also a determinant of organizational efficiency and is used as a measure of growth for a company. As such, we can easily see connections between the level of productivity presented by employees and organizational stress.

This connection between stress and productivity, has three distinct phases:

  1. Alert phase - productivity and creativity are still unchanged.
  2. Resistance or adaptation phase - productivity and creativity are reduced, loss of motivation and concentration, and change in work capacity.
  3. Exhaustion/exhaustion phase - sudden drop in productivity and creativity, loss of concentration and motivation, excessive irritability, incapacity for work, absenteeism ...

We can also point out, as effects of prolonged organizational stress, problems such as the increase in the number of accidents at work, more aggressive and authoritarian attitudes, conflicts, social isolation and negative organizational climate.

The more stress we feel, the less productive we are, and as such it becomes important to use stress management strategies – derived of emotional intelligence strategies such as time management, diversified tasks or environmental suitability - to keep employees happy and therefore increase organizational productivity.

 

What is stress?

If you think that stress is something you should aim to be eliminated completely, think again! Stress can have a positive or negative impact on productivity. How many people do you know who leave everything to the last minute because they feel that that’s the only way they can work? And how many people do you know that with the accumulation of stress freeze?

At its core, stress is a reactionary response to a threat – like a real threat from a thief who points a knife to us or a psychological threat like a deadline that gets closer and closer. Remember: emotional intelligence warn us that emotions and emotional states can be used to guide your thoughts and actions by labeling the situations you face.

Stress is so powerful that it translates into active responses in the brain, glands, hormones, immune system, heart, blood, and lungs. As such it is responsible for physical/motor responses (response fight/flight), mental/cognitive (increased attention, quick thinking) and physiological (heart accelerates, cold sweats, muscle tension).

Although stress is not truly classified as a disease, it becomes a cause of illness - that headache that constantly assaults you? Maybe it's time to analyse its cause ... Stress might be at its core.

If after reading these facts, you are thinking that your colleague who leaves everything to the last hour is crazy it’s important to note that, in fact, at moderate levels stress can lead to increased productivity, increase professional engagement, generate incentives and motivation.  

But, attention! Over time, and with a chronic expression, stress can be extremely negative for the professional and the organization.

 

Causes and Effects of Stress

What kind of causes do you find for stress? Psychologists present several lists, based not only on internal situations - that depart from the person and their perception - and external - that occur to the person, including environment, noise, pollution, temperature and nutrition.

For good stress management, the first step is to identify the problem, recognize the effects and adopt the strategies that will solve it.

Some of the most common causes are:

Stress also weakens the body, causing memory failure, poor concentration and focus on activities, insomnia, discouragement and physical, emotional and mental fatigue. It can also cause moodiness and irritability, all factors that become detrimental to performance and productivity, translating into poor outcomes.

 

Productivity in Organizations

Reducing stress levels leads to increased productivity and performance ratios, raising the company's bottom line and putting it in a better competitive position.

Do you still remember the pilot project carried out in Portugal? This project began testing in June 2023, with the total participation of 41 companies. The 4-day/8-hour per week experiment demonstrated a reduction in worker exhaustion and burnout, increased energy for family and friends, a reduction in negative mental health symptoms, and improvements in mental and physical health. An increase in the pace of work and a better balance between work and personal life were also reported.

This is an example of how companies increasingly perceive that investing in employees' quality of life, and in the quality and management of the organizational environment, results in higher quality products and services, and increased productivity - translated into financial results.

 

Strategies to combat stress - how to increase productivity.

The key to proper stress management is to create a balanced life with defined times of work, relationships, rest and fun. The central strategy translates into a single concept: Control. Control over thoughts, emotions, agendas, external environment, and how you deal with problems. For this control, you'll need to employ your emotional intelligence in order to correctly identify emotions, label them accordingly, and to adjust your behavior e and thoughts to achieve your goals. 

To this strategy we must also add the capacity for resilience and persistence in order to deal with situations of pressure and to face the challenges.

In managing stress you can change the situation or change your reaction. When deciding which option to choose, consider four aspects:

  1. Avoid (will you avoid this situation?),
  2. Change (what you can change to manage stress?),
  3. Adapt (how can I adapt to the situation?),
  4. And, accept.

Although activities and actions such as smoking, drinking alcohol, controlling portions of food, wasting time in front of the computer / television, sleeping, or using medication, can temporarily help deal with stress, these are TEMPORARY solutions that can actually be worse to you in the long run.

So, take time for yourself - identify sources of stress in your life; analyse your feelings, behaviours and thoughts. Explore in depth from where your stress may be coming: for example, your concern is about deadlines, but what is the source? Does it come from your requirements? Or how much work you have?

Accept responsibility for your role in the stressors - take control of your life and watch your productivity increase.

 

Bibliography

https://hrportugal.pt/produtividade-sem-stress-como-o-conseguir/

https://administradores.com.br/artigos/o-stress-e-seu-impacto-na-produtividade-do-individuo-nas-organizacoes

https://www.miguellucas.com.br/6-estrategias-para-combater-o-stress/

https://lifestyle.sapo.pt/saude/noticias-saude/artigos/stress-no-trabalho-afeta-saude-e-reduz-produtividade

https://www.jornaldenegocios.pt/empresas/detalhe/nesta-empresa-da-nova-zelandia-trabalha-se-4-dias-por-semana

 

 

Inês Cabral | Project Manager