Proper Stress Management For The Workplace

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Wednesday, October 29th, 2008 by admin Subscribe To Our Feed

Workplace stress is as inevitable as death and taxes. Most people will experience stress in the work place on a regular basis. Some occupations have high levels of stress associated with them. Health care and law enforcement workers, for example, experience daily stress as a part of their everyday working life. Workplace stress can be reduced by identifying those situations which trigger it and reducing your exposure to those situations.

Common sources of job-related stress and coping strategies include:

Unprofessional Co-Workers

It’s not uncommon for the people we work with to present a challenge at some point in our careers. Still, dealing with bad attitudes is a stressful challenge that can kill our own job productivity.

Several means of handling this type of problem exist. Here it’s important to choose your battles. If you can ignore the rude behavior and get your work done, let it go if at all possible.

Some co-workers take annoying too far. Some are downright rude or offensive. When ignoring the co-worker doesn’t work try confrontation. In a polite, but firm tone explain what behaviors are bothering you, why the bother you, and give suggestions for how the co-worker might improve. It is possible that the offender does not know they are upsetting you. Saying it out loud will help reduce the stress and anxiety surrounding the situation.

If talking it out doesn’t correct the situation, make an appointment to talk with your supervisor to let him or her know the extent of it and how it’s affecting your job performance. Your boss may choose to take charge and bring correction so that everyone can do their job more effectively.

Bad Management

If unprofessional co-workers are unpleasant to deal with then poor management has to be twice as stressful. The options for dealing with poor managers are more limited, but there is no reason to let poor management style give you stress or anxiety. As will co-workers ignoring the behavior is the first and most preferable option.

If that doesn’t work, then you’ll have to go over their head to someone else and tell them what’s going on. Keep a list of the things the boss has said and done and share it with an HR person or whomever is suitable to discuss them with.

Suffering silently with a management problem is not a good idea. It will make you miserable and anxious and eventually cause your productivity to decline. Most places of business want to hear about these types of situations and will do what they can to correct them.

Huge Workload

Occasionally it is the volume of work itself that causes stress in the workplace. It goes without saying that you should only accept assignments that you have time for, but when there are no options for opting out of additional work it is important to ask for help when you are overwhelmed. Sharing the workload is what teamwork is about. Most companies are happy to foster teamwork between co-workers. If the workload becomes too stressful and no help can be found contact your supervisor and explain that you are overwhelmed. In most instances arrangements can be made to reduce your workload.

Stress in the workplace can come from many other sources as well. Learn what causes your stress and find out how to work through it. Your workplace can be a stressful environment, but don’t let that stress get the best of you.

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