How To Manage Stress in the Workplace

By Staff Writer

A common factor present in any working environment is stress. It is a physiological reaction, innate in any individual, to outside forces that can come from a natural source, such as heat and cold; to the interpersonal and social, such as restraint or annoyance. These and countless other external factors are ever-present in any working environment, and at times, are more prevalent in others. Stress can affect a person's functionality and plays an important role in the outcome of his productivity. Managing and resolving stress is beneficial and vital.

In managing stress, it is good to start by identifying the factors that cause it. As easily as stress is perceived and how it manifests in an individual, there is a simple way of determining what triggers it. Here are a few common things that are present in an office environment and can trigger stress:

A less than adequate working environment. (i.e. faulty air-conditioning or heating).
Failure of an employer to give adequate "breaks" to an employee.
An imbalance between the demand for production and availability of resources.
Working on something that does not clearly fall under one's job description.
Continued unaddressed concerns previously raised by an employee.

Solutions in managing stress come in a variety of forms and can be determined sometimes through trial and error. In other words, there is no quick one-stop answer to stressful situations. Rather, it is through a consistent effort to work on the stressor and the person stressed that will eventually alleviate the level of stress felt.

There are two common ways of dealing with identified stressors. Both however, suggest that stress management is purely cerebral.

People need to help out a stressed individual by changing their perceptions of the situation and relegating all forms of stress as a challenge.
The second is to face-to-face the stressors with a peaceful mind and quiet sense of well-being.

Here are some sure-fire ways of preventing stress, as opposed to coping with stress. Preventing stress requires that a person clearly identifies the factors that may case the stress and finds a way to stop it from happening, while coping makes you deal with the stressors mounting directly at you.

Learn to exercise careful time management.
Saying "NO" to certain demands that you know will affect your overall performance.

Of course prevention can only go so far and there will be times when stress is unavoidable. This is where COPING with stress comes in and this can be achieved through the following means: