Stress in the Workplace-Four Things You May Not Know About Job Stress

1. Stress is healthy!  Are you feeling frazzled and frustrated by stress at work? Like most of us you’ve lost your ability to discern a healthy challenge from an overwhelming demand. The truth is that a stress-free workplace would feel BORING! How long can you really stare at your belly-button? The secret is to enable yourself to know when good stress goes bad. You can have too much of a good thing! For example your promotion at work means more money along with more demands on your time. At first you enjoy the challenge. Revenues rise and you’re proud of the results you achieve. You feel excited and enthusiastic about your work. Then your boss dumps more and more work on you. How do you handle this?

1. Your response-ability determines your stress level! Silent fuming adds anger to the volatile mix of ingredients in stress on the job. This sets you up for a knee jerk reaction and you explode at your boss’ unfairness. You lose control and say things you later regret. In the words of Ambrose Bierce “Speak when you are angry and you will make the best speech you’ll ever regret.” You may not realize that you have any choice BUT to explode. It is your responsibility to perfect your response-ability. This know-how will save you from a reactive melt-down and ensure your ability to manage stress at work.

1. “The pause that refreshes you best”. This refers to the magical ¼ of a second you have to CHOOSE your response rather than simply react in knee jerk fashion. You may feel you react instantly, but in reality there exists a fraction of a second for you to gain control. Awareness is your best tool to deal with workplace stress. Pay attention to your mental thoughts and physical feelings before you reach critical mass and explode (or implode!). 

1. Fear fails to motivate us. We know that job stress contributes to illness and may even be a killer. We also know that smoking, eating junk food, excessive alcohol consumption and not exercising are unhealthy habits.  Yet we persist in such practices, literally contributing to our own demise. Why? Fear fails to motivate us to change! “Joy is a more powerful motivator than fear.” states Dr. Dean Ornish. Dr. Ornish is the founder of the Preventative Medicine Research Institute in California and creator of a revolutionary program to reverse heart disease. Instead of trying to motivate heart patients with the conventional ‘fear of death’ approach, Dr. Ornish inspires his patients with the ‘joy of living’.  What brings you joy on your job? Reverse workplace stress by changing your focus from fear to fun! Have fun at work! How? When stress at work threatens to overwhelm you, sing a silly song! Sing this ditty to the tune of “Let It Snow”:

        “Oh my boss’ behavior is frightful

         To choke the ____out of him would feel delightful

         But then off to jail I would go

         Let it go, let it go, let it go.”