Your printer malfunctioned for the umpteenth time today. Your lady boss is acting weird all day. Your in-tray is so full that it looks like a compost mountain. Your phones keep ringing and your report is overdue. Now, you start questioning yourself what have you been doing all day. Does this sound familiar? Surely,most people would agree that their job gives them a lot of stress.
At work, as in life, there are many things that are beyond our control. Our reaction towards these situations is the only thing we have control over. Some pressure at work can be motivating, but when it becomes too much it can eventually lead to work-related stress. Therefore, stress is the antagonistic reaction people have to extreme pressures and demands placed on them. The main reasons given for work stress include work pressure, lack of support from administrators and work-related violence and bullying. Stress symptoms include a pounding heart or palpitations, a dry mouth, headaches, odd aches and pains and even loss of appetite for food.
Speaking of stress, of course, it’s not all bad. Stress can make encourage a person to work harder and consequently, to perform better. However, the way you deal with stress can lead to unhealthy behaviors, such as smoking and drinking too much, which might increase your risk of heart disease. Therefore, good stress management in the workplace is critical to your overall health.
So how do we beat stress at work? One of the key skills to managing workplace stress is knowing how to say no. You have to constantly challenge and remind yourself that you have a choice not to overwork. You just need to be empowered and believe that you have a choice. Secondly, you should also learn to recognize the physical effects of stress and do something about it before it makes you really ill. Beware of work stress spilling over into other areas of your life. Lastly, don’t be so hard on yourself. Much of our stress is self-imposed. Most of us set targets concerning preferred salaries or positions on the corporate ladder. When you don’t achieve your targets, you get stressed and depressed. Recognize that achievement and accomplishment are in the eye of the beholder, and that ambitions take time, opportunity and, often, luck to materialize. Don’t take yourself too seriously.
In the end, you have to repeat telling yourself that it’s close to impossible to get rid of every stressor from the office. You may not even want to do that, as some stress can be beneficial to you and encourage you to meet targets and keep your head on straight.
By: Cecille C. Viray | Admin Aid – I | Bataan National High School
