Work Stress

Dealing with Work Stress in Healthy Ways

It's strange to think about: You spend eight or more hours a day working alongside people you might not even choose as casual friends, let alone spending a great deal of your life with them. You don't get to choose your co-workers unless you happen to be the boss. When you work with difficult people, you must learn to cope or you will go crazy.

To deal with this kind of Work Stress, talk to your co-workers. They might not even know they are causing a problem. If you ask for reasonable change and there is no change, talk to your boss.

Sometimes it isn't your co-workers causing you Work Stress. Sometimes it's the job itself. Too many meetings where nothing gets done, taking time away from your projects which still have the same deadlines, no matter how much time you have to work on them. Most people complain that meetings take too long but are required, and this unfortunately is one place you may just need to grin and bear it.

Perhaps your boss has learned to count on you, which is a wonderful thing until she walks in with an armful of projects only you can do. Add that to the pile already on your desk and you have a recipe for Work Stress. Manage this stress by asking for realistic deadlines and reminding your boss that you are already working on a number of things.

You can deal with Work Stress in a number of ways: You could quit your job, move to a different department, or change the direction your desk faces. You may talk to your boss about reducing your work load or getting co-workers to do their jobs so your job is easier. Often, simply talking to your boss relieves your stress, and you may find your boss will accommodate at least some of your requests.

Certainly you can reduce a lot of your stress on your own. For effective stress management, you may have to prioritize projects or parts of projects so you know what actually needs to be done first. Divide a large project into manageable chunks of work that will take you half an hour or an hour to complete, then congratulate yourself on getting that part done.

While working on a project, work for a sustained period of time without getting distracted. Don't check your email more frequently than necessary, and don't reply to every single one unless you actually need to do so. Let the voice mail pick up the phone if you are working on something else at the moment, and call the person back. Skip meetings if you can. Engage your co-workers to help, and help them in return.

If you are one of the lucky ones, you are friends with many of your co-workers and can at least tolerate the rest. Unfortunately, there are difficult co-workers and stressful situations in every job, and dealing with Work Stress in healthy ways is an absolute must. Stress is a part of the job - you have to deal with it!