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.

When Stress is a Good Thing

Stress can be good? No way! It’s true. Sometimes stress is a powerful motivator that propels us forward to great things. Find out how stress can actually work in your favor.

Stress has always carried a negative connotation. If you are stressed it is often because of a bad situation. But, there are a few times that we are glad for the stress response.

Good instances of stress can be termed, eustress. The prefix “eu-“means “good.” It is a name given to stressful situations that bring about good results.

For instance, let’s say that you are getting ready to make an important speech. All eyes will be on you and you want to do well. The stress accompanying this task causes you to focus on the speech and nothing else. As a result, you practice until you are comfortable with the words and relax to be able to deliver it.

The same goes for a big competition. Your nervousness leads to more intense practice sessions to get you ready. Your pulse quickens but it strengthens your resolve to do your best.

Any time that stress is related to physical activity it produces endorphins. Those who are involved in practices and big sporting competitions reap the reward of good feeling endorphins from the physical exertion. The endorphins make us want more of the same to keep us in that feel good mode.

Have you heard of the fight or flight response? It is what happens when we are scared or confronted by someone who may want to hurt us. Adrenalin is released. Our senses become more acute as the body prepares to hit the ground running or stand and fight.

In those moments, our basic instincts take over and we are primed for the best response in the situation. You hear about extraordinary situations where people have lifted cars off of their loved ones who were hurt in an accident. Or, someone thinks to use their cell phone to call from the trunk of a car when they’ve been kidnapped.

People wonder how someone can think of those things but it is the fight or flight response that occurs when we are in the midst of those harrowing experiences. This response extends to people like hostage negotiators who talk a kidnapper into releasing his hostages or the doctor who is performing emergency surgery to save a person’s life.

Good stressors abound in our lives but often go unnoticed in favor of the unhealthy stress. A dose of good stress can save our lives. Cultivate good stress in your life.

Stress Tests for Your Health

Stress is a part of our everyday lives. We already know this so why do we need a test to tell us so? Stress tests are more than a litmus test for determining if you have stress. They evaluate the body’s responses to stress. In other words, they tell you how your body is dealing with stress.

We all experience stress in some way. How do we respond to it? Some people cry, shout, scream, or just give in to the situation. There are many ways to view a stressful situation, but unfortunately they are not all good responses.

When our stress is bad enough or consistent enough, it affects our bodies in negative ways. We don’t always pay attention to what our bodies are saying to us. It’s like our heads know better than the rest of us so we just keep pushing on until our bodies have had enough and begin to retaliate.

The point of stress tests is to find out how our bodies feel before they go postal on us. Since we won’t listen, the doctors and clinical psychologists will. There are a variety of stress tests that people can take part in to determine how their body handles the stressors around them. The results of these tests can then assist in helping to deal with them in more positive ways for both our bodies and our minds.

Physical Stress Tests

These are the most common stress tests. Most involve the affects of stress on our hearts. Let’s face it. If the heart isn’t happy, we won’t be long for this world. The heart pumps blood throughout the entire body and to the lungs where our bodies exchange carbon dioxide for oxygen.

During a stress test, the participant walks on a treadmill or, in some cases, rides a stationary bike. During the test, a clinician monitors heart rate and blood pressure. This exercise stress test can indicate if you have problems with your heart that can be caused by stressful situations. People who learn how to manage their stress will usually perform better than those who have no outlet.

Other Stress Tests

Another physical stress test is the Thallium test. This involves injecting the patient with radioactive isotopes of thallium to test for blockages in the blood vessels of the heart.

A Barium test is performed to evaluate stress on the digestive system. When we are under stress, the stomach empties slowly but the colon empties faster than normal. Conducting a barium test over time will show how the digestive system is being affected by stressful situations in your life.

Mental stress tests are conducted by a psychiatrist or psychologist. Through a series of pointed questions and responses to photographs, it is determined what type of personality you have. Based on that, your profile will determine if you are more or less prone to stress and how to manage it.

Stress tests are one way to determining if stress is negatively affecting your life. Some people don’t even know that their bodies are suffering under the weight of stress until something catastrophic happens. Avoid unnecessary pain with a stress test.