1. Get up from your chair and take a 5 minute active break once an hour.  It will boost your energy and you will actually be MORE productive.  Take time to move….. humans were made to move!

2. Bring a lunch to work to promote a healthier diet and prevent eating out!

3. Leave your work at work both mentally and physically.  You need to re-energize yourself in order to give your best the next day.  Balance is important.

4. Make time for fun with friends and/or family on your time off. 

5. Deal with your stress as soon as possible.  It is easy to avoid stress until it gets out of hand.  You deserve to feel calm and balanced, so address your stress today.

6. Sit in an ergonomically correct way to prevent pain and injury.

7. Believe in your ability to make positive changes in your life.  Treat every challenge as part of the process of making change.  It is not failure!

8. Remember that if you don’t take care of yourself nobody will get the best version of you, including your family, so take care of yourself.

9. Make sleep a priority. Sleep is not a waste of time.  It is vital to your wellbeing.  Everything seems a bit harder when you are tired.

10. If you try everything, and still feel fatigued, visit your doctor and ensure you don’t have a sleep disorder or another medical condition contributing to your fatigue.  These types of answers could change your life.

References:
*The Afternoon Slump, Healthy U Alberta, Alberta Health and Wellness, www.healthyalberta.com/healthyplaces/770.htm, Website last updated 2011

*Fatigue Fighting Tips, State Government of Victoria, http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/Fatigue_fighting_tips, Last updated 08/08/2011
*Healthy Eating at Work, Healthy U Alberta, Alberta Health and Wellness, www.healthyalberta.com/healthyplaces/876.htm, Website last updated 2011
*Work/Life Balance and New Workplace Challenges – Frequently Asked Questions For Individuals, Human Resources and Skill Development Canada, Government of Canada, http://www.hrsdc.gc.ca/eng/lp/spila/wlb/faq/01individuals.shtml, Updated 2005
*Need stress relief? Try the four A’s, Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/stress-relief/SR00037/NSECTIONGROUP=2 , July 23^rd 2010
*Good Body Position, Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety, http://www.ccohs.ca/oshanswers/ergonomics/sitting/sitting_position.html, Last updated Nov 1, 2010
*Leadership Wisdom From the Monk Who Sold his Ferrari The 8 Rituals of Visionary Leaders, Robin Sharma, HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, 1998
*Sleepmanual, Wilfred R. Pigeon Ph.D, Barron’s Educational Series Inc. 2010

I recently ran our ‘Office Worker Wellness’ workshop for the HR Department of a Municipal Government.  I asked the group how long they spend sitting each day.  The average answer was 10.5 hours a day!  Around the world the average daily sitting time per person is half their awake time (approx 9 hours).  This is a high number, so I was a little bit shocked to hear that this group was so much higher than the global average.  I thought it over though and it makes sense.  There are many people around the world standing all day at work… so these averages (unfortunately) make a lot of sense.  These were people that sit all day in their cubicle/office, drive to and from work, sit to eat, sit down to relax at home etc.  Is this you?  Do you sit a lot each day?

How can sitting affect you?*

• Type 2 diabetes
• Heart disease
• Osteoporosis
• Arthritis
• Cancers
• High blood pressure
• Higher blood fat levels
• Poor blood circulation
• Digestive problems
• Muscle strain (Back, Neck, Wrists)
• Leg numbness
• Too much abdominal fat
• Obesity
• Fatigue
• Injury

*As per the Canadian
Centre for Occupational Health and Safety, http://www.ccohs.ca/oshanswers/ergonomics/sitting/sitting_overview.html
and the American College of Sports Medicine, May 28^th 2009. http://www.acsm.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Home_Page&TEMPLATE=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm&CONTENTID=12889

What should you do?  Move!  Get up and take an active break.  Don’t sit down when you get home.  Do something active today.  Lunch time walk or walking meeting anyone?? :) Don’t let sitting harm you.  It really can.

Over and out.

