Work Stress Most Likely to Cause Your Employee’s Memory Loss

Stress is notorious for being the culprit of such conditions as high blood pressure and depression. It may also have a really big impact on memory loss. This is definitely bad news for workers that tackle increasing work demands, and bad news for employers that are trying to keep competitive edge.

Short- and long-term effects of work stress on memory

Our brain creates memories in 3 steps. First, information gets into the brain through encoding process. The brain would process the information and prepare it for the 2^nd step called consolidation. In this consolidation step, information is stored for future use. For the final step, the brain would call back the information through retrieval. When someone experiences memory loss, it is often a consequence of encoding problems. Stress is considered the interference that averts the brain from properly encoding the information in the first place.

The hormones cortisol and corticotopin are generated when individuals suffer stress. Corticotopin moves around the body during experiences of short-term stress, and interrupts the brain’s collection and storage of memories. This induces what individuals experience as the memory loss. Cortisol is highly associated with long-term stress. According to the finding by doctors at Douglas Hospital Research Center, Canada, those with high levels of cortisol show bad performance on learning and memory tests. Considerable learning impairment results from experience of 3 – 6 years of continued stress.

How does stress-related memory loss impact work performance?

Memory loss not just does harm to a worker’s personal life and relationships, but affects his/ her work performance. In the global business market, lots of enterprises are carrying out more efficient software and processes to offer faster and more reliable services to their customers. Often, it’s the employees that are left with challenges of picking up new ways of conducting business. 

Over-stressed workers will often suffer problems catching up with those new processes, if their levels of stress aren’t in check. Those same workers may fail to remember important meetings and deadlines. This can lead to serious issues of work performance, and may cost employers the clients, projects and profits. Not all, stressed staff working in teams may be the main contributor to missed deadlines and impaired group dynamics.

Over-stressed employee may forget important meetings or miss the deadlines.

So, distress to improve memory

1. Offer employees exercise or classes on de-stressing

It is significant to discuss the stress impacts with your employees. Give them valuable information and tips on how to reduce stress levels at work and at home. Include such de-stressing exercises as yoga and meditation in break time or wellness programs. Encourage your employees to take a rest between working hours and relax their mind and body with mediation, yoga or some simple exercises. Research reveals that relaxation techniques in mediation and yoga lower stress levels and contribute to boosting up learning and memory capacity.

2. Encourage managers to identify symptoms of stress

Discuss the importance of defining symptoms of stress with your managers. Some of those stress symptoms include mood changes, an unusual decline in performance, an increase in absenteeism. Importantly, managers discuss those issues directly with the worker to get the root cause of the problem.

3. Encourage employees to maintain good diet and exercise

Remind your workers that one of best ways to fight against stress and memory loss is to maintain healthy eating and a consistent exercise routine. Both diet and exercise would naturally let go of stress and improve the body’s immunity.

4. Give employees tips on improving their memory

Discuss how important an active mind is. Always concentrate on the task at hand, and avoid distractions. Form strong associations when learning new information. That way will help learn and keep information longer.

Overall,

Stress has been proved to affect both body and mind. Research has shown that short- and long-term stress is related to memory loss. Generally, stress can’t be avoided, but human resource professionals can discuss the significance of stress management with their workers, and put it into practice in such programs as wellness ones. The results will strongly enhance work performance, well-being, and the boss’s bottom dollar.