Managing Stress

Stress is an unpleasant feeling you experience when you are under pressure. You are likely to experience stress at work. Almost everyone does. However, not everyone handles stress successfully. Some people run away from the source, panic, get irritable/angry, go on an eating binge, get depressed or just break down and cry. Stress can cause physical problems such as muscular stiffness, aches and pains, dizziness, insomnia, heartburn and nausea. Prolonged stress can even lead to ulcers and heart disease.

Stress can come from many sources:

Unrealistic Expectations: Many people push themselves to attain or even exceed the highest goals. They want to be better than the best. This self-imposed stress is the kind over which you have the most control.

Uncertainties and Insecurities: Most workers who are new on a job will feel anxious as they meet new people, learn rules and try to master job tasks. This stress usually diminishes with experience. However, if you remain unsure of your ability to do the job, the stress will persist. The fear of losing your job (job insecurity) may make matters worse.

Personal Problems: Financial or family problems may cause stress. If you are arguing with your spouse or other family members, you may bring some of that stress to work with you. If you are not making enough money to make ends meet, you will also carry anxiety to work.

Work Environment and Pace: Many workplaces have tight deadlines or run at a hectic pace. A packed restaurant is a source of stress for waiters and cooks alike. Nurses in an emergency room also experience stress. Every day, newspapers experience the deadline pressures of getting out tomorrow's edition.

Interpersonal Problems: Those with whom you work can also cause stress. Supervisors may pressure you to work harder, threatening poor reviews or even termination. Co-workers may compete with you. Their rivalry may compound stress at work. Customers may make many and frequent demands. Your personality may clash with supervisors, co-workers or customers, intensifying normal stresses.

There are ways of minimising and coping with these workplace stresses:

Deal with Causes, Not Symptoms: Many people make matters worse by trying to relieve the consequences of stress rather than eliminate stress factors. If they are nervous about a deadline, they chain-smoke cigarettes. If their stress make them angry or depressed, they turn to alcohol or eat sweets. If they feel deadline pressure, they pull all-nighters. If they have insomnia, they take sleeping pills. If their stress causes them to be tired, they may increase their coffee intake. If they disagree with a co-worker, they may argue emotionally or avoid confrontation altogether.

Change the Situation: If work overwhelms you, you might consider looking for another, less-stressful job or a different position in your present workplace. Try to get deadlines extended if you know you cannot make them. If you are arguing with another family member, try to patch things up before you go to work. If you are always arguing with a co-worker, seek another assignment.

Do Not Waste Time Worrying: If you worry too much about your problems, you will waste valuable time and energy for nothing. If you are on a tight deadline, keep your mind on the task and not on the ticking clock. Worries never solved any problems or completed any assignments.

Ask for Help: If you are feeling overwhelmed, ask your supervisor or a co-worker to help you. Often, delegating some parts of a task will enable you to finish it on time and ease stress. Also, ask experienced co-workers or the supervisor if there is an easier way to do things.

Change your Goals: If your self-imposed goals are causing stress, you simply must change them to get relief. If you are a perfectionist, you may have to learn to satisfice (producing adequate, but not perfect, work) to meet deadlines.

Change your Attitude: Changing your attitude toward the source of the stress may help relieve it immensely. Do not consider things to be so important or so essential that they make you stressed out.

Take a Break: If you are sitting at your work station, fists clenched, breaking pencils and snapping at everyone who comes in, it is time for you to take a break. Often taking your mind off the problem will help relieve stress. When you return to the task refreshed, your productivity will increase. Many busy managers jog or swim to ease stress and get exercise at the same time.