The Top 10 Cause of Stress and How to Overcome Them

By Lester Sim

Stress in the workplace is becoming more common these days.
Among factors that contribute to workplace stress are
competition among employees, large workloads, negative work
attitudes, quality control, legal challenges, training, and
office politics. It is time for the management to be aware
of how serious stress levels are in their respective
departments and review the best Stress Management solutions
for its employees. Here are the top ten causes of stress as
described by The Global Business and Economic Round Table on
Addiction and Mental Health:

1. Lack of Control - It is vital to take into account the
opinion of workers on the ground before implementing a
new policy that could change their work orientation. If
workers are forced to accept change when they have no say at
all, they would feel that their voice is unimportant to the
management. View how employees respond to the ideas, and
consider any alternative that would create a win-win
situation for both parties rather than force-feeding
employees. Stress management is about having a productive
and effective work environment.

2. Lack of Communication - Two-way communication is always
the best method when it comes to conveying messages to all
workers. Hold a session on Employee Communication to
announce company profit, lost, revenue, future planning,
current situation, bonuses, etc. instead of using static
communication tools like memos all the time. Be open to
their suggestions. When this is successful, you will see
that everybody is proactive and contributing where
communication is concerned.

3. No Appreciation - When an employee shows better job
performance, or improves on attendance or in any other
aspects of job, sincere praise would greatly increase their
motivation and self-confidence. Small gifts on their
birthdays will also make them feel appreciated. Tell them
how much the company appreciates their service. Nothing
enlightens a busy day more than having a caring and
appreciative boss.

4. No Feedback, Good or Bad - Let the employees know if
they have been doing things right or if they need to improve
on some areas by providing professional feedback through
personalized reply. When they submit their work, or propose
some ideas to you, at least listen to them. Occasionally
employers may not even realize that some workers feel
ignored, stressed and in need of some attention.

5. Career and Job Ambiguity - Helplessness happens when
people are feeling uncertain about their jobs, especially
when rumors like salary delay, retrenchment, mergers, and
plant closing spreads. It is important to keep workers
informed about current situations despite the already
stressed situation.

6. Unclear Policies and No Sense of Direction - In order to
get employees to understand company policies, we must
encourage both passive and active two-way communication
through bulletins, group discussions and memos and ensure
that the message is clear to everybody. Distribute printouts
of guidelines to the relevant employees to reduce chaos in
the workplace. Also allow some time for employees to adjust
to any new situations.

7. Mistrust and Unfairness -Be careful of how you treat your
employees and try your best to be fair, unbiased and
balanced in your judgments. Keep an open-door policy with
employees to avoid misunderstanding, and to help find out
what people think about managerial decisions. Treat
everybody equally to build sense of trust between you and
the employees.

8. Pervasive Uncertainty - Reinforcing new policies may give
stress to employees as they may be used to the old style of
doing their job. To help them out, prepare detailed
instructions in black and white for everyone to refer to.
One good tip on reducing the stress is to train the
employees whenever there are new implementations in the
office, to provide the knowledge on the new policies.

9. Random Interruptions - Walk-ins, call-ins, ringing mobile
phones, and spontaneous, constant demands from managers and
supervisors always disturb employee focus on the job he's
doing and stresses him out. Proper allocation of time, work
distribution, and knowing how to handle busy situation can
reduce this stress.

10. Workload - Having too much to do, or too little to do
can also put stress on people. Managers must be aware of the
amount of work they are putting on everyone and help to
prioritize which task comes first. They should also know the
right number of people to hire. Divide work according to
each employee's expertise, and give training for those who
are lacking experience.

Stress management in the workplace is vital. Stress-related
illness like heart attack, insomnia, high blood pressure,
and mental problems are on the rise and can be the result of
not having proper stress management techniques in place.

The Biggest Health Problem Today? Stress

Stress has been in the news as a health epidemic since the
early eighties and this situation continues to worsen as an
increasing number of workers say that they are suffering
increasing stress in the workplace. Indeed work is now the
leading environment for the development of stress in adult
Americans. However levels of stress have also been rising
for children in the past few years and many people now link
this to a loss of religious and family values, isolation,
insufficient social support and simple corporate greed.

Nowadays, stress is far more of a danger than it was just
ten years ago and looks to be more extensive and more
invasive than ever with a lot more stress coming from
psychological instead of physical threats.

Stress causes a rise in heart rate and greater blood flow
leading to higher blood pressure. Levels of blood sugar also
increase to give the body the extra fuel which it needs to
fight stress, and the body is designed to push blood away
from the stomach when we are stressed in order to provide
extra strength for the legs and arms as part of what is
often called our "flight or fight" response.

Stress contributes to anxiety and chronic depression
together with skin and gastrointestinal problems, and
interferes with the workings of a lot of the body's major
organs. It can also create an impairment of the immune
system, which cannot shake off viral disorders from the not
particularly serious cold to very serious diseases such as
AIDS and cancer.

Stress in the workplace directly influences such things as
employee absenteeism and productivity and the business
climate progressively worsens with competition today at an
all-time high. The pressure placed upon employees to produce
and the continual concern about job security can produce a
number of conditions including neck pain, back pain, stroke,
hypertension, diabetes, ulcers and heart attacks.

All sorts of things can create stress including just sitting
in front of a computer for six hours every day or more,
meeting deadlines or having somebody continually monitoring
you. In this case the results are frequently seen as
depression and a range of physical ailments which give rise
to lost work time.

Taking the steps to manage the stress in your life may well
be the nicest gift you can give yourself and just a few
quite simple alterations to your lifestyle can make a big
difference to how you handle stress. For instance, taking
just 20 minutes out of your day to walk will lower your
level of stress as will talking to other people, prayer and
meditation and following a healthy diet. Take the time
necessary to master a few relaxation techniques because deep
breathing and relaxation exercises can do a great deal to
reduce your level of stress.

How To Manage Your Stress

By Lillian F Tighe

Stress and tension are part of most people lives and
threaten your health in many ways. Stress can come in the
form of accidents, financial difficulties, problems at work,
family issues, and poor health. The way to manage stress has
a lot to do with your mental, emotional, and physical
health. The following are some ways that you can manage the
stress in your life:

1. Try to find out what is causing your stress.

2. Examine your life and see if it is possible to make changes
in the areas that are causing you stress.

3. Relaxation techniques such as massage, deep breathing,
meditation, or yoga may help to relieve your stress.

4. Exercise or other physical activity will help you deal with
stress.

5. When you feel overwhelmed by everything you have to do,
create a checklist and arrange your priorities. You will
get satisfaction when you complete the tasks you have set
yourself.

6. Avoid sugar, fats, tobacco, caffeine, and alcohol to help
your body and mind to cope with stress.

7. Getting enough sleep is really important.

8. Find someone to talk to if things are bothering you. You
can talk to family, friends or find a support group.

9. Volunteering can give you a sense of purpose and increase
your self esteem and reduce your stress.

10. Relax by reading a book or watching a movie, listening to
music or working at a hobby you enjoy.

11. Practice anger management. If you feel that you have
problems dealing with you anger find a support group that
you can join.

12. A vacation from your regular life, even if only for a
weekend, will help you deal with stress.

13. Don't take on too much at one time. Learn to take it easy.

14. Don