TIP OF THE WEEK

                                                                                       December 1, 2011

Did you know...? 

Stress at Work:  Tips to Reduce and Manage Job and Workplace Stress

***Editors note – This is a little long but I encourage everyone to read.  Holidays magnify stress making it an even more importation time to help employees cope.  Here are ways to help employees manage stress in the workplace.

While some stress is a normal part of the workplace (and life), excessive stress can interfere with your productivity and reduce your physical and emotional health.  Finding ways to manage workplace stress is not about making huge changes to every aspect of your work life or rethinking career ambitions.  Rather, stress management requires focus on the one thing that’s always within your control: you.

The ability to manage stress in the workplace can not only improve your physical and emotional health, it can also make the difference between success or failure on the job.  Your emotions are contagious, and stress has an impact on the quality of your interactions with others.  The better you are at managing your own stress, the more you'll positively affect those around you, and the less other people's stress will negatively affect you.

Early Warning Signs of Job Stress Include:

· Headache

· Sleep Disturbances

· Difficulty in Concentrating

· Short Temper

· Upset Stomach

· Job Dissatisfaction

· Low Morale

Job Stress and Health:  What the Research Tells Us

Cardiovascular Disease
Many studies suggest that psychologically demanding jobs that allow employees little control over the work process increase the risk of cardiovascular disease.

Musculoskeletal Disorders
On the basis of research by NIOSH and many other organizations, it is widely believed that job stress increases the risk for development of back and upper- extremity musculoskeletal disorders.

Psychological Disorders
Several studies suggest that differences in rates of mental health problems (such as depression and burnout) for various occupations are due partly to differences in job stress levels. (Economic and lifestyle differences between occupations may also contribute to some of these problems.)

Workplace Injury
Although more study is needed, there is a growing concern that stressful working conditions interfere with safe work practices and set the stage for injuries at work.

Suicide, Cancer, Ulcers, and Impaired Immune Function
Some studies suggest a relationship between stressful working conditions and these health problems. However, more research is needed before firm conclusions can be drawn.  (Encyclopedia of Occupational Safety and Health)

You can learn how to manage job stress

There are a variety of steps you can take to reduce both your overall stress levels and the stress you find on the job and in the workplace.  These include:

• Taking responsibility for improving your physical and emotional well-being.
• Avoiding pitfalls by identifying knee jerk habits and negative attitudes that add to the stress you experience at work.
• Learning better communication skills to ease and improve your relationships with management and coworkers.

Tip 1:  Reduce job stress by taking care of yourself 

When stress at work interferes with your ability to perform in your job, manage your personal life, or adversely impacts your health, it’s time to take action.  Start by paying attention to your physical and emotional health. When your own needs are taken care of, you’re stronger and more resilient to stress.  The better you feel, the better equipped you’ll be to manage work stress without becoming overwhelmed.

Taking care of you doesn’t require a total lifestyle overhaul. Even small things can lift your mood, increase your energy, and make you feel like you’re back in the driver’s seat.  Take things one step at a time, and as you make more positive lifestyle choices, you’ll soon notice a reduction in your stress levels, both at home and at work.

Get moving

Aerobic exercise—activity that raises your heart rate and makes you sweat—is a hugely effective way to lift your mood, increase energy, sharpen focus, and relax both the mind and body.  For maximum stress relief, try to get at least 30 minutes of heart-pounding activity on most days.  If it’s easier to fit into your schedule, break up the activity into two or three shorter segments.

Make food choices that keep you going

Low blood sugar can make you feel anxious and irritable, while eating too much can make you lethargic.  By eating small but frequent meals throughout the day, you can help your body maintain an even level of blood sugar and avoid these swings in mood.

Drink alcohol in moderation and avoid nicotine

Alcohol temporarily reduces anxiety and worry, but too much can cause anxiety as it wears off.  Drinking to relieve job stress may also eventually lead to alcohol abuse and dependence.  Similarly, smoking when you're feeling stressed and overwhelmed may seem calming, but nicotine is a powerful stimulant – leading to higher, not lower, levels of anxiety.

Get enough sleep

Not only can stress and worry can cause insomnia, but a lack of sleep can leave you vulnerable to even more stress.  When you're well-rested, it's much easier to keep your emotional balance, a key factor in coping with job and workplace stress.

Tip 2:  Reduce job stress by prioritizing and organizing

When job and workplace stress threatens to overwhelm you, there are simple steps you can take to regain control over yourself and the situation.  Your newfound ability to maintain a sense of self-control in stressful situations will often be well-received by coworkers, managers, and subordinates alike, which can lead to better relationships at work.  Here are some suggestions for reducing job stress by prioritizing and organizing your responsibilities.

