Pressure Management Techniques for Hybrid Workers and Leaders

Pressure is a common experience at work, whether you're in the office full-time or have embraced the hybrid working model by choice rather than necessity. A certain level of pressure is beneficial, driving productivity, growth, and pushing us out of our comfort zones.

However, excessive pressure can have the opposite effect, leading to stress, overworking, procrastination, declining motivation, and sometimes even burnout.

Now that many companies and their employees have settled into a more solid routine of hybrid or remote work, with 40% of UK workers either working from home or on a hybrid basis, it’s important that we continue to discuss the importance of sustainable work practices and prioritise wellbeing at work, and that we develop sustainable techniques for managing pressure going forward. This is of course particularly challenging in a hybrid working environment, where colleagues may not always be present to help rationalise challenges or collaborate on problem-solving.

In this article, we share some practical tips for managing pressure in the evolving hybrid working world, both for individuals and leaders guiding teams through ongoing challenges.

How can individuals manage pressure?

Hybrid working offers workers greater flexibility and freedom to set their own pace, location, and working hours. These benefits come with potential pressures, such as the expectation to be in the office when it’s inconvenient, anxiety about increased face-to-face interaction, or the perception of inefficiency if tasks don’t yield immediate results or if communication seems less frequent. The unknowns of hybrid working create a complex pressure paradigm even before considering role-specific challenges. Individuals should anticipate that the new work environment will require adjustment, and that it won’t be perfect immediately. The best pressure management strategies will be personal and likely learned iteratively. Hybrid working should not be based on the expectation of achieving everything from home while spending 40% of the time in the office, as this only creates unnecessary pressure from the outset.

Leaders should be proactive in equipping their teams with pressure management techniques to mitigate unnecessary stress, but individuals are also responsible for regulating their environments and responses.?

Here are some ways to manage personal pressure when hybrid working:

• Set boundaries

Hybrid working blurs the lines between personal and professional spaces. Whether continuing remote work or transitioning back to the office, the legacy of these blurred boundaries remains. People should take time to identify and establish their boundaries, unapologetically setting limits where they feel comfortable and recognising that not doing so undermines, not enhances, productivity.

Healthy boundaries differ for each person, so it’s essential to respect others' choices as much as protect your own. No one should feel guilty for taking necessary breaks or holidays, as these are investments in future performance.

• Be kind to yourself

Just as with setting boundaries, it’s important to be gentle with yourself under pressure. The pandemic changed everyone in subtle ways and it’s easy to forget that as time goes on. Few people now expect a return to how things were four years ago, even if they wanted them to, as on a personal level some things may feel as though they have changed for the better. However, hybrid working does bring new challenges and readjustment to the hybrid model, and the professional and personal challenges that accompany it, may take more time. Unless you are very new to the world of work the chances are you have worked longer inside the old model than the new one. It is inevitable therefore that now and again you will feel lonely or isolated or just uncomfortably distanced from colleagues and events. Show yourself the same kindness you would offer to others.?

• Establish healthy patterns

Renewal and recovery are crucial for managing pressure effectively. Without sufficient energy, emotional regulation in the face of pressure becomes difficult. Establishing routines that support healthy, sustainable performance is one of the best ways to manage this. Ensure you get enough exercise to break the linearity of work. Take regular breaks, at least 10 minutes every 90-120 minutes, where you can shift your focus and body position. Deliberately schedule social time to look forward to after work and protect it - seeing it as the investment in the next performance wave that it is. Humans are not designed to be always ‘on’, so wind down for at least 15 minutes at the end of the day, and engage in activities that create distance between work pressures and personal life. This is the key to sustainable wellbeing and performance.

How can leaders help others cope with pressure?

?As leaders, it's vital to be proactive in managing pressure in the workplace. Part of the job is to equip people with tools to identify and moderate pressures at source where they can, but it is also about cultivating and encouraging the right mindset toward it. Over the Covid years individuals have demonstrated great flexibility and commitment in managing personal pressures alongside work demands, but this has often been at the expense of their wellbeing. As a result, it is a mistake to assume there is limitless flexibility and contribution still available,? so here’s how leaders can help:

• Create a culture of openness and psychological safety

For many, half of the battle against pressure is feeling able to admit they feel it and voice their concerns. Leaders are crucial in facilitating ways for workers to be heard and setting a standard that encourages sharing. Establish and promote channels for employees to indicate they’re struggling, or to suggest ways of meeting demands that may be effective in reducing pressure or driving up performance without increasing working hours. Leaders sharing their own challenges can set a positive example and help employees feel more confident about sharing ideas or accessing support, fostering a culture of openness and psychological safety.

• Accept that new habits will have formed

After so many years of working in the same way, everyone has now developed new habits in their unique settings and circumstances, and it won’t be easy (or even wanted) to change these habits back. Some habits might help manage pressure, such as feeling calm at home, while others, like working alone, might hinder pressure management. Leaders should maintain as much individuality within working arrangements as possible to optimise performance. Working habits will continue to evolve as the hybrid working model develops and leaders should be patient during this transition, helping individuals adapt.

• Listen with curiosity and empathy

No one can fully understand another’s experience of shifting the way we work so dramatically. While pre-pandemic experiences were similar, they have been completely upended, many people spent their whole careers working one way, and are now expected to maintain a completely different way of life. When employees share their pressures, leaders should listen with curiosity, consider their perspectives, and empathise. This builds trust and helps find ways to support them.

Setting up feedback loops enables leaders to work with individuals to review how they have handled pressure after the fact and in so doing, identify learnings and improvements for the future. While providing support, leaders must give individuals space to self-regulate, find their own solutions, and listen attentively to their ideas.

Formulating a comprehensive wellbeing strategy that creates a safe environment for employees to share concerns, promotes help-seeking behaviours, and encourages leaders to address wellbeing issues helps organisations adopt a proactive approach to preventing problems arising from high levels of pressure rather than reacting as they occur.