“Negative stress (known as distress) is worryingly common. While stress is key for survival, too much stress can be detrimental. Emotional stress that stays around for weeks or months can weaken the immune system and erode our mental resilience – leading to more serious emotional trouble like burnout, and eventually anxiety or depression. Ultimately, this will affect your ability to perform at work, as well as your overall quality of life,” he said.

“[However], some stress (known as eustress) is beneficial for us – and plays a vital role in helping us navigate some of life’s most significant events.” 

In short bursts, stress can be useful to keep you “agile and alert” according to Mr Taylor. Leaders can use stress that comes with high-pressure jobs to their advantage, helping them meet daily challenges and providing extra motivation.

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“Ultimately, stress activates our nervous system which triggers our flight or fight response – this is important because when your stress responses activate, you can usually think quicker,” Mr Taylor said. 

“Contrary to popular belief, it’s not possible to completely rid stress from your life – nor is it helpful to, instead it’s about mastering stress so that it serves you well, rather than letting it defeat you.

“To do this, you need to focus on building resilience. Resilience provides a psychological buffer in stressful situations, allowing you to not become consumed by it, but rather master it to your advantage.”

Mr Taylor said there were a few ways to build resilience and use stress to your advantage, which include:

• Funnel negative stress into something productive. Going for a five-minute walk around the block will lower your cortisol and reduce your stress levels. Also, in stressful periods channelling your negative energy into mindful activities can help calm you. Afterwards, the situation will still be there, but your attitude towards it will be different. 
• Catch, check, then change or reframe. Mr Taylor advised leaders to “learn your personal emotional cues to identify negative behaviours and shift your attitude into a more constructive and beneficial response.” This helps reframe the situation into something more positive.
• Take time at the end of each day to celebrate the positive things that happened in the day. This will allow you to leave negative work stress at the door and focus on nurturing yourself and your personal relationships.

“An alarming 55 per cent of those surveyed were experiencing stress mainly due to their new working conditions. In addition, the combined pressures of working with technology, blurred boundaries between home and work, time management issues, operating in an ‘always-on’ culture, and worry about the future also contributed to workers feeling stressed,” he said.

The report also found that 32 per cent of workers’ levels of trust in others had dropped, which Mr Taylor said could be due to remote working as a result of COVID-19. 

“Despite remote workers typically working longer hours, the outputs and productivity of staff remain largely the same– so with that, we can tell that without the without strong trust between leaders and employees, staff felt that they had to ‘prove’ that they were working, resulting in ‘hyper engagement’, and ultimately increased stress, and burnout,” Mr Taylor added.

The best way to avoid burnout is by building resilience, Mr Taylor emphasised, which can be done through maintaining a variety of “non-negotiable” habits:   

• Take the time to maintain healthy and emotionally stimulating relationships outside of work
• Get into a structured sleep habit. A good sleep routine can be a welcome boost to those who continually function at a fast pace and high-performance level.
• Divide your day into segments. Allocate time for certain work tasks, time to move your body and time for mental breaks. 
• Find a way to be active every day. Just 30 minutes a day can work wonders for your brain and increase your resilience long-term.
• When in doubt, breathe out. Controlled breathing can help you improve your cognitive performance, effectively manage stress and help you become more resilient by improving concentration, increasing creativity and improving productivity to help you power through.

“The best way to avoid burnout is to focus on positive lifestyle practices that help lower stress levels and build resilience. Resilience is a major strategic asset, especially in high-pressure professions such as law.

“Organisations that achieve sustainable high performance have teams of resilient people with high individual wellbeing that can master stress.”