11 Sep Dealing with Stress in PR
Dealing with Stress in PR
Many of my clients are dealing with stress in PR. They have what appear to be very high cortisol and adrenaline levels. Okay, so we haven’t tested them, but the fact that they feel on red alert all the time leads me to suspect this is the case. They talk about it being hard to focus, about swings of emotion – from elation where they are in the swing and being creative, to large dips when a pitch or press release goes nowhere, or a client isn’t happy.
They mention physical symptoms like increased heart rate, tight chests, sweaty palms, or a feeling of heaviness in the stomach. The need to always be plugged in, and sometimes even on hand 24-7 in case something negative explodes, is not conducive to feeling calm.
So why is this such a bad state to be in? What can we as individuals, and PR companies themselves, do to try and combat this?
First, why is stress in PR such a bad thing?
Basically, adrenaline and cortisol are stress chemicals. In the short term you can feel them in the body in the form of raised heart-rate, feelings of tightness in the chest, clammy or sweaty hands, tenseness in the stomach or gut cramps. Mentally you are on high alert, which can sometimes show itself in a feeling of dread as if you are waiting for something to go wrong. Behaviourally, you may resort to habits like biting your nails, clenching your jaw, or turning to food to cheer you up.
High cortisol and adrenaline mean we have less access to the cortex, the thinking part of the brain, and this can feel like brain fog, an inability to concentrate, difficulty making decisions, and lower levels of creativity.
None of these are good for the individual working in PR, and, if you’re an owner or manager, not ideal for creativity, productivity and efficiency, let alone mental wellbeing.
What’s happening when The PR workplace puts us under stress?
So, what’s going on in our body to cause them to be released in the first place? In brief, we have a bean shaped part of the brain called the amygdala and a simple way to think of this is as our security officer. This is the part of the brain that assesses whether something is a threat, or not.
In PR, we have lots of “threats” going on. These can range from not being able to get a story picked up despite promising a client it had legs, to the dread of putting together an analytics report when you find working with numbers challenging, to spotting that a negative comment about our client has started to take off on social media. If the security officer perceives something as a threat, then it releases adrenaline and cortisol to enable us to deal with it. This is what is called the fight or fight response.
Hundreds of thousands of years ago, our threats were predators, or unfriendly tribes, and this response was appropriate, allowing us to get the hell out of there, or getting us ready to fight. Today, on the most part, we don’t need to run away or fight, so the chemicals aren’t being used up in those activities. Instead, they circulate and accumulate. What’s more, when levels are high they often block access to the thinking part of our brain – the part we need to deal with difficult clients or to present a story to the media. High levels are bad for us and for our work.
Why this can be bad for our health
I just want to emphasise why high levels of these chemicals are dangerous for the body in the long term. In short, they have been linked to higher blood pressure, lower immunity, stomach issues, headaches, chest pain, and sleep issues…at least! Obviously, this is not good for the individual or their company,
I believe that everyone has a “tell” when it comes to experiencing high stress levels. If they are the norm for us, it’s easy to blindly ignore them, but our body does let us know. For some, it’s an IBS attack, for others it’s backache that has no obvious cause. For myself, it is nightmares. When I start having nightmares, I know that something in my life needs attention and it’s up to me to work out what. The question is, what is your “tell”?
The Top Ten Stressors in PR
While many workplaces are stressful, I believe that PR has a particularly heady mix of stressors that can send cortisol sky high. Here, in anecdotal order, with 1 being the most common, are the many stressors I often hear about in PR and comms.
1. Having to be switched on – the need to be always aware of social media and what’s going on, even when not working
2. Rejection – having our stories, pitches and ideas rejected over and over again eventually pierces that skin, however thick it may be
3. Working from home – I see this as particularly difficult for young people in comms, who cannot learn how to pitch, for instance, by observing
4. The sheer volume of work that you will never get through
5. Fear of saying something wrong/being cancelled
6. Being traumatised by news and events as a result of 1, above.
7. The pressure to be always creative
8. Compiling reports and presenting analytics, especially if you find it hard to think this way
9. Too many meetings
10. Clients and plans that change with little notice provoking a feeling of being out of control.
Do any of these resonate with you…or do you have your own I haven’t mentioned?
