Work Related Stress
Don’t Be A Victim Of Workplace Stress
Work related stress is probably cited as one of the main causes of stress in our lives. This is understandable when you consider that we spend about a third of our lives at work.
Workplace stress not only affects us differently depending on our own personality types and coping strategies but also where are in the hierarchy within our place of work.
For instance the stresses which may affect a boss can be completely different for someone working on the shop floor. Either way the stress relief coping techniques are the same, apart from maybe the one where you can change the situation to prevent stress in the first place.
Unfortunately if you are a junior member within your company it is unlikely that you will have the power to change some possible stressors such as lighting or office layout, but hey give it a go anyway.
Main work stresses covered:
- Stressful jobs - is your work a cause of job stress
- Does your work environement make you stressed?
- Commuting causing work stress
- Your job role and workplace stress
- Particular stresses related to women at work
Stress and the working woman
 |
The number of women who now go out to work has dramatically increased over the years. Being a woman myself I think this is great as it gives us the freedom to choose to work if we want to, be financial independent as well as enabling us to contribute to the family finances
However as with everything there is a down side and women, especially mothers who work as well, will be susceptible to stressors which our male counterparts do not experience. These are:
- Household chores at the end of a working day (yes I know some men do this too)
- Feelings of guilt due to the inability to give the children enough time and being what society calls a traditional mother.
- Monthly PMT or the onset of the menopause, which can greatly affect the ability to work as affectively.
Life without work
Another great cause of work related stress, is not having any to do, either caused by redundancy or retirement.
You would think that not having to go to work would be everyone’s dream, but financial pressures, worries and shear boredom are all in themselves big causes of stress.
The secret here is to:
Unemployed or retired, once boredom, despondency, fear or laziness set in, then stress and its related illness are never far behind. So find something to do, anything is better than nothing, find new interests, new hobbies or sort that garden out. Read the coping with stress and stress technique pages to help you.
Work related stress causes
Here is a short list of some of the possible causes of work related stress:
- Mis-match of personality to job
- Lack of understanding of job role
- Skills being underused or stretched
- Having too much to do
- Having too little to do
- Lack of communication from bosses
- Changes in job role
- Deadlines and time restraints
- Stressful work environments
- The work commute
These are just a few of work related stress from external sources; however stress at work can also come from within too.
Many people unwittingly cause stress themselves by:
- Setting themselves unrealistic goals or targets
- Trying to do too much at once
- Trying to make changes too quickly
- Asking too much of their staff and causing conflict
Are you stressed at work - Identifying the sources of work related stress?
Does this sound like you?
“I can’t cope with all the work I have, I do more than everyone else anyway and I often end up taking work home with me to do in the evenings.”
If so then yes I would say that you are suffering from work related stress. But let’s be more specific, if you can identify the actual causes of your stress, it is more likely that you will be able to make some changes in these areas and so reduce the stress.
Scoring: Highly Stressful 3, Moderately stressful 2, Low Stress 1, No Stress 0 |
|||
| Lack of job satisfaction | managing others | ||
| Work politics | Making decisions and plans | ||
| Too much work to do | Levels of support and encouragement | ||
| Can't switch off from work at home | Hours of work | ||
| Little feedback from bosses | Time demands | ||
| Time pressures | Having A clear job role | ||
| Take work home a lot | career prospects | ||
| Conflict in the workplace | Changes in job role / duties | ||
| Home life being affected by work | Home and work conflicts | ||
| Low morale at work | Physical working conditions | ||
| Meetings and presentations | Lack of variety in job | ||
| No one to confide in at work | Family conflicts regarding work | ||
| Salary | Confidence in own work skills | ||
| relationship with manager | Relationship with work colleagues | ||
| Worry about making a mistake at work | Boredom at work | ||
| Lack of training | Role at work not defined | ||
| Not enough to do at work | Changes outside of work | ||
| Job security | Too many different roles to play | ||
Your Score (add up the individual colours)
below 5 |
5 - 8 |
over 8 |
|
Workload |
Workload not too heavy | On the verge of becoming stressful | Workload is stressful to you, changes need to be made here |
Role |
Role well defined and non stressful | Some clarication of your role is needed to prevent it becoming stressful. | You need your job to be fully defined and outlined for you, seek this from your managers |
Responsibility |
Responsibilty is does not worry you | You have some difficulties tkaing responsibilty at work | Ask for help and support, some training may help here as you are having difficuties with your current levels of responsibility. |
Relationships |
relationships with work colleagues are fine | There may be some stress here with other at work. | Their is definately a issue with realtionships at work causing stress. Seek help from your support networks. |
Job Satisfaction |
You enjoy your job | You would like your job to be a little more challeging ir satifying. | You have low job satisfaction. Could you cgange your current role at work or even change jobs? |
Home life |
Home and work life do not conflict or stress | There could be some problems here, take a closer look at why. | There is conflict here between home and work life. Make sure you define the boudaries of each and keep them seperate. |
Managing work related stress – tips on reducing stress
- Ask for help when things get too much
- Don’t take work home, work is work, home is home
- Don’t take on too much, say no (in a nice but assertive way of course) if you feel under pressure
- Plan your workload. Don’t put difficult tasks off; you’ll only worry about them.
- Don’t use crutches to get you through the day. Smoking and drinking at lunch time on a regular basis will only add to your problems.
- Take breaks through out the day. These will help recharge your batteries and in the long run help you complete your work well.
- Make sure you have an active social life outside of work.
Getting things off your chest is also a good way to relieve stress build up at work. If you don't have someone you can do this with, then the next best thing is to get it all down on paper (or keyboard). In fact you can dom that right here on the site, use our STRESS AT WORK RANT BOARD to find some stress relief.
 |
