Stress is part of everyone in our day-to-day lives. It is normal for anyone to go through a stressing moment occasionally, but excessive stress is worse, as it interferes with our work productivity, and affects our physical and psychological health. For the working people, their main sources of stress are the challenges in their working places, and from their social lives and families (Lynda 102).
Young people go through stress because of the workload at school and from their peers, as well as their family members. Luckily, there are several solutions on how one can manage and reduce the level of stress at the working place. If everyone can manage his or her stress successfully, the chances of passing its effects to other people are reduced, but if left to overcome one, its effects can be passed to everyone in the workplace.
To begin with, taking responsibility for one’s duties can help one to improve his physical and psychological welfare. The people, who are irresponsible in their working places, undergo extra stressing moments as they feel like failures and liable to blame due to their acts. Through learning better ways of communication in the working place will improve the relationship of the person with his fellow employees and with the management.
In case of anything, he or she is unable to handle or may require some assistance; such a person would be in a position to pass his worries to the others and find a solution (Chappell and Martino 96). Some people in the working place suffer just because they do not know how to communicate their struggles to the management or the relevant people.
Moreover, taking care of oneself may help a great deal to reduce levels of stress. For instance, if there are some causes of stress at the working place, it is advisable for one to take some actions and manage his or her personal life (Furnham 113). One is supposed to start with the most sensitive aspects such as physical and psychological health.
When one’s health is good, and other physical needs are available, one feels strong and more positive to face life. One feels better and fully equipped to handle all sorts of challenges without letting anything to overcome his or her strengths. One should not use large amounts of money to take care of his personal life, but small things can also lift ones well being like dressing smartly and comfortably.
Lifting one’s mood should be a process of one step at a time. When one is facing some form of stress at the working place, he or she should get set in a moving mood through being engaged in aerobic exercises. Through those perspiring exercises, one increases body energy as well as making the mind and the body to relax. These exercises can be tried everyday or in several days per week depending on the level of stress.
As one gets the mind busy in exercise, he or she should come up with food choices that would enable him to maintain the energy and as well feel good (Furnham 501). People with stress are advised to take small energetic foods in frequent moods throughout the day, to maintain a good level of sugar in the body. During the stressing moments, the body uses much energy hence lowering the blood sugars.
If one is an alcoholic, he or she should take alcohol in moderation and at the same time avoid nicotine. On a temporary basis, alcohol can help to reduce fears and worries, but too much of it can increase the level of anxiety. This is a way of reducing stress but should be used carefully, as it may lead to alcohol abuse and psychological dependence.
Although stress makes one to lack sleep, one should also enjoy enough sleep, to have the ability to handle the stressing issues. One of the most important factors of one to cope with the working stress is having enough rest while at home. Other known ways of reducing stress at workplaces are through prioritizing and organizing responsibilities.
The fact that one is undergoing some form of stress does not mean that he or she will not perform the required duties. The best way of approaching the responsibilities during this stressing moment is by creating a balanced schedule for all the daily tasks (Stranks 74). It is good for one to balance office work and family responsibilities. As one tries to satisfy both sides of work, some in between breaks should do well to such a person.
As he or she relaxes from the daily tasks, this person gets a good time to reflect on other issues that bring stress to his life and how to solve them. If one is in such a condition, he or she should not put too many commitments at a limited time. In case there are so many tasks to be gone through in a single day, such a person is supposed to define the things that must be done, and the things that should be (Furnham 621).
The list of duties should start with those that are necessary, and those that are less important should not be done or be done later. Avoiding lateness especially in the morning can greatly help the situation. A stressed person at the workplace should leave the house earlier and arrive in the office like 10-20 minutes earlier. This will avoid much rushing in the office that can add more stress.
This allowance of time would allow this person to ease and set ready for daily tasks. As one attends the daily tasks, there is also a need to plan for regular breaks throughout the day. Taking short breaks where such a person can sit back and clear the mind, during the lunch break this person should leave that desk and take a short walk to break the monotony of sitting in that desk.
Sitting in that desk for long may add more thoughts of the stressing issues as their cause are that same office. By taking these short breaks away from the office, will make this person relax, and improve the working productivity. By managing the daily tasks well, one can successfully reduce the level of stress.
At times, a stressed person may have a big project ahead, and the stressing moment does not qualify her or him to fail or escape from completing the project. Such a person should make a plan of small steps. The focus of this person should be to manage these small steps one at a time instead of the entire project (Melanie 85).
Taking the whole project at the same time may lead to a status of making things worse, because at one point or the other this person may fail to accomplish the goals. Sometimes, the workload may be too much for this person to bear. During this stressing moment, one can delegate some of the responsibilities for some other people to take care of some steps.
The desire of being the overall boss should not be applicable in such times, through delegating some responsibilities; one would be escaping from some unnecessary stress. Another simple and best way of helping one to reduce the level of stress at the working place is by improving emotional intelligence (Furnham 212). This is whereby a person can manage and control his or her emotions in a friendly and positive manner.
One can use intelligent ways to approach others and draw them nearer to overcome the differences and treat the wounded areas. If the stress is coming from the boss or the fellow employees, one can intelligently approach the relevant person and solve everything amicably. There is nobody born with emotional intelligence, its something that can be learned by anybody.
For one to succeed in solving stressing issues through emotional intelligence is when one develops self-awareness whereby he or she can recognize the emotions and their immediate impacts before he or she makes any decisions. Through doing self-management such as trying all the best to control the emotions and getting used to various changes.
One can also benefit through influencing and connecting with others in such a way that it will be easier to solve conflicts. Stress should be managed, as it is part of our normal lives. The impact of excessive stress is unbearable as they can result in some serious cases like feeling depressed, and lack of interest in working. Due to stress, some people have developed some problems in concentrating on whatever duty they may be assigned whether in
Work or in social lives. Workplace stress impacts also affect other family members, and friends of the victim when some health problems develop like muscle tensions and serious headaches (Melanie 47). Stress has forced people to become antisocial in their social lives, and some decide to turn to alcohol and drugs as a way of solving their problems.
Most people who face stress in their workplaces have problems of underperforming as they perform their duties with fear and unsettled mind.In conclusion, every problem has a way of solving it. The problems and differences that cause stress in working place should be solved in advance before they cause stress to anybody in an organization.
The organization management team should have a way of handling various issues that are likely to cause some sort of stress. The employees as well should be quick and ready to report such severe cases that may later disturb their peace (Furnham 89).
For the unavoidable circumstances, any organization should establish the guiding and counseling team where the stressed workers should get help before their status goes to the extreme. It is the responsibilities of everyone in the organization starting from the management to the employees to help each other in avoiding and managing stress.
Works Cited
Chappell, Duncan and Martino Vittorio. Violence at work. Oklahoma: International Labour Organization, 2006. Web.29 April 2011.
Furnham, Adrian. The psychology of behavior at work: The individual in the organization. London: Psychology Press, 2005. Web.29 April 2011.
Lynda, Macdonald. Wellness at work: Protecting and promoting employee health and wellbeing. New York: CIPD publishing, 2005. Web.29 April 2011.
Melanie, King. Surving Stress at Work: Understand it, Overcome it. New York: Trafford Publishing, 2006. Web.29 April 2011.
Stranks, Jeremy. Stress at work: Management and Prevention. New York: Butterworth Heinemann, 2005. Web.29 April 2011.