What can we do about dealing with stress in PR?
Move
One of the simplest and swiftest ways to deal with these raised chemicals in the moment is to move. This is why a proper lunchbreak with time to go for a swim, take a walk or even a run, is so important.
Exercise literally burns these chemicals off and will lower them down to acceptable levels. Other things you can do is take short breaks where you literally walk around the block (or run up and down stairs). For those working at home, a regular phone alarm can tell us it’s time to do 20 sit-ups and press-us, or whatever you can manage. Or a quick run around with the dog. Great for your fitness as well as your stress levels.
Breathe
There is another effective tool. It’s simply breathing. Yep, good old fashioned breathing, but with a twist.
Let me take you through it. First, place one hand on your tummy and one on your chest and notice which rises when you breathe in. If it’s your tummy, that’s great. If it’s your chest, then consciously try to breathe into the bottom of your lungs and change it so that your tummy rises. Your ribs should feel like an umbrella opening up when you breathe in, and closing when you breathe out.
Next, we are going to make those breaths slower and more comfortable, and then, finally, start counting them, making sure that the out breath is longer than the inbreath. An easy way to do this is to remember in for 7, out for 11. If that’s too hard though, you can do it for 5 and out for 8, or even 3 and 5.
Try to do at least ten rounds of this to start off. What we are doing is activating the parasympathetic nervous system, which will help lower levels of cortisol and adrenaline. The beauty of this breathing exercise is that no one need know you’re doing it (the hands on the tummy and chest is only for the first time!), although it’s also a great one to share with colleagues and do together.
Revving that up
And this magic key is…? To do the breathing even when you don’t need it.
Take something you do often, such as popping the kettle, on or going to the bathroom, and use that as your cue to practise the breathing tool. Over time (and this is days rather than weeks for most), it will help reset your body. It will teach it that it’s safe to exist with lower levels of adrenaline and cortisol pumping around. You’ll find that as soon as you start you can feel your shoulders relax and your jaw untense. This has the potential to help with stress, sleep difficuties and even your digestion. Many of my clients have really embraced this very simple but effective tool for the busy PR workplace.
Getting the basics in place
There’s also a lot we can do to help ourselves physically too. Yes, I know you probably know all of this, but it is always a helpful reminder.
1. Check what you’re eating. If you are nibbling on bad fats and sugar and mainlining caffeine this is going to hike up those chemicals as they will put our body under further stress.
2. Use your breaks. Take a walk, see something lush and green, breathe some fresh air. This goes for those working from home too.
3. How’s your sleep? Your sleep will be helped by lowering adrenaline and cortisol. However, you can also help your sleep by getting into good sleep routines. These include setting bedtime and wake up time, screens off an hour before bed, and relaxing before sleep. The better your sleep…the easier it will be to deal with stress.
4. Eat regularly.
5. Drink water to stay hydrated.
Nothing really too outlandish there, but in a fast moving PR or comms office it’s easy to ignore the basics. I have heard of some people so busy they put off using the bathroom!
Finally, for any leaders and managers reading this, it’s worth adding that you are the role models. Showcase these behaviours and you make it okay for others to look after themselves.
Take time off
I have come across many people in PR who need to be reminded to take their vacation time. This includes many PR company owners who just don’t. They get swallowed up in the whole relentlessness of PR, the pressure to perform, and the very practical issue that there are often no good times to be away from your desk.
Yet, these are the very reasons why we need time out. I hold my hands up: I am not good at this. Very often, I will check my emails when I am away. I often do some work on the weekends. If I plan a day off in my diary, I often forget and shuffle a meeting or two into the vacant space. This is not good, and will certianly not help lower those cortisol and adrenaline levels I have been banging on about.
Learning with live with stress in PR
PR will always be stressful and that means it might not be the best career for everyone. However, if you have plans and ways to deal with that stress, and the desire, you will be able to improve your resilience. If you need to look at the stressors in your own workplace in more detail, book a chat and let’s talk them through.
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