How to Help an Employee With High Anxiety

February 8 2022 - In today's modern world, the amount of people suffering with anxiety has sharply risen. This is certainly true right now due to the uncertainty of the coronavirus pandemic. This means that if you are an employer or working in HR, you might find that some of your employees are dealing with high levels of anxiety. This obviously should be rectified as quickly as possible but is not something to worry about - as a good employer or HR manager with many tools to help your employees to succeed. Read on now to figure out what you should be doing in the correct fashion.

Identify the Source of the Problem

If you are serious about helping your employees deal with their anxiety, it's worth figuring out the source of the problem before working out ways to combat it head on. For example, if your employee has generalized anxiety stemming from a series of personal neuroses, the best course of action if making sure that they have the opportunity to talk to a dedicated therapist. If you don't have a therapist on site, then it might be worth paying out of pocket so your employee can have help. This might cost you some money, but this will be more than recouped by their increased productivity as a result.

With that said, your employee might have more specific problems. For example, if they are feeling particularly anxious as the result of divorce proceedings, you might want to point them in the direction of the Stange Family & Divorce Law Firm, who will easily be able to help.

Give Them the Opportunity to Work Remotely

Sometimes, people with high anxiety have trouble working in an office environment. That's why you might want to give them the chance to take part in the work-from-home revolution. While there are many winners and losers of these policies, by giving your employee the chance to relax and work from home without people putting personal pressure on them, it could help them to manage their anxiety better.

Ask Them to Take Unused Holiday Time

Maybe one of the reasons that so many Americans have high anxiety is that 55% of them don't use up all of their paid vacation time. This is quite an incredible fact considering that Americans get far less holiday time than their European counterparts while also having fewer national holidays in the first place. If you notice the one of your employees is particularly stressed or anxious, it might be a good idea to simply tell them to use their holiday time for some personal reflection and improvement.

Reduce Their Workload

For people with anxiety, working hard at their jobs at the same time can often have the effect of increasing their issues. That's why, if you have the means to do so, it might be a good idea to actually reduce the workload for that particular employee. By reducing their anxiety, this could actually allow them to do more focused and impactful work. It could also be that their workload is too high in the first place which is causing their anxiety, by reducing the workload or at least helping them to work out priority work you will be removing a source of their anxiety.

• More HR Articles