Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
Handling
Employee
Stress
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TABLE OF CONTENT
• Stress
• Types of stress
• Symptoms of stress
• Common factors of stress
• Top ten stressful events of life
• Stress management
• Ways to manage stress at workplace
• Ways to reduce stress
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STRESS
Stress in humans results from interactions between persons and their
environment that are perceived as straining or exceeding their adaptive
capacities and threatening their well-being. The element of perception
indicates that human stress responses reflect differences in personality, as
well as differences in physical strength or general health.
The causes of stress can include any event or occurrence that a person
considers a threat to his or her coping strategies or resources. Researchers
generally agree that a certain degree of stress is a normal part of a living
organism's response to the inevitable changes in its physical or social
environment, and that positive as well as negative events can generate
stress. Stress-related disease, however, results from excessive and
prolonged demands on an organism's coping resources. It is now believed
that 80–90% of all disease is stress-related.
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"Pressure and stress is the common cold of the psyche." -
Andrew Denton
Types of Stress
• Eustress
• Distress
Eustress
Where stress enhances function (physical or mental, such as through
strength training or challenging work) it may be considered eustress.
Winning an athletic competition is an example of eustress.
• Meeting a challenge
• Coming in first or winning
• Getting a promotion
• Marriage
• The holidays
• Buying a new home
• Going on a roller coaster ride
Distress
Persistent stress that is not resolved through coping or adaptation may lead
to escape or withdrawal behavior is known as distress. Distress is a kind of
suffering. In medicine, distress is stress caused by adverse events
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"For fast-acting relief try slowing down." - Lily Tomlin
Symptoms of Stress
The symptoms of stress can be either physical and/or psychological. Stress-
related physical illnesses, such as irritable bowel syndrome, heart attacks,
and chronic headaches, result from long-term overstimulation of a part of
the nervous system that regulates the heart rate, blood pressure, and
digestive system. Stress-related emotional illness results from inadequate
or inappropriate responses to major changes in one's life situation.
Prevention
Complete prevention of stress is neither possible nor desirable because
stress is an important stimulus of human growth and creativity, as well as an
inevitable part of life. In addition, specific strategies for stress prevention
vary widely from person to person, depending on the nature and number of
the stressors in an individual's life, and the amount of control he or she has
over these factors.
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Common Factors of Stress
Both negative and positive stressors can lead to stress. Some common
categories and examples of stressors include:
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Top Ten Stressful Events
"Mental tensions, frustrations, insecurity, aimlessness are among the
most damaging stressors, and psychosomatic studies have shown how
often they cause migraine headache, peptic ulcers, heart attacks,
hypertension, mental disease, suicide, or just hopeless unhappiness." -
Hans Selye
Stress Management
Stress management encompasses techniques intended to equip a person with
effective coping mechanisms for dealing with psychological stress, with
stress defined as a person's physiological response to an internal or external
stimulus that triggers the fight-or-flight response. Stress management is
effective when a person utilizes strategies to cope with or alter stressful
situations. Stress management refers to various efforts to control and
reduce the tension that occurs in stressful situations
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AN INDIVIDUAL STRESS MANAGEMENT PROGRAM
• Positive thinking.
• Refocus the negative to be positive.
• Make an effort to stop negative thoughts.
• Plan some fun. Take a break.
Physical activity:
Nutrition:
• Plan to eat foods that improve health and well-being. For example,
increase the amount of fruits and vegetables you eat.
• Use the food guide pyramid to help make healthy food choices.
• Eat an appropriate amount of food at a reasonable schedule.
Social support:
• Make an effort to interact socially with people. Even though you feel
stressed, you will be glad to have gone out to meet your friends if only
to get your mind off of things.
• Reach out to individuals.
• Nurture yourself and others.
Relaxation:
• Learn about and try using one or more of the many relaxation
techniques, such as guided imagery, listening to music, or practicing
yoga or meditation. One or more should work for you.
• Take time for personal interests and hobbies.
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• Listen to your body.
• Take a mini retreat.
• Take breaks throughout the day. It will help clear your mind and
relieve pressure. Something as simple as going to the water cooler for
a drink may do the trick.
• Enroll in a noontime or an after-work exercise class. This will give you
a chance to unwind and a way to relieve stress.
• To help your workday go smoothly, try pacing your activities: Do more
demanding work in the morning, when your energy level is higher, and
easier work later in the day, when you may be tired.
• Try listening to music recordings, such as pounding surf or songbirds,
to help you relax. Such tapes are sold commercially. Use headphones if
you'll be listening to them in the middle of the workday.
• Get to work early or stay late once a week. You may be able to
accomplish more when you vary your routine.
Don't let work rumors, which are usually false, may cause you worry. A co-
worker may just be thinking out loud about worst-case scenarios.
If your office is less structured (or if you are the boss), consider a company
mascot. A cat or dog can do wonders for workers' morale.
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Ways to Reduce Stress
2. If you are always running late, sit down with a pencil and paper and see
how you are actually allotting your time. Say it takes you 40 minutes to get
to work. Are you leaving your house on time? You may be able to solve your
problem (and de-stress your life a bit) just by being realistic. If you can't
find the time for all the activities that are important to you, maybe you are
trying to do too much. Again, make a list of what you do during the day and
how much each activity takes. Then cut back.
4. If you can't remove the stress, remove yourself. Slip away once in a while
for some private time. These quiet moments may give you a fresh
perspective on your problems. Avoid stressful people. For example, if you
don't get along with some other executive or secretary but you don't want
to make an issue of it, and if it’s inevitable to talk to them just make sure
there are others people around. As having other people around will absorb
some of the pressure you would normally feel.
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of jealousy is self-inflicted.
7. Try doing only one thing at a time. For example, when you're on a phone
call, you don't have to read the report in front of you or check email or
whatever.
10. If you feel stress (or anything else) is getting the better of you, seek
professional help -- a doctor or therapist. Early signs of excess stress are
loss of a sense of well-being and reluctance to get up in the morning to face
another day.
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