April Smith

I recently spoke at a Conference for Personal Trainers/Fitness Professionals in Edmonton and we discussed Building Positive Relationships with Clients.  It was a very rewarding topic for me to talk about and I would like to share some of the main points.  I feel like this is something that many people struggle with and could really benefit from discussing, so I hope you get some ideas to help you in your quest for better client relationships!

The major challenges that the group identified were:

-Dealing with unrealistic expectations from clients

-Disrespect

-Stressed out clients

-Personal stress effecting them at work and making positive relationships tough.

-Clients that are not ready for change (most of the people in this group were personal trainers and fitness instructors)

-Too much to do at work.  Feeling overwhelmed.  People indicated that these things cut down on their motivation and ability to build positivity with their clients.

-Working with so many people that it makes it hard to focus on any individual relationships.

-Clients that have negative expectations or lack of belief in themselves, thus effecting their motivation to work on positive relationships with you.

Some of the solutions we discussed:

-Taking a moment to understand your clients.  Listening, asking questions and seeking to understand them through perception can really boost relationships.  Everyone is different and experiencing their own challenges before you see them.  It is vital to realize people may not be reacting to you, but to something else going on, when they behave negatively or different than they normally do.  A little bit of understanding goes a long way!

-Having clear boundaries.  You may be there to provide excellent customer service, but you do not deserve abuse.  In a calm, reasonable way it is important to let people know that you have boundaries and deserve respect if they are acting harmfully towards you.  It is best to do this as soon as it becomes an issue or they will think their actions are ok.

-When a client has unrealistic expectations it is very important to let them know clearly that their expectations are not realistic.  It is important to follow up with what is realistic for the situation.  This can be done in a positive way that outlines what successful results could look like and how enthusiastic you are to be involved.  If you allow someone to move forward with unrealistic expectations they are far more likely to be unsatisfied with your work and with you later down the road.

-Make an effort to learn client’s names.  This shows a lot of respect and builds trust.  It is a great place to start in your efforts to build positive client relationships.

-Take care of yourself.  Make your own wellbeing a priority.  If you don’t feel well and are not helping yourself you are far less likely to be able to help others!

We talked about a significant amount of additional information in this workshop….but these were some of the major points we covered.  Good luck in building positive relationships with your clients!!!!

Contact Vitalize to book a workshop in your workplace.  I love spreading wellness to workplaces. 

Over and out

April

I find that many of the stories we hear are about unhealthy workplaces.  North America is behind in terms of the growing trend towards wellness in the workplace.  Other areas of the world seem to be ahead of us.  There are some amazing success stories out there though and I often have the pleasure of being involved in them and hearing about them.  :)  Every time I see or hear an example of wellness and positivity in a workplace it brightens my day and provides me with new reserves of motivation and energy.  If you have a story to share please contact me or leave a comment here on this blog.  Please enjoy the short examples below:

-I recently worked with Alberta Motor Association and had a great experience.  Their dedication to getting a wellness program implemented for their shift workers was truly an inspiration to me.  I will never forget one of the managers asking me how they could plan a roll out to ensure their employee team received maximum benefit from the implementation of the wellness programming.  The time and energy that this organization took to invest in their employees was one of the most fantastic examples of a ‘corporate wellness’ roll out that I have ever seen.  I love how they are making the wellness of their employees a priority from a management level and making this belief a part of how they run their business.  I look forward to hearing their success stories. 

-I was sitting at an event run by a local business called Opulence by Design and I met a wonderful person that manages the construction of large buildings.   They are currently working on an amazing office tower downtown Edmonton.  He told me about a person on his team that took personal initiative to bring active living into an inactive job (crane operator). This employee would sit for his entire shift because of the nature of his job.  He decided to climb the stairs up to the top of this office tower and then to the top of his crane at the beginning of each of his shifts!  He would then take the stairs all the way down to ground level at the end of his shift!  What a great idea to ensure he stays active.  Jumping high five to him!  :)  Thanks to the person that shared this story with me and Kudos to the crane operator that took initiative and made his health and wellbeing a priority!  This strengthened my belief that Stairwell Wellness Programs really are a very usable idea that can provide real results for participants!

