Pressure and Workplace Productivity.
You probably wrote in your resume that you are capable of working under pressure. It felt good to write that, right?
Well, honestly, how has it been for you? How productive have you been? Do you think the pressure from your superiors has affected your work productivity positively or negatively?
Pressure has it’s good and bad sides, just as with anything else. The key to unleashing the good part is to use it strategically. When anything is used in the right way and the right proportion, it will most likely produce the desired results, which is usually positive.
So with pressure and how it affects work productivity, if done correctly, it will most likely enhance work productivity. And of course, if it’s done wrongly, it can demotivate the employee and result in reduced work productivity. Let’s analyze a few things about working under pressure and see the positive, as well as negative aspects to it.
A particular task could take you weeks to complete on a regular basis, without specific deadlines. But when under pressure, it is observed that such a task could get done in way less time. Working under pressure has the tendency to improve your time management skills and even the energy you bring to a particular task.
For the work to be delivered under pressure and in a short period of time, one needs to maintain a certain level of focus. That shows that pressure could also improve one’s focus level on work so that the work is done excellently and within the given deadline.
More work is usually done when you work under pressure, because you have a deadline to meet up with and usually, it is met with better productivity and performance.
Despite the benefits, it is important for pressure to be reduced as much as possible. It is not entirely good for employees to work for long and too fast too often. For short spans of time, it can be beneficial, but in the long run, it is rather unhealthy.
For instance, working under pressure usually leads to longer work hours and increased stress. When working under pressure becomes a habit, it increases the number of hours you spend on work and makes you to be under unnecessary stress. Stress, in the long run can lead to health issues such as depression, migraines, eating disorders, and even death.
Even the quality of work can be reduced due to working under pressure, because you have limited time to deliver your best and might end up taking shorter routes to finish up the project. The work could also be cumbered with errors due to unavailability of time to properly look through.
Also, you get to lose out on other activities in your life when you work under pressure for long periods of time. Your work life balance will be highly unbalanced and could eventually reduce the quality of your work and life in general.
Of course, it is almost impossible to eliminate working under pressure, but it is important to keep it at a minimum by planning ahead, avoiding multitasking, delegating as much as possible, breaking tasks down and prioritizing, to name a few.
