Managing Workplace Anxiety: The Most Common Types and Viable Solutions

There are normal levels of everyday anxiety most people feel on the job. These healthy levels can even help you to be more productive.

But more severe forms of anxiety can cause serious harm to your emotional health. It can also cause you to lose your motivation, ability to concentrate, and your capacity to focus on your routine tasks. 

Workplace anxiety is a response to stress or fear within the workplace. You might experience it simply by going to your job each day. Or you may have specific triggers at work. 

Managing workplace anxiety is important for your health and the success of your career. 

There are many possible causes when it comes to feeling anxious in the workplace. Identifying why anxiety is paralyzing you at work can help you to overcome it. 

With that in mind, let’s look at some of the most common types of workplace anxiety and what you can do to manage them. 

What Type of Workplace Anxiety Do You Have?

Feeling incredibly anxious at work is different from the day-to-day stress a job can sometimes bring. Often, there is no single underlying cause for this type of anxiety but multiple.

What are some of the most common types of anxiety in the workplace? 

• Interacting with others (social anxiety)
• Having to speak publicly
• Being embarrassed or humiliated
• Not achieving success or getting a bad report
• Taking on new tasks or responsibilities

You might also feel incredibly anxious when you have to deal with a manager or another specific co-worker. Plus, workplace bullying can be a huge problem as well and create a lot of fear in the person getting the brunt of it. 

When you better understand your anxiety, you can take active steps to get it under control. Ignoring it doesn’t help, but often makes things worse. 

Viable Solutions to Overcoming Your Anxious Feelings at Work

When it comes to managing workplace anxiety, the best thing you can do is to directly face your fears. This may not be easy and will take time. But the longer you let it go without addressing it, the worse your anxiety could become. 

Keep three tips in mind to deal with some of the common types of workplace anxiety. 

Tip #1: Step outside your comfort zone

Being more assertive—even something as simple as asking a question or tossing out an idea in a meeting can go a long way. You’ll continue to get more comfortable with being assertive if you make it a habit, which can help to alleviate your fears of speaking up.

Tip #2: Be compassionate with yourself

Don’t criticize yourself for the way you feel. That will only cause your self-esteem to suffer and your worries to become worse. Negative self-talk is enormously damaging and will only fuel your fears. Practice realistic, positive thinking as much as possible.

Tip #3: Recognize your negative thoughts

When you start to feel anxious about something, try to take a step back and think about the reality of the situation. If you’re worried about public speaking, consider the possible outcomes. What’s the worst thing that could happen? How realistic is that “horrible” thing?

Anxiety often allows people’s imaginations to run wild. Taking a moment to breathe and focus on the facts can help to calm your fears.

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Reducing anxiety to manageable levels is realistic, and possible. Anxiety therapy can help you to overcome those anxious thoughts and fears. Not only will you be able to be more relaxed and confident at work, but you won’t have to let your anxieties drag you down in other areas of your life.

So, if you’re struggling with managing workplace anxiety, and it’s causing harm to your quality of life, please contact us. Or read more about how our approach to anxiety therapy could be the answer to your problems by clicking on the link.