Some pressure at work is normal and even useful. It sharpens focus and gets things done. Stress is what happens when pressure exceeds someone's ability to cope, and keeps doing so. Left unmanaged, it affects health, relationships, decision-making and performance.

Managing stress well needs two things: personal techniques for handling it, and attention to the workplace factors that cause it. This article covers both.

Recognise the signs early

Stress rarely arrives all at once. It builds, and the early signs are easy to dismiss. Common ones include:

  • Physical: poor sleep, headaches, tense shoulders, tiredness that rest doesn't fix.
  • Emotional: irritability, feeling overwhelmed, anxiety about work outside working hours.
  • Behavioural: working longer but achieving less, withdrawing from colleagues, putting things off.
  • Thinking: difficulty concentrating, indecision, catastrophising about small problems.

Everyone has their own pattern. Knowing yours means you can act earlier.

Techniques for the moment

When stress spikes, the aim is to calm the body's stress response enough to think clearly again.

  • Slow your breathing. A longer out-breath than in-breath signals the body to calm down. Try breathing in for four and out for six, a few times.
  • Ground yourself. Notice five things you can see and a few you can hear. It pulls attention out of a spiral and back into the room.
  • Step away briefly. Even two minutes away from the screen or situation can reset your reaction.
  • Write it down. Getting a jumble of worries onto paper makes them easier to sort.

Habits that reduce stress over time

  • Prioritise deliberately. Separate what's urgent, what's important and what can wait or be dropped.
  • Break big tasks into the next small action.
  • Protect recovery: breaks, lunch away from your desk, a clear end to the working day.
  • Look after sleep, movement and routine. They're not optional extras when you're under pressure.
  • Talk to someone. Stress shrinks when it's shared.

Separate control, influence and acceptance

A useful exercise is to list what's causing you stress and sort each item into three groups: things you control, things you can influence, and things you have to accept for now. Put your energy into the first two. Trying to control the third is one of the fastest routes to exhaustion.

Don't ignore the causes

Personal techniques help, but stress is often a signal that something about the work needs to change. In the UK, the Health and Safety Executive's Management Standards approach groups the main causes of work-related stress into six areas: demands, control, support, relationships, role and change.

If stress is coming from workload, unclear expectations or poor relationships, it's worth raising. A constructive approach is to be specific about the problem, explain its effect and suggest an option: 'I've got three deadlines on Friday and can't do all of them well. Could we move one, or agree which matters most?'

For managers: regular, genuine check-ins are one of the simplest ways to catch stress early. Ask open questions, and listen to the answers.

When to seek more help

If stress is affecting your health, sleep or life outside work over a sustained period, speak to your GP and, if your employer has one, your Employee Assistance Programme or occupational health service.

Our Stress Management course helps teams build these skills together, and can be paired with a manager session on spotting and responding to stress.