Anxiety can make you BETTER at your job: Small doses of the emotion in the workplace keep people focused and motivated

  • Researchers at the University of Toronto Scarborough made the new findings
  • They looked at the triggers of workplace anxiety and its relation to performance
  • Constant distraction from anxiety prevents workers from completing tasks
  • That can eventually lead to exhaustion and burnout among employees
  • But lower levels of anxiety can actually boost performance within a company 

By TIM COLLINS FOR MAILONLINE

Published: | Updated:

We've all been told that anxiety can ruin performance.

But according to a new study, small doses of it at work can make you better at your job by keeping you focused and motivated. 

A total lack of anxiety in the workplace, while perhaps rare, may even lead to an unmotivated workforce, researchers claim.

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Workers who overcome their anxiety and channel it into their jobs may make more effective employees, research suggests. While severe levels of unease can be demotivating, more manageable doses can drive productivity, experts say (stock image)

Workers who overcome their anxiety and channel it into their jobs may make more effective employees, research suggests. While severe levels of unease can be demotivating, more manageable doses can drive productivity, experts say (stock image)

The discovery was made by researchers are the University of Toronto Scarborough (UTS), who looked at the results of previous research on anxiety. 

They studied what scientists believe are the common triggers of workplace anxiety and its relationship to employee performance.

The team found there are two types of anxiety they would expect to see in the workplace, as well as likely responses to these stresses.

The first covers individual character traits. If someone already experiences high levels of general anxiety, their experiences with workplace anxiety will be different from those who don't.

In certain situations, anxiety can boost performance by helping employees focus and self-regulate their behaviour, experts say. These more moderate feelings of anxiety can helps workers keep their focus on the task at hand and stay motivated

In certain situations, anxiety can boost performance by helping employees focus and self-regulate their behaviour, experts say. These more moderate feelings of anxiety can helps workers keep their focus on the task at hand and stay motivated

The other covers feelings of anxiety that may arise in specific job tasks. 

Some employees may be more affected by job appraisals, public speaking or other tasks, for example, that can distract them and lead to poor performance, for example.

They found the amount of anxiety is often key to performance. 

If employees are constantly distracted or thinking about things that cause them anxiety, it will prevent them from completing tasks and that can eventually lead to exhaustion and burnout, researchers say.

But, in certain situations, anxiety can boost performance by helping employees focus and and take control over their behaviour, they say.

Co-author Julie McCarthy, from the department of management at UTS, said: 'If you have too much anxiety, and you're completely consumed by it, then it's going to derail your performance.

'On the other hand, moderate levels of anxiety can facilitate and drive performance.' 

WHAT ARE THE MAIN TRIGGERS OF WORKPLACE ANXIETY AND HOW CAN WE ADDRESS THEM?

Experts from the University of Toronto Scarborough say the most prominent causes of workplace anxiety include jobs that require constant expression or suppression of emotion - think 'service with a smile' - as well as jobs with constant looming deadlines or frequent organisational change.

Office politics and control over work are other important factors. Employee characteristics including age, gender and job tenure can also affect the experience of workplace anxiety.

'Managing anxiety can be done by recognising and addressing triggers of workplace anxiety, but also being aware of how to leverage it in order to drive performance,' says Lead author Bonnie Hayden Cheng .

She says there are many strategies organisations can use to help employees. 

Some of these include training to help boost self-confidence, offering tools and resources to perform tasks at work, and equipping employees with strategies to recognise, use, and manage feelings of anxiety through emotional intelligence development.

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Experts compare this to the way athletes are trained to harness anxiety in order to remain motivated and stay on task.

Likewise, if employees monitor their progress on a task and focus their efforts toward performing it, this can help boost their performance.

Lead author Bonnie Hayden Cheng, now an assistant professor at Hong Kong Polytechnic University, says that motivated employees are more likely to harness anxiety in order to help them focus on their tasks.

Emotionally intelligent workers can recognise their feelings of anxiety and use them to regulate boost performance.

And workers who skilled at their jobs are also less likely to allow anxiety to affect their performance.

'After all, if we have no anxiety and we just don't care about performance, then we are not going to be motivated to do the job,' she added.

The authors note that anxiety is a growing issue for workplaces.

Recent research has found that 72 per cent of Americans experiencing daily anxiety say it interferes with their work and personal lives.

While the researchers do not condone inducing anxiety in employees to foster high performance, the good news for employees who experience anxiety at work is that it can help performance if they can learn to use it to  regulate their behaviour.

The full findings of the study were published in the Journal of Applied Psychology.

HOW CAN YOU CALM YOUR NERVES?

Whether it's the thought of giving a presentation at an important office meeting or getting frustrated sat in a queue of traffic, stress has become an unwelcome part of every day life.

A simple breathing technique could help calm the nerves in seconds - by 'fooling' the body into thinking it is relaxed.

A YouTube video called 'Mind Hack: Combat Anxiety with This Breathing Technique,' explains how people can calm themselves down simply with a few inhales and exhales.

In it, Jane McGonigal, best-selling author of SuperBetter and video game designer, describes how the 'power breath' can help people to achieve a relaxed state similar to sleep.

While the benefits of deep breaths in have been widely reported, she argues the ultimate trick is not so much how you breathe in but also how you breathe out that counts.

The method has one simple rule - exhale for double the amount of time you inhale.

Put simply, if you breathe in and count to four seconds, you should then slowly exhale and count to eight seconds as you do it.

This triggers a change in the nervous system from 'sympathetic' mode - which is what we associate with fight or flight - to 'parasympathetic' - or 'rest and digest' mode.

If someone is particularly stressed or anxious worked up, she suggests they inhale for two and out for four.

Then gradually increase this to inhaling for eight seconds and exhale for 16 seconds after a bit of practice.

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