-I also recently heard about a work site North of Fort McMurray, Alberta that has implemented a stretching program for their employees and is doing this regularly.  The benefits that a stretching program can have in terms of the prevention of injury are incredible. When I started my corporate wellness career at Suncor Energy I implemented a stretching program for many of their employees.  That was such a long time ago that I had forgotten how much that had helped that group of employees.  Thanks to that success story that I recently heard I plan to re-introduce a stretching program as one of the services at Vitalize.  I am pretty excited to pull on some spandex and help people prevent injuries again!  Kidding.  Well…. on the spandex part… not the injury prevention part. 

-I have been working with an airline in the last month and I have been amazed by their dedication to employee wellness and safety.  I have been very impressed by the fatigue management systems that they have in place.  I worked to empower them on their quest to help their shift workers stay well and safe and I can tell that they will use that information and provide their employees with very beneficial courses.   As a facilitator of wellness information I get a lot out of working with organizations that really use the information so that their people receive a boost in wellness and safety!  I am in the process of launching a series of fatigue management services and what this airline has done in the area of safety and wellness gave me some additional ideas to pass on to others.   I learn a great deal from my clients….and then turn around and use that knowledge with future clients.  What a rewarding job I have!  Thanks JP.

-The other day I saw a group of employees using the stairs at lunch in their organization when I was leaving a meeting.  It reminded me that wellness in the workplace genuinely helps people.  When I see things like that they help me wake up every morning with a smile on my face ready to help make people and organizations well.

There are so many other success stories that I have in the files of my brain… and I will share more again!  If you have a success story I would LOVE to hear it!! 

Yours in Wellness,

April

Working in a negative work environment can really make life tough.  What can you do to increase the positivity in your workplace?  If we all do our part we could end up in a much more positive situation at work and that could be life changing!  Here are some tips to try:

1.  Talk about positive things at work: 

If you have positive things to say, you are more likely to attract positive people, positive comments and positive results.

2.  Sleep: 

If you are well rested you are more likely to handle stress positively and react positively to others. 

3.  Bring a healthy lunch to work and healthy snacks: 

This may help you feel well and also help your energy levels stay up.  Eating snacks that give you a quick energy boost and then a crash like sugar treats and caffeine could negatively affect your mood.  This could then affect your relationships with others around you.  Healthy, well balanced snacks can help keep your energy levels more consistent and also ensure you are not starving.  I know I am not easy to get along with if I am really hungry.  J

4.  Seek first to understand and then to be understood: 

Everyone is really different.  Even people that you grew up next door are likely very different from you due to different parents, different lives, different beliefs etc… If you find yourself in disagreements with co-workers due to misunderstandings try asking them some question and learn more about them so that you can build understanding.  Also, if someone is acting out of the ordinary and bothering you in the process ask them what is going on …. or if they are ok.  There is always a reason that someone acts hurtful.  People don’t wake up in the morning and try to do things to bother you. They are just trying to get through their own day.

5.  Have positive things that you can bring up when everyone seems to be on a complainathon! 

When everyone starts feeding off of each other’s negativity it can bring the whole team down.  Something as simple as mentioning the beautiful weather, saying something nice to someone or mentioning a fun event coming up can change the course of an entire conversation.

6.  Choose your battles: 

Some things are worth addressing and some are not.  Ask yourself… is this a hill I want to die on today?  Can you do anything about it and is it really worth the effort? 

7.  Celebrate Successes:

Instead of just spending time fixing issues at work take time to acknowledge and celebrate the things that go well!

