Yes, emotional intelligence (EI) and workplace stress are highly correlated.

Due to the prominence of this issue, several studies have been conducted to examine emotional intelligence, job stressors, and the relationship between the two.

Statistics published in The American Institute of Stress reports about the huge numbers of workers who find their job as “very or extremely stressful”, those who think that their jobs are the “number one stressor in their lives”, in addition to the main cause and effects of stress on the laborers’ lives. Regardless of all of the above information, what we believe is truly alarming was that many employees admitted that they, along with their coworkers, are in dire need of help in learning how to deal with workplace environment and manage stress.

Indeed, that is exceptionally crucial as workplace environment can become a major source of stress and emotional dissonance if not handled carefully.

With that being said, a study conducted by Nikoo Yamani, Maryam Shahabi and Fariba Haghani, shows that emotional intelligence is one of the coping strategies for stress. It is also one of the ways that individuals tend to adopt to overcome burnout caused by work environment.

But what makes emotional intelligence that prominent and what components must employees boost?

According to the study mentioned previously, EI is significant because:

• It enables individuals to understand and manage their emotions
• Those who have high EI tend to empathize with others
• EI leads to appropriate decision-making in personal and professional areas
• It allows individuals to build healthy and strong relationships that can frequently be appropriate for the profession.
• All of the above lead to less job stress level and more excitement in the workplace.

Any employee can benefit from typical advantages if he/she has or develops the following components:

• Intrapersonal skills

Work as much as possible on improving your emotional self-awareness, self-esteem, independence.

• Interpersonal skills

Focus on ameliorating your social commitment and interpersonal relations and becoming more empathic.

• Compatibility

That is to say being appropriately flexible and developing your problem-solving skills

• Stress management

This component involved your stress tolerance level and impulse control capacity.

• General mood

Try to remain optimistic, bright, and happy.

One last solution suggested by the researchers is that CEOs and managers schedule short-term training courses on emotional intelligence for the entire staff to decrease job stress and optimize employee productivity. Tiny interventions will gigantically impact the company as a whole eventually!

Source

The American Institute of Stress. (n.d.). Workplace Stress. Retrieved from https://www.stress.org/workplace-stress

Yamani, N., Shahabi, M., & Haghani, F. (2014). The relationship between emotional intelligence
and job stress in the faculty of medicine in Isfahan University of Medical Sciences. J Adv Med Educ Prof, 2(1), 20-26. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4235538/#:~:text=The%20study%20conducted%20by%20Rahim,Ramesar%20et%20al.&text=They%20also%20noted%20that%20the,with%20the%20stressors%20(18).

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