Perhaps it’s due to a boss who seems to be making unreasonable demands. Or it’s the result of a co-worker who seems to routinely pass her work onto you. Or maybe you’re in a profession where tension is great, such as medicine or law. While a little bit of stress on the job can be healthy, too much can be a killer—literally. It’s been shown that there appears to be a direct correlation between stress and heart disease.
As a result of this, it is important that you learn to deal effectively with stress on the job. This can be difficult, because a number of stress-inducing factors may be out of your control. For instance, you have no say in who your boss is or who your customers are. You may not be able to determine when you start your day, or how much time you have for lunch. However, it is important for you to recognize that job stress is a serious health problem.
The statistics tell the story. A study conducted in 1999 discovered that we are working longer hours. In fact, the average number of hours on the job have increased eight percent in just one generation—to 47 hours a week. One out of five of us works as much as 49 hours a week. We are a nation of workaholics. This can cause a great deal of stress, not only on the job, but on the homefront as well. A number of divorces are attributed each year to the workaholic syndrome. To put things in perspective, consider this: the average American works three months more each year than workers in Germany. The U.S. leads the industrialized world in the number of hours worked. The workplace has become so competitive in the U.S. that some employees compare it to the reality TV program known as “Survivor.”
In order to help reduce your stress on the job, you need to make a realistic assessment of your hours. Is it possible for you to cut back and still perform your duties? Are you wasting time on the job that would be better spent at home? Can you delegate some of your duties to someone else in the office? If you design a more workable work schedule, you might find your job-related stress decreasing significantly.
It is entirely possible that you will actually become ill working those extra hours. Over a four-year period, from 1996 to 2000, the proportion of employees taking sick time due to stress rose by three fold. Each day, as many as a million American workers have called in sick because they are under too much stress. This absenteeism is costing American companies money—and making workplaces less productive.
Americans are also feeling stressed out because they no longer think their jobs are secure. Over a ten year period, the number of employees who were afraid they would become unemployed doubled. And a survey conducted in the year 2000 discovered that half of all workers worried that they could lose their jobs. The dot.com burst, corporate bankruptcies, and massive layoffs have scared the American workforce. With little job security, workers live in fear of being tossed onto the unemployment line. A number of people have come to realize that they cannot expect to retire from the company for which they are now working. Therefore, they may have little allegiance to their companies, resulting in stress for both bosses and employees.
It would be wonderful if the economy could be changed so that long-term employment at a single company was still possible, but that may be wishful thinking. As a result, workers need to try to lessen their stress—knowing that they may be in a volatile position. For many workers, this might mean making sure that they contribute to a 401-K plan so that they have money socked away for retirement. For others, it might mean starting their own businesses so that they do not have to rely on someone else for their employment. If you try to be proactive, chances are you will lessen your stress level. You have to realize that you are ultimately responsible for your own fate. If you are in the driver’s seat, you will feel a sense of control which could lessen your stress level considerably.
One thing common to all great communicators is that when they speak, everybody listens. However, communicating to people is one of the greatest fears for most of the human beings, and especially when it comes to public speaking. Most people dread public speaking more than death! Do you ever wonder why you don’t seem to get listened to by others even though you too have many ideas to share?
There are a lot of people who fail with simple things like taking care of themselves. It’s hard to walk away from someone who you care a lot about, and that is why so many people have an enabler feeding their addictions and their negative habits. You need to learn to let go of all the destruction and try to think of ways that you can make yourself happy. The first way for you to learn from your mistakes is to never repeat. If you are serious about change then you need to make sure that you’ll take this as a learning lesson and avoid relapse.
It can take us to exotic lands, with powdery white beaches and clear azure skies. It can take us back in time—even to prehistoric days—or forward to the Big Brother world of the 25th century. It can fill our eyes with tears or make us laugh aloud. Reading opens a window to the world, giving us a vision of things we never dreamed possible. But, though you might not realize it, reading can also reduce your stress level.
As you and your partner begin exploring your romantic sides and you are both providing new and creative ways in which to express your love for one another, you may find that you want to do what you can to hold on to as many of these memories as possible. Consider starting a ‘memory’ chest or box with your spouse where you can place all of the important and considerate items that will remind you how romantic your experiences have been.
Sometimes it seems as if life is a series of losses—the loss of a spouse, the loss of a job, the loss of a brother. You may realize that you need to take time to grieve all of these losses. But what you may not realize is that such losses can also lead to stress—a great deal of it. In order to remain emotionally healthy, you must learn to deal effectively with stress induced by traumatic life events.
You may have first learned to pray at your mother’s knee. You decided that, in times of trouble, prayer could open up a pathway to enlightenment and peace. You might have said a prayer before a big test, before showing your parents your report card, or before the final football game of the season.
When you got married, you said the words of commitment we all know so well about for better or worse, for richer or for poorer and so on. Those words are wonderfully inspiring, but real life sometimes make those vows seem as if they are mocking couples after they’ve been married for several years. The vows aren’t the problem because they are simply defining true commitment. What becomes difficult is keeping the love and romance alive in a marriage.
Every successful concern is the result of a One-Man Power. Cooperation, technically, is an iridescent dream. Things cooperate because the man makes them. He cements them by his will.
If you listen to experienced speakers, it’s easy to see some real differences in how they step through their presentation than maybe how you go about giving a talk when you are called upon to speak in public. But it is a good exercise to use every opportunity to listen to different public speakers and learn from them. From speakers who are not effective, study why they are and learn how to correct those problems in your presentation. For speakers who are very good, learn what they do that works and copy their methods without shame. It’s all part of learning from each other.
Manhardeep Singh 