Time management tips for reducing job stress

• Create a balanced schedule.  Analyze your schedule, responsibilities, and daily tasks.  All work and no play is a recipe for burnout.  Try to find a balance between work and family life, social activities and solitary pursuits, daily responsibilities and downtime.
• Don’t over-commit yourself.  Avoid scheduling things back-to-back or trying to fit too much into one day.  All too often, we underestimate how long things will take.  If you've got too much on your plate, distinguish between the "shoulds" and the "musts."  Drop tasks that aren't truly necessary to the bottom of the list or eliminate them entirely.
• Try to leave earlier in the morning.  Even 10-15 minutes can make the difference between frantically rushing to your desk and having time to ease into your day.  Don’t add to your stress levels by running late.
• Plan regular breaks.  Make sure to take short breaks throughout the day to take a walk or sit back and clear your mind.  Also try to get away from your desk or work station for lunch.  Stepping away from work to briefly relax and recharge will help you be more, not less, productive.

Task management tips for reducing job stress

• Prioritize tasks.  Make a list of tasks you have to do, and tackle them in order of importance.  Do the high-priority items first.  If you have something particularly unpleasant to do, get it over with early.  The rest of your day will be more pleasant as a result.
• Break projects into small steps.  If a large project seems overwhelming, make a step-by-step plan. Focus on one manageable step at a time, rather than taking on everything at once.
• Delegate responsibility.  You don’t have to do it all yourself.  If other people can take care of the task, why not let them?  Let go of the desire to control or oversee every little step.  You’ll be letting go of unnecessary stress in the process.
• Be willing to compromise.  When you ask someone to contribute differently to a task, revise a deadline, or change their behavior at work, be willing to do the same.  Sometimes, if you can both bend a little, you’ll be able to find a happy middle ground that reduces the stress levels for everyone concerned.

Tip 3: Reduce job stress by improving emotional intelligence

Learn to Recognize Hidden Stress

Even if you’re in a job where the environment has grown increasingly stressful, you can retain a large measure of self-control and self-confidence by understanding and practicing emotional intelligence.  Emotional intelligence is the ability to manage and use your emotions in positive and constructive ways.  When it comes to satisfaction and success at work, emotional intelligence matters just as much as intellectual ability.  Emotional intelligence is about communicating with others in ways that draw people to you, overcome differences, repair wounded feelings, and defuse tension and stress.

Emotional intelligence in the workplace:

Emotional intelligence in the workplace has four major components:

• Self-awareness – The ability to recognize your emotions and their impact while using gut feelings to guide your decisions.
• Self-management – The ability to control your emotions and behavior and adapt to changing circumstances.
• Social awareness – The ability to sense, understand, and react to other's emotions and feel comfortable socially.
• Relationship management – The ability to inspire, influence, and connect to others and manage conflict.

The five key skills of emotional intelligence

There are five key skills that you need to master in order to raise your emotional intelligence and manage stress at work.

• Realize when you’re stressed, recognize your particular stress response, and become familiar with sensual cues that can rapidly calm and energize you.  The best way to reduce stress quickly is through the senses: through sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch.  But each person responds differently to sensory input, so you need to find things that are soothing to you.
• Stay connected to your internal emotional experience so you can appropriately manage your own emotions.  Your moment-to-moment emotions influence your thoughts and actions, so pay attention to your feelings and factor them into your decision making at work.  If you ignore your emotions you won’t be able to fully understand your own motivations and needs, or to communicate effectively with others.
• Recognize and effectively use the nonverbal cues that make up 95-98% of our communication process.  In many cases, what we say is less important than how we say it or the other nonverbal signals we send out, such as eye contact, facial expression, tone of voice, posture, gesture and touch.  Your nonverbal messages can either produce a sense of interest, trust, and desire for connection–or they can generate confusion, distrust, and stress.  You also need to be able to accurately read and respond to the nonverbal cues that other people send you at work.
• Develop the capacity to meet challenges with humor.  There is no better stress buster than a hearty laugh and nothing reduces stress quicker in the workplace than mutually shared humor.  But, if the laugh is at someone else’s expense, you may end up with more rather than less stress.
• Resolve conflict positively.  Resolving conflict in healthy, constructive ways can strengthen trust between people and diffuse workplace stress and tension.  When handling emotionally-charged situations, stay focused in the present by disregarding old hurts and resentments, connect with your emotions, and hear both the words and the nonverbal cues being used.  If a conflict can’t be resolved, choose to end the argument, even if you still disagree.

