Managing Workplace Stress

We hear a lot about workplace stresses, but mostly that they occur. Most of our waking hours are spent working with people we may or may not like. For our sanity and health, learning to handle workplace stresses is crucial.

We’ve all heard the word “postal” before. It doesn’t just refer to the mail carrier. Workplace stress led to shootings and the first place everyone remembers hearing about it was in the post office. A person who is ill equipped to deal with the stresses in their life can snap under the pressure. The result could be an illness in the body or an outward show of aggression.

For a while, all you heard about were office shootings. Someone was fired and then returned to take out the head boss. It happened too frequently and people became gun-shy. They allowed troublesome employees to stay on for the simple fact that they didn’t want to become a shooting victim. But, that added to the stress.

Workplace stresses are very real and affect hundreds of thousands of people on a daily basis. Now more than ever, people are trying to hang on to their jobs and will put up with a lot of stress to keep it. Unfortunately, as stress levels rise, so do medical bills.

To deal with workplace stress is to first understand yourself and the role you play in the situation. Stress can be due to the workload. People with too much work and too little help are often frustrated. What is your job description? Are you doing someone else’s work along with your own?

Know where you stand at your job. If your title is file clerk, you shouldn’t be typing memos for your coworker. That is someone else’s job. Don’t be afraid to refuse work for a coworker when you have enough of your own on your plate.

The stress could be caused by a troublesome coworker. Some people live to make life miserable for others. A coworker who sabotages your projects or spreads rumors about you increases your stress level by making it uncomfortable in the office. This problem can be handled between you and your boss or human resources.

Sometimes, we contribute to our own stress. Let’s take the situation with the file clerk who is typing memos. Maybe they are afraid of their coworker or they have a people-pleasing complex so they type the memos when they should be filing.

Or, let’s look at the troublesome coworker. Someone who is afraid of confrontation or has low self-esteem won’t talk to that coworker or seek help from someone with more authority. They put up with the trouble so they won’t be labeled a troublemaker or aggravate the situation.

Alleviate workplace stress by dealing with the situation in as civil a manner as possible. Talk to human resources, transfer departments, or have a long talk with the coworker. Don’t take the stress home with you or let it fester until you snap and disastrous things happen.