These are just some ideas.  There are many other things you can try!  I am having a tough day at work today so I thought I would share some of the ideas we talk about in our workshops on building a positive workplace to help spread good things on a day like today.  We all have stressful days at work. Take a moment to try to turn your day around.  It is possible.  J

Over and Out

April

Lately I have noticed a very distinct trend with questions and stories that clients/associates are telling me in relation to shift work.  Most comments seem to be linked to safety.  There are, of course, many important wellness related topics for shift workers and many of these topics affect safety.  Shift Work Wellness/Safety becomes quite ‘front and centre’ in an organization when someone gets hurt or a ‘near miss’ accident occurs.  It seems to me that when a shift worker is not taking care of them self they are far more likely to get hurt.  A lot of this is linked to fatigue.  Fatigue has the effects of having a blood alcohol level of 0.048% and after 24 hours of being awake a person performs similar to a person with a blood alcohol level of 0.098%.* This is causing accidents which hurt and kill people and/or damage equipment and vehicles.   Definitely an issue worth addressing!

Some of the stories that I have heard lately include accidents and fatigue issues early in the morning after a night shift on the way home from a shift.  Backing up accidents in vehicles seem to be prevalent.  One of the most unbelievable stories I have heard on this topic was about a nurse having hallucinations on the drive home.  She actually thought she saw a plane crash when there had not been one.  The person she was driving with was quite alarmed when she slammed on the brakes and starting yelling that they needed to help save the people in the plane crash!  Needless to say the other nurse decided to drive the rest of the way home.  Very scary.  I’ve also met people that have fallen asleep at stop lights on the way home as well as shift workers that have counted how many seconds they can close their eyes while driving so that they will stay in their lane while they rest their eyes.  This is shocking! I have also talked to many, many people that often do not remember how they got home after pulling up in the driveway.  

Another scary story that I have heard quite a few times is that many equipment operators are falling asleep and hitting the berm (embankment) on the side of the road in the mines where they are driving haul trucks!  Those haul trucks are incredibly huge and accidents can be very detrimental!  Recently I even heard about a shift worker that was operating a crane that dropped the load his crane was lifting due to fatigue and demolishing a bunch of scaffolding.  This scaffolding happened to have many people attached to it because they all had their life lines tied to the scaffolding.  Nobody was hurt, but that was an example of a large cluster of ‘near misses’ that could have resulted in death!  I’ve also listened to large numbers of nurses, doctors and equipment operators etc… that reported that they often can’t remember where they are in the middle of doing something because they are so tired! 

I’ve been chatting with many, many shift workers in the last 10 years and it is alarming to me that so many workers are functioning at this level of impairment due to fatigue.  This can be prevented!  I won’t get into every idea that I teach about through the Shifting to Wellness Program for preventing fatigue and/or dealing with fatigue when it happens… but I would like to chat about some vital ideas.  This is a topic I would like to discuss again because I think it is important. 

The main ideas I would like to cover right now, in terms of prevention of fatigue related accidents, are:

1.  Paying back sleep debt and making sleep a priority.

The best thing to do to prevent the impact of fatigue is obviously to get some good quality sleep.  Make it a priority.  Pay back your sleep debt if you have been sleeping less than you need to.  Your safety and the safety of others may depend on it!  Become aware of what your issues are with getting enough sleep, and getting a quality sleep….and start making a plan to remedy the situation.  This is worth some time and energy.

2.  Awareness of the seriousness of the effects of fatigue.

Just realizing that being really tired is a form of impairment is a huge step in making changes with your fatigue levels.  When you realize how important this is it will help you prevent accidents.  I worked with a group of approximately 400 people at an oil company once in a wellness pilot project in the Oil Sands about 10 years ago.  We were regularly talking about the incidence of sprain and strain injuries during the really low energy times of the night.  Just talking about it and keeping it fresh in people’s minds cut down on sprain and strain injuries with this group by 90% over a 4 month period!!!  That was amazing because less people got hurt and also the company benefited due to less lost time and compensation!  It was a win/win.  Be aware of the dangers of fatigue and how the likelihood of getting hurt or killed, hurting or killing others, or ruining equipment increases exponentially when you are fatigued.  Be aware and take the necessary precautions.  In the years since that pilot project almost every Shift Work Wellness/Safety related project I have worked on has backed up my belief in the importance of fatigue awareness.

