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How to manage stress at work |
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Before I proceed to tell you how to deal with stress, I want to give you some idea of how people respond to stress. Then I want to introduce you to the idea of negative self-talk - one of the great enemies of stress reduction techniques. My first example is Jane who is failing to cope at work.
by DrJeffBailey
Before I proceed to tell you how to deal with stress, I want to give you some idea of how people respond to stress. Then I want to introduce you to the idea of negative self-talk - one of the great enemies of stress reduction techniques. My first example is Jane who is failing to cope at work.
Jane is 42 years of age; she has had no previous problems, no previous stress attacks, and no mental health episodes. Lately, she has been very distressed at work and has fears that everyone thinks she's incompetent. She has become over-sensitive to her leader's feedback and to the looks of her colleagues. You could say that she is slightly paranoid. The outcome of all of this is that she has become socially phobic. She finds it very difficult to go to parties with her husband. She tends to hide in another room so that she doesn't have to socialize with people.
Jane's problem is that she is experiencing work stress. She feels constantly worn down and tired. Physically she feels nauseous and sick. Emotionally she feels depressed and terrified of making mistakes and she reports feeling unable to cope with work demands.
Jane is not performing well at work. She can't manage the stress and her system is overloaded. You feel the same way sometimes too? Can you understand her level of stress? Have life's events overtaken you? Are you constantly tired and mildly depressed? Do people ask what is wrong with you? Are you tired of life? Are you coping well? Has all of this made it much less effective at work?
If the answer is YES!!! - you are suffering extreme stress. And this is a very common phenomenon in today's high paced society. Some people think that stress is an acceptable bi-product of our busy lifestyle. Research on cardiac disease after the 9/11 attacks showed a significant increase in cardiac ailments. These included high blood pressure, strokes, and heart problems. People's physical states were impacted by their emotional states. And when people are not well emotionally they have difficulty being highly productive at work.
What are these workplace stressors? That is, what are the events that elevate stress? They include a long list of things.
In the workplace: overload, new load, long hours, pressures and even no ability to control your workplace or your workload. Organizational issues: poor management; lack of leadership; poor communication; political interference; transfers; redundancy. Inter-personal Conflict: your supervisor at work; a work colleague; your partner; your children; your family.
How do we deal with these pressures? Obviously, the solutions depend on you and your context. Changing jobs is a reasonable but not totally effective alternative. If your Boss is causing you problems, why not list his or her name with a 'headhunter' and perhaps they'll get a job somewhere else? From my experience working in Employee Assistance Programs, the major problem is poor role definition. I think I have a specified list of things to do but my role description doesn't clarify this and my boss has other idea about what I should be doing. Obviously, confronting the issues with the individuals concerned is one simple approach but there are many other ways of resolving this tension, especially if you are committed to taking responsibility for your feelings and actions.
One way to control workplace stress is to recognize the role of negative thinking. There is an old saying that you are what you think so you have to consider your negative thoughts. If you are stressed you can deal with the problem if you try. You must realize that you have to confront negative self talk. How we feel is shaped by how we think. Self talk occupies much of our day.
I know this sounds simple but it is true. We constantly run ourselves down and criticize ourselves. We have probably 10 times more negative and dysfunctional 'self-thoughts' than we have positive self-thoughts. More than anything I can think of, this tendency to be continually self-critical causes the greatest tension. And guess what, if we have friends, family, loved ones who also criticize us unrelentingly, we are really in trouble. The challenge is simple - if we want to improve our lives we have to change our thinking.
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