Tip 4:  Reduce job stress by breaking bad habits 

As you learn to manage your job stress and improve your work relationships, you’ll have more control over your ability to think clearly and act appropriately.  You will be able to break habits that add to your stress at work – and you’ll even be able to change negative ways of thinking about things that only add to your stress.

Eliminate self-defeating behaviors

Many of us make job stress worse with negative thoughts and behavior.  If you can turn around these self-defeating habits, you’ll find employer-imposed stress easier to handle.

• Resist perfectionism.  No project, situation, or decision is ever perfect, so trying to attain perfection on everything will simply add unnecessary stress to your day.  When you set unrealistic goals for yourself or try to do too much, you’re setting yourself up to fall short.  Aim to do your best, no one can ask for more than that.
• Clean up your act.  If you’re always running late, set your clocks and watches fast and give yourself extra time.  If your desk is a mess, file and throw away the clutter; just knowing where everything is saves time and cuts stress.  Make to-do lists and cross off items as you accomplish them.  Plan your day and stick to the schedule — you’ll feel less overwhelmed.
• Flip your negative thinking.  If you see the downside of every situation and interaction, you’ll find yourself drained of energy and motivation.  Try to think positively about your work, avoid negative-thinking co-workers, and pat yourself on the back about small accomplishments, even if no one else does.
• Don’t try to control the uncontrollable.  Many things at work are beyond our control— particularly the behavior of other people.  Rather than stressing out over them, focus on the things you can control such as the way you choose to react to problems.

Five Ways to Dispel Stress

• Take time away.  When stress is mounting at work, try to take a quick break and move away from the stressful situation.  Take a stroll outside the workplace if possible, or spend a few minutes meditating in the break room.  Physical movement or finding a quiet place to regain your balance can quickly reduce stress.
• Talk it over with someone.  In some situations, simply sharing your thoughts and feelings with someone you trust can help reduce stress.  Talking over a problem with someone who is both supportive and empathetic can be a great way to let off steam and relieve stress.
• Connect with others at work.  Developing friendships with some of your co-workers can help buffer you from the negative effects of stress.  Remember to listen to them and offer support when they are in need as well.
• Look for humor in the situation.  When used appropriately, humor is a great way to diffuse stress in the workplace.  When you or those around you start taking things too seriously, find a way to lighten the mood by sharing a joke or funny story.

Tip 5: Learn how managers or employers can reduce job stress

It's in a manager's best interest to keep stress levels in the workplace to a minimum.  Managers can act as positive role models, especially in times of high stress, by following the tips outlined in this article.  If a respected manager can remain calm in stressful work situations, it is much easier for his or her employees to also remain calm.

The Holiday Season often brings an increase of stress and depression.  Help employees cope by providing resources and support before they need it.

To learn more ways to manage stress visit Helpguide.org.  The CDC and NIOSH have additional tips at http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/99-101/.  

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FLU SHOTS –OHS-COMPCARE is offering seasonal flu shots to clients again in 2011.  To be scheduled for an on-site or to learn more please contact client services at 816-561-2105 (option 1) or by email at clientservices@ohscompcare.com. 

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On-line appointments – did you know you can make an appointment on-line to have an employee seen at OHS-COMPCARE?  To learn more please contact client services at 816-561-2105 (option 1) or by email at clientservices@ohscompcare.com or simply follow this link to make an appointment:  http://www.ohscompcare.com/findAClinic/makeAnApt.asp.   

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***We are open Saturdays at our Independence location from 9am – 1pm to serve your occupational medicine and urgent care needs.  Our Independence location is open 5pm – 9pm Monday – Friday to serve your after hour needs as well***

*Please feel free to forward this information to any member of management in your company who would benefit from it.*

To view the Tip of the Week in Spanish please visit our Tip of the Week library at http://www.ohscompcare.com/totw/. 

To learn more about services OHS-COMPCARE has to offer, contact our Client Services Team at (816) 561-2105 option 1 or by e-mail at clientservices@ohscompcare.com.  You can also visit us at www.ohscompcare.com.

Why choose us?  Because OHS-COMPCARE has a physician on call 24/7/365 days a year to respond to our client's needs.

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OHS-COMPCARE now featuring Adult Quick Care (Urgent Care Services) has seven (7) area clinical facilities:

Independence Clinical Facility	Johnson County Clinical Facility	St. Joseph Clinical Facility	Grandview Clinical Facility
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816-842-2020	816-483-5550	913-596-2774

Adult Quick Care provides Urgent Care to Adults and Adolescents Age 14 and Older. 

No appointment is necessary at Adult Quick Care.

When you are sick or have a new injury, Adult Quick Care is your affordable, time saving choice for quality care.

To learn more about Adult Quick Care please call 816-559-6320 or visit www.adultquickcare.com.