How Stress Can Destroy Your Company Culture

By: Joe Burton
Employees high fiving

Last updated July 1, 2019.


We can all feel overwhelmed at times when a little too much of everything stresses us out. The pace of modern living can limit the time for us to plan ahead which can leave us feeling unprepared for the workday – and that causes even more stress. To get the most out of life, you can’t live in a constant state of “stressed out.” Stress is a big topic of discussion, and it’s important for leaders to understand the specifics of stress when it comes to their team.

83% of US workers are stressed. The best organizations have a culture that engages employees, sustains high performance over time, and trains employees to be resilient with the right new tools.

When it comes to employee performance and engagement, it’s also important to know how stress can negatively impact company culture. Stress resilience training, on the other hand, can provide the positive change your company needs. Stress might be impacting your company culture in ways you may not have thought of before. Keep reading to find out how resilience training with your employees can overall improve your team, collaboration, and company culture.

Mental and Emotional Wellbeing

It’s important to address mental and emotional wellbeing in the workplace. Although it may feel like a difficult topic to discuss, the time has come to normalize the conversation around wellbeing. It’s actually beneficial to talk about it. Physical wellbeing is often a topic of discussion in the workplace, but why isn’t emotional wellbeing? Employee burnout and a decrease in productivity are results of ignoring emotional health.

That has a domino impact on focus, collaboration, and culture. Building resilience and emotional intelligence allows employees to deal with stress in a healthy and productive way. It’s about time managers put an emphasis on the importance of managing stress in the workplace. When everyone knows it’s going on, it’s a good time to speak more openly about it.

Without any sort of #resilience training, including #mindfulness, your employees are not fully equipped to deal with stress. Implement these tips from @WeAreRethinkCare to better your #CompanyCulture:

The list of things that stress employees out seems to be growing: taking vacation time and having to catch up once back, finances and saving money, the pace of change, getting enough sleep, etc. Nearly 70% of workers feel as though they have too much work on their plates. Employers should provide their team with resources to cope with stress.

You can take it one step further and implement mindfulness and emotional wellbeing program for your organization. You don’t even have to spend a fortune to get this up and running; simple things like offering flexible work schedules, ensuring staff use their paid time off, and encouraging taking breaks have a larger impact than you think. Whatever may be affecting your employees’ emotional health, a comprehensive wellbeing program can give your team the tools they need to tackle stress head-on.

Social and Work Wellness

Social wellness and work wellness play an important role in how your employees interact with one another. Social wellness in the workplace is about balancing your emotional health to be able to better build relationships with coworkers. When your workplace is filled with positive people, it becomes easy for your employees to feel supported whenever needed.

Work wellness refers to encouraging your employees to take the initiative to do something about their emotional health. Supporting a healthy lifestyle can bring about a culture that consists of happy, healthy and more engaged employees.

The ongoing need to balance work and life, eat healthily, and meet job expectations can stress employees out. In fact, only 43% of workers believe their employers care about work-life balance. A culture of wellness consists of less stress, sparks in productivity, and overall happier employees.

Happy and healthy employees make for an efficient workforce. Begin by taking care of yourself, then dive deeper into your employee benefits, and soon you’ll see how a culture of wellness benefits your company culture.

The Benefits of Resilience Training

There are several challenges and disruptive forces that exist when it comes to running your business today. Both you and your employees need to be equipped to be resilient in the face of stress driven by ongoing change and disruption. Developing specific programs to train employees to cope with stress and to thrive in the face of change can create a high-performing culture that embraces change and disruption as a given, not something to fear.

It’s inevitable that your employees are going to experience stress. Get ahead of the game by implementing resilience training in your workplace.

We all feel overwhelmed at times. Check out these tips from @WeAreRethinkCare on the ways #resilience training can help!

The good news is that resilience is trainable and can be learned in many different ways. Resilience helps your employees develop grit and stay on track with their goals, even during stressful situations. It enables your employees to bounce back instead of getting dragged down, remain positive, and feel supported by their team.

When your employees work together, have a sense of purpose, and have the tools necessary to cope with stress, a positive work environment filled with employees who are connected, motivated, and working with a sense of purpose is created.

The future of work is fast-paced and stressful. Is your company ready?

If you’re looking for more ways to build resilience and a more mindful culture, check out the RethinkCare app today.

About the Author

Headshot of Joe Burton

Retired Founder and CEO of Whil and former President of Headspace

Joe is an entrepreneur in the digital wellness space, retired Founder and CEO of Whil and former President of Headspace, and spent fifteen years as a global COO in public companies. He’s an alumnus of Harvard Business School and a regular contributor to Forbes, Business Insider and The Huffington Post. He’s worked in over 50 countries and travels the world speaking on topics including disruption, culture, resiliency and mindfulness.

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