Career Advice By Randy

How To Keep Workplace Stress In Check

We spend most of our lives at our jobs. We spend more time in the office than with our children and spouses. It’s no wonder that our jobs often become the biggest source of stress in our lives under normal circumstances. A recession simply means more stress at the job. Our offices are abuzz with fear over layoffs, health insurance cutbacks and profit declines. The effect of the recession is that workplace stress is at a three-decade high.
A few survival strategies can help an employee thrive in a stressful workplace, and can help an employer keep workplace stress from snowballing.
1. Adapt yourself-Employers are seeking employees that say, “yes” when asked to do a task. The task may be challenging, tiresome and stressful, but the employer still expects a yes. As a result, adapt to the employer’s needs and then establish yourself as indispensable.

 
2. Stay positive- Focus on the pleasures of your job, what makes you happy and how you can help others. A bad workplace can improve simply by focusing on the positives, even if you’re surrounded by a sea of negative Nancies prancing with worry.

 
3. Be your own cheerleader- Perception is often reality. If you create a perception that you’re accomplishing goals and contributing, others will develop that perception of you. However, a perception improvement won’t happen if you’re not accomplishing things. Just remember to toot your own horn when you do succeed, so the boss remembers.

 
4. Leave work at work- It may be tempting to work from home, but if your job is stressful that can be a dangerous decision. Instead, accomplish all you can at work, so when you’re home with the family, you can be a source of joy and feed off others’ joy.

 
5. Exercise your passions-Your boss may wish otherwise, but having a passion outside of work is healthy. Whether you’re a gym nut, a bookworm, a budding novelist or a video game geek, let your passions flow in your free time and absorb the stress relief.
Employers can do a lot to help workers cope with stressful conditions. However, employees must take advantage of these at every turn for the workplace to benefit. Any employee that ignores opportunities to de-stress at work will only add to their problems.

 
1. Be a continuous learner-Out of college and in the workforce, people tend to stop learning. An employer that offers continuing education opportunities, paid seminars and on-the-job training will see a return on their investment. Employees that take advantage of these opportunities tend to feel more satisfaction with their job and more investment in their job. Satisfaction (pleasure) and investment (sense of connection) often decrease stress and increase productivity.

 
2. Understand the health- An employer should spend time observing their employees for signs of stress, fatigue and poor physical condition. Employers might want to adapt their approaches of criticism, praise and work distribution to react to the ebbs and flows.

Another approach is to offer up vegetable trays, gym membership discounts and conversational downtime to promote a healthy culture. The same goes for the employee; each employee should get a health checkup to see how the stress is affecting his or her life.