Stress Management | Handle Stress

Some people are very well organized and rarely feel any stress: many of these people become managers dealing effortlessly with what life and work throws at them it seems. What managers often don’t appreciate if they never feel stress themselves is that not all of their employees will be the same and many will suffer from stress; it is also hard to understand the effects of stress, including severe long term stress, if you have never experienced it. A manager wants their staff working at their best and many think this means pushing them as hard a s possible and being demanding, not everyone is the same though and some employees won’t respond well and stress of high demands that are unrealistic can lead to poor performance as they become physically and mentally fatigued and staff may eventually suffer a full burnout.
A good manager will understand what kind of people everyone they are responsible for is, you may not be able to do this on sight but you can find out and use various tools to analyze the types of people you have in a team. Staff suffering from stress often find they are feeling under appreciated and that they are being set unrealistic tasks and so are setup to fail. Also remember that some people are better at organizing themselves than others and while some happily skip between tasks others don’t deal well with things coming from left field and get much more work done when left to complete a task without distraction.

Help staff manage their time and work with software or even just printed templates and make sure you are clear with staff as to what is expected of them and what needs to be prioritized. Being unable to prioritize work can cause stress for staff who worry about what else they should be doing. As a manager it is your responsibility to get the best out of staff, which you can do by understanding what may cause them stress but you can also complete your duty of care for your staff at the same time.

Some people are lucky enough to be able to organize themselves and their time instantly in their heads: they somehow know instinctively how long everything will take and never forget what they are meant to be doing and when. For most people though this just isn’t possible, the act of trying to remember things in itself is stressful with the constant worry that you have forgotten something. Most of us can’t predict how long tasks will take either, most of the time we predict things will take less time than they will. This is partly because of optimism and our concept of time being different to the reality but also can be due to disruptions. If you have a job or a personal life where interruptions are part of the territory then this can be hugely stressful, unexpected jobs that set you back all of the time: including the fact that for most people tasks take longer when you have to leave them and come back to them. Some people can work in this way others struggle and some people really cannot cope with being distracted from their work. Where it is other people be it family, colleagues, managers or customers that disturb us it is very easy to aim stress at them; what is really needed though is a more flexible system of organization to allow for problems. Always build in some leeway, even do a study to see how much time you usually get distracted by unexpected tasks for each day and allow this much extra time. For common tasks as well time how long they take, without interruptions and allow this much time or a little more: all this should be done on paper, a computer or a phone which ever you prefer but the important thing is that this plan can be easily checked so you always know what you are doing and don’t feel that things are getting away from you.

An awful lot of people who suffer from stress have the majority of their stress come from work. Those who cope well with stress are those that leave work and switch off so they can have a relaxing evening and a good night’s sleep. Many of us though simply can’t de-stress after work; the events of the day run through our minds and the things we have to get done the next day keeping us lying awake staring at the ceiling. The result of course is our bodies and minds become increasingly tired and stress at work only gets worse as we fail to deliver, this leads to getting frustrated with yourself and perhaps you push harder become more stressed and things are actually going downhill as a result.

Stress at work isn’t as simple though as always being about too much work there are a number of causes of stress at work: combined they are dangerous. Colleagues can cause you stress in a few ways, managers demanding too much of you or ignoring you perhaps. Feeling undervalued by colleagues as well can dent self confidence and lead to frustration. Some colleagues are just irritating: those who don’t pull their own weight or make other people’s lives a misery. Work place bullying is also not as uncommon as people might think.

Also how about the work itself, is it repetitive? Are you lacking the resources you need or the time? Or maybe you just don’t have time to organize yourself and this is what you need? Constantly changing tasks and priorities can also be very stressful so you can never plan and some people work best only when they can concentrate on one task to completion. Your day to day job may be stressful but sometimes it is your long term prospects that are the problem if you feel you have no opportunities, that you are doing the wrong work to show off your skills or I you aren’t where you hoped you would be at this point in your career this can be very stressful: sometimes you need to take a step backwards before you can move forwards in these cases.

You may often have feelings of stress, maybe even constant but you probably find you are focusing on individual problems rather than stress as a whole. Stress can be a vicious circle and it may be important to understand at what stage of stress you are at and also what is the cause of your stress. Not everyone is willing to talk to a shrink and may be unwilling to talk to family or friends or have trouble making them understand you: this can lead to further stress if you feel misunderstood and make you feel very isolated and lonely. If you are in this situation though you may need to help yourself, at least at first and you may then be able to explain your problems to others more succinctly and help yourself; not understanding why you are stressed does make it difficult to explain.

There are many self analysis tests and templates online including multiple choice questions and SWOT analysis. These may help you identify that you are stressed and that your stress is severe confirming a belief you may have had somewhere but been unwilling to admit before. Admitting you are stressed and that it isn’t something that is going to solve itself is important: how hard it will be to deal with your level of stress depends on how far it has gone. Stress often starts as small things which build up, you may start to feel less satisfied with life or constantly under pressure: this can lead to a burnout and depression eventually though in some cases it takes a number of years: making it harder to spot for you and those around you where it is gradual.

Stress can be caused by home life as much as work life and may be worst where it is both together. If you are frustrated with your job or relationships, irritable with family and coworkers and feel isolated and misunderstood these are all significant indicators of depression, though your job and relationships are not always the cause.

For many it is work, though often different elements of work, for others it may be personal life, relationships and finances that cause stress, for many of course it is all. Often it does seem that the causes of stress though are certain things but when you look at them they may seem very small and insignificant and you may realizes that it is something else entirely causing you to feel stressed: the question is what? Often stress is really about frustration this is often frustration with yourself though it is common to direct frustration at yourself for things that in fact are other people’s fault. It may well be that your manager set you up in a task or tasks to fail but you still feel frustration with yourself. Frustration may often be about your perceived lot in life including your career, financial situation and relationships. This can lead directly to depression on some cases but can also lead to or contribute to stress, especially at work. Working hard can itself lead to stress especially if it gets you nowhere, if you feel you are banging your head against a brick wall then stress can lead to a burnout eventually. If you then feel trapped in a job this can lead to a feeling of despair. The same is true for a relationship as for a job, like a job you may have had great hopes for a relationship that has actually got you nowhere and isn’t what you hoped for, you may work hard at it and feel you get nothing in return but at the same time feel trapped or worried about moving on leading to stress.

Being a housewife or a househusband is one of the most common causes of stress, many people don’t feel sufficiently well rewarded in this role or feel that they aren’t using their full potential. Parents especially often find that their children and partners don’t appreciate them in the same way that in a job you need the appreciation of colleagues.