3.  Communication

Communication is also very key.  If you are at a dangerous level of fatigue… TELL SOMEONE.  It might be embarrassing but it can save lives.  I know that when I was a summer student out in British Columbia working shift work one summer, my boss told me that if I was really tired I needed to tell him.  A few years before two summer students had been driving out to do some work on the side of the highway and the driver had fallen asleep at the wheel.  The passenger was killed and the driver badly injured.  They had been out late the night before and were very tired.  That was completely preventable!  Communicate your fatigue to someone.  It might not be you that gets hurt…. you might be preventing a loss for someone else.  I saw a commercial not too long ago that was a drinking and driving awareness advertisement.  It said “what or who are you willing to live with?”  It was referring to what you are willing to do or who you are willing to hurt to get behind the wheel while impaired.  Being fatigued is a form of impairment.  Stay safe.  You work hard and deserve to enjoy your retirement… and so do the people around you.

If you have anything to share with me that will help me help others, I really would really like you to make a comment or contact me directly. 

*Information from the Shifting to Wellness Program.

Take Care! 

April Smith

Some Tips for Preventing That….

A couple months ago a friend of mine started working shift work.  He had never worked shift work before and didn’t know any of the tips that can make a huge difference in how a person feels in this situation.  He was taken off straight days and put on 5 nights – 2 days off each week without any notice.  Due to my background as a shift work wellness specialist I really noticed many examples of adjustment in his life.  His first struggle seemed to be sleeping during the day.  He was so completely exhausted but still could not sleep!  He started to get desperate and when I talked to him it was like talking to someone that had been drinking quite a bit.  He just didn’t make much sense.  He was so sleep deprived that he had reached a dangerous level of fatigue.  I don’t think I would have let him drive me somewhere.  I asked him about how he was sleeping. He told me that he was going home in the morning and trying to go to the gym to ‘wear himself out’ so that he could sleep.  He was then having a meal and then drinking a couple beer out of desperation.  He figured that would get him to wind down and get to sleep.  I can see why he would do all of these things. Logically they make sense, but he was actually sabotaging his sleep in a number of different ways without even knowing it!  When a person starts shift work there is normally no info session to help them with some of the basics of shift work wellness and it really is too bad in my opinion.  If he had known some key pieces of information he likely would not have been doing these things.

The first thing that I would recommend would be to go to bed as soon as possible after a night shift.  Staying up allows you to see increasingly more amounts of light, which signals the body that It is time to be awake.  Also, as humans we are built to be awake during the day and asleep at night so our body temperature/alertness levels rise during the day to reflect this.  It is a natural part of the way our bodies work.  This means that the longer you wait to go to sleep, the harder it will likely be to get to sleep because your body temperature and alertness levels are naturally going up.  The faster you get into bed the better after a night shift. 

The second thing I caught as a red flag in his sleep quality and quantity potential was the fact that he was working out in order to wear himself out.  Exercise can actually release endomorphines and adrenaline into the body that can cause a natural high in the body.  This can potentially make a person feel very wide awake and alert and make sleep difficult.  It would be best to do your work out after your sleep period and make sleep the first thing you do after a night shift.

Thirdly, he was eating quite a large meal before going to sleep in an effort to ensure he didn’t wake up hungry.  I agree that you don’t want to go to bed with hunger, but stick with a light snack so that it doesn’t sit in your system trying to digest while you lay down trying to sleep.  This can disturb your sleep.

My last observation is the fact that he was drinking with the thought that it would help him get to sleep.  I am not a doctor, so I won’t get into specifics but alcohol and may other drugs (both legal and illegal) can sabotage your sleep quality.  The quality and quantity of your sleep are both extremely important.  I would not recommend using alcohol to help you sleep.  It can cut down on the quality of the sleep, can create a cycle of dependency and can also affect your health in other ways like weight and blood pressure.  When it comes to any drugs please ask a doctor or pharmist what the effects on your sleep could be.  It is shocking how many drugs can negatively impact your sleep.  Ask lots of questions. 

