New year… new plans… new resolutions. In January, many of us often want to make changes at work, even if they’re only small, to improve our day-to-day working lives. We know very well that working in corporate communications is a stressful job! Stress at work is often unavoidable and a certain amount of stress may be perceived as acceptable, or even healthy, helping you stay alert and perform at your best. However, when that pressure becomes unmanageable, it becomes an issue which can damage both an employee’s health and their performance.
We looked at what causes stress in the communications industry and we asked senior communications professionals for their thoughts on how they manage in particularly stressful times.
Stress in the communications industry
It’s no secret that life in PR and communications is highly stressful. The industry is fast-paced by its very nature and stress is an inevitable part of the territory. In fact, many people are drawn to the buzz of chasing a media enquiry, dealing with a crisis situation, or getting senior spokespeople prepared for a live broadcast. Many professionals find that they work better and thrive in a fast-paced, ever-evolving environment, but managing a high-stress job does not come naturally to everyone.
Prolonged pressure is not good. Our bodies can only take so much of the cortisol and adrenaline cocktail before succumbing to physical ailments and, sometimes, serious mental health issues.
How do professionals cope with the challenge of slowing down in a world where everything is instantaneous, and you feel that you are ‘always on’? In our recent interview with career and mindset coach Gill Munro, we talked in more detail about how to overcome the stressful highs and lows of PR life as well as ways to master a mindset for career success.
What is causing stress for comms professionals?
For people working in the industry, any one or any combination of the following factors could be contributing to stress:
How do senior professionals manage stress?
We contacted a couple of our favourite senior communications professionals to find out more about their experience of stress at the top. We asked what they found the most stressful about their jobs and how they manage their stress levels.
This is what a Global Head of Marketing and Communications said about the most stressful part of her job: “The juggling of activities. It's the volume of activities rather than the activities themselves. I have a great team, but the activities coming upstream to me from them and outside of the team, as well as those that I want to initiate and introduce within the business, can be somewhat overwhelming in volume. Thinking time is such a valuable commodity and often this is superseded by a new activity.”
To manage her stress levels, she does the following: “Try and take time away from the computer – spending all day at my desk just adds to the stress as the to do list never reduces, it is like a leaky tap and keeps filling up! Dog walks, going to the office and talking to people for face-to-face meetings, hearing good news to inject more positivity into how I'm feeling, and sometimes just saying no - everything can't be a priority. Setting realistic timelines is also important.”
Her advice for when things get overwhelming: “I try and remember that life is about balancing priorities. I don't allow myself to miss out on some of the important things outside of work because of work such as attending a school production. We can set ourselves unachievable expectations so who is causing the stress - are we causing it ourselves rather than our boss/company? I try and re-evaluate the situation and reset priorities.”
A Non-executive Director and Strategic Advisor to a high-profile business said, “I think that the most difficult and stressful situations often arise when as the Corporate Affairs Director you are managing multiple stakeholders who do not necessarily hold the same view.
You can all too frequently find yourself caught in the cross-fire of executive colleagues - having to manage the ambiguity and broker a way through.
The other scenario which can be stressful, particularly in an operational business, is when the operation fails and the customers suffer as a result. In this situation the communications team is often at the sharp end of explaining what has gone wrong and how the problem is going to be rectified.”
When it comes to managing this kind of stress, she advises: “In all these scenarios, my advice would be to try not to take things personally but to ask yourself if you and your team have done everything in your power to manage the situation effectively. Ultimately that is all that you can do and it is critical to remember that rather than internalising the problems that the business faces.”
Her advice for when things get overwhelming: “Having talked to fellow communications directors over the years, I know that everyone deals with this differently but a combination of chats with good friends and family, exercise and allowing yourself to focus on something completely removed from work is usually a way of ensuring perspective - even in the most tricky situations.”
What else can be done?
Clear communication strategies enable better planning of workloads and allow capacity to handle the reactive stuff when it hits. But this isn’t always going to be attainable. What we should consider is how individual practitioners, team, business or client managers, can each make a contribution to turn the tide on stress.
Kill the cult of ‘busy’
We live in a culture where being too busy to see your friends and family is a sign of success. Where you have to be seen at every event, in every networking group and speaking at every conference to stay relevant. And then there’s the guest blogs, the LinkedIn articles, the Twitter chats, the YouTube videos and the Instagram stories to show the world just how busy we really are.
It’s exhausting and it needs to stop.
Succeeding in a world of too much is about doing less, better and with more impact. It’s about focusing on fewer, bigger things with enormous energy.
To fight that ‘always-on’ culture of the industry, we need to take time out to do the things we enjoy and allow our brains time to reset.
Get clear on your expectations for the day
If you don’t know exactly what is expected of you, or if the requirements for your role keep changing with little notice, it may help to have a talk with your manager. You can take the time to go over expectations and discuss strategies for meeting them. This can relieve stress for both of you!
We suggest making a list of all the things that you would like to do each day. Then highlight just three things that you feel are the most important to get done. No more than three. Crossing these three off is satisfying. It doesn’t then matter when your day derails, as you will know you have done the most pressing things.
Stay organised
The key to keeping life sane in the crazy world of PR is being organised. There are so many balls being juggled, such as pitches, deadlines, press going live, embargoes, new clients starting and contracts wrapping up, that it's easy for things to slip through the cracks. Have set systems for keeping track of projects and dates, and always be regular and proactive in communication with clients.
There's no better strategy than planning in advance. Set realistic deadlines and let your clients know from the start what they will get in the end and when they will get it. It's better to underpromise and overdeliver than overpromise and look for methods to reduce stress.
Improve your time management skills
To alleviate the stress of constant deadlines, time management in this industry is critical. Try practising ‘time blocking’. Schedule each task for a specific block of time and be vigilant. This keeps you focused on a realistic list of daily deliverables and prevents you from going down the rabbit hole on any given task.
Add self-care to your schedule
We cannot emphasise enough the importance of setting reasonable goals while managing time for yourself. So many professionals bemoan the fact that they ‘don’t have time to take a break’. What a lot of them fail to realise is the increase in productivity a calm and well-organised mindset brings. Set manageable goals, create a schedule and include self-care in that schedule – it makes a world of difference.
Embrace uncertainty
The central source of the stress associated with PR is the uncertainty and relative unpredictability of working to earn media coverage and orchestrate external parties with their own agendas. One must embrace the fact that one cannot totally control it. The antidote is to give up trying to control everything. Once that happens, stress levels will drop.
For more advice on stress management, information can be found here:
https://www.hse.gov.uk/stress/
https://www.nhs.uk/mental-health/feelings-symptoms-behaviours/feelings-and-symptoms/stress/
https://www.rethink.org/advice-and-information/living-with-mental-illness/wellbeing-physical-health/stress-how-to-cope/
For a free download of our full Annual Salary Guide 2022, click here.
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The Works Search: a search consultancy specialising in PR and corporate communications. We have unrivalled matching abilities and known for finding the top 5% performers in the industry - the ones who deliver and make your reputation great. For more advice or market insights, do get in touch with us on 0207 903 9291 or email sarah@the-works.co.uk.