When you don’t get enough sleep, or the quality of your sleep is not enough it can really impact your life.  When you feel fatigue it is similar to being impaired and can also lead to many health problems.  Make your sleep quality and quantity a priority in your life because it really can affect all other areas of your life.  Educate yourself about sleep and try different (healthy) ideas until something works for you.  It is worth the effort.  The information in this blog comes from the Shifting to Wellness program, a course that helps shift workers stay well and safe.  I am a Shifting to Wellness Master Trainer and have worked with many shift workers over the years.  I truly believe in the benefit of having shift workers more aware of wellness specifically linked to shift work.  It helps people!  If you are the interested in the program please feel free to contact me. 

Take Care and Be Well!

Over and Out

April

I work a lot with shift workers helping people lead healthy/happy/well balanced lives and a topic that comes up often is balancing relationships with children when working shift work.  Due to this fact I decided to interview a child that has both parents working shift work, and find out what this child thinks about it.  I felt like there could be some valuable information that could come out of it!  I found a seven year old little girl and sat her down over some juice and a cookie for a great chat on the topic.  J  I am going to just write the conversation out in a simple way… the way it was.

Me- What shifts do your parents work?

Child- They work nights, days and evenings.

Me- How does your parents work schedule affect you?

Child-

-I am a little bored when one person is working and the other one is taking a nap.  What am I supposed to do?  It is pretty boring.  If I want to eat something I don’t know how to make most things. 

-When someone is sleeping during the day and I am at home I usually watch TV, read books, play teacher and spend time in the basement playing.

-I have to be very quiet when mom or dad is sleeping because or they will wake up and be kind or grumpy and tired.

-Sometimes I go and stay with Nanny and Papa or a friend because mom and dad are at work at the same time.  I like that.  I have a lot of fun most of the time.

-Sometimes one parent misses something like a Christmas concert.  I understand that though because mom and dad work to make sure we have food on the table, a roof over our heads, heating in the house and clothes on us. (This child is obviously communicated with. J )

-My mom and dad can be grumpy sometimes when they are tired but it isn’t that often and I know that it is because they are tired.

-They are pretty organized and mom has a calendar that has mom and dad’s work schedules on it.  They are in different colors so that they know who works when.  It is pretty interesting. 

Me- Do you mind being organized?

Child- I don’t mind.  We get to do lots together because of being organized.  I don’t mind planning stuff if it means I get to go to the farm… or the mountains  … and other fun stuff like that with mom and dad.

Me- Do you think you will work shift work when you grow up?

Child- Well…. ummmm… I’ll probably have to.

Me- Why do you say that?

Child- Well mom works shift work, dad does and I think nanny does too so I think it is pretty normal.

Me- What do you want to be when you grow up?

Child- A kindergarten teacher.

I told her that teachers don’t always work shift work… but when they do planning or marking in the evening that is called an extended day, and that is considered shift work.  It is VERY common.

She thought that was reasonable.  J 

In my opinion, with some communication and planning it can be very healthy for a child to have shift workers as parents.  I think kids are very adaptable when communicated with.  This fantastic little girl obviously had been involved with the planning of things and talked to quite a bit.  Shift work makes healthy relationships with your children more difficult, but with some additional effort I think it is doable… and WELL worth the effort!

Over and Out.

April

Recently I spoke to the employees of an organization at their yearly retreat.  While I was standing up in front of this group I really learned some lessons that I would like to share with you. The major topics I covered were:

- Seeking to understand others and then to be understood. This is a very effective way to build relationships by building bridges of understanding.

-Listening to create positive relationships and respect.

-Dealing with Conflict in the workplace in a way that encourages a healthy work environment.

With this group a number of people came up to me to talk to me about the part about listening.  All these topics are extremely important, but this team really seemed to feel the part about ‘listening’.  This could also have been because I really felt that topic that day. 

In my opinion listening is one of the greatest gifts you can give another person.  Not just hearing… but listening.  Life seems to be very fast moving, especially at work these days.  People are getting caught up in the fast pace of it all and not listening to each other.  Taking a moment to hear about how someone’s day is going is an amazing way to build relationships!   Really hearing what they say, and focusing on them while they talk instead of letting the crazy world distract you, is a great way to understand people and show them respect.

It is funny because many people think that the people at a retreat listening to a seminar are the ones that are learning, but I feel like I learn as much from each group as they learn from me.  I saw many people put a very thoughtful, self reflective, look on their face that showed that they were realizing that they are guilty of some of the classic mistakes people make when listening….or I guess… not listening.  The top three comments that I received the biggest reactions from were:

-Interrupting people when they are talking due to distractions

-Deciding what you think another person is going to say and then hearing that… instead of what they actually say

-Thinking about what you are going to say while the other person is talking… instead of listening to them

Do you do any of these things?  Even the smallest changes in your listening skills can make a HUGE difference in your work relationships, your career, your life and in the person that you are. 

After doing that presentation I have decided that I am going to use my listening skills with everyone that I work with or know in my personal life … instead of excluding some people that don’t necessarily listen to me very well.  I have the ability to listen so I am going to be the bigger person and give them that gift even though they may not give it back.  As Gandhi said “We must be the change we wish to see in the world”.  J  That is my step forward from that presentation.

What change are you going to make in your listening to improve you work and/or home relationships?

Over and Out

April

The questions I asked:

1. What creates the largest amount of stress for you at work?
2. How do you deal with that stress?

Three great responses:

“My four biggest stressors at work are:

-I find tension between co-workers.  It affects everyone in the office and makes it uncomfortable being there. 

-Any time the word Budget gets mentioned

-Working too many hours

-Managing a team that is not always reliable”

“The biggest stressor at work is our current boss and his lack of respect for his people; from his Leaders on down to the people that work for us. He is one of the most militant folks that I have ever met and that is echoed by many of the other people that work here.
How do I cope… well sometimes fine but on other days not so well.  I have had a really bad year where I have had at least one, if not more, major negative impacts each month.  I try to cope by volunteering with Search and Rescue and other community organizations that add meaning to my life.”

“I’d have to say that the majority of my stress at work is time management / trying to meet deadlines. A lot of times I’ll have jobs piled up and they are scheduled to be completed for a certain date, but then other jobs come up that interfere, or things take longer than anticipated (due to customer delays or changes, not enough information, etc…).
Often times my solution has been to just put in more hours and try and get things wrapped up, but it’s not always a great solution if you are busy as there will always be work piling up. It starts to create a circle of working more and more, and trying harder to get things done, but it ends up being somewhat futile. Not exactly a healthy strategy in the end either.
If you have others that end up in the same boat, I’d definitely be interested in hearing about what they are doing to handle it.”

It seems to me like most people have a much easier time identifying stressors… but are struggling in finding solutions.   I guess that if people have found solutions that work completely for them they would not be telling me these things stress them out.  Stress at work can be very tough to deal with.  It can affect all aspects of your life and steal your balance and wellbeing.  This makes finding solutions worth the time and energy it requires. 

As identified by these responses, as well as others, the major areas of challenge in terms of work stress include:

-Conflicts with co-workers

-Lack of/or negative leadership

-Hard decision making situations

-Time management

-Leading a team that you don’t always have complete comfort with

-Having stress in your personal life that you can’t seem to stop from affecting you in your work

- Financial

-Job security

-Not feeling appreciated and/or respected

The list goes on…

I believe the first step in dealing with work stress, and any stress for that matter, is to become aware of what is stressing you out.  What is REALLY stressing you out?  You might think it is that lady you work with that always steals your stapler and interrupts when you work …. But it likely goes deeper than that.  Maybe you are letting things bother you because you don’t feel appreciated.  Please think about that.  It is very hard to solve a problem before you know what it is. 

I would like to pass this over to you for ideas…

What suggestions do you have in how to deal with work stress?  Why does it work? 

Stay tuned for more on this topic.

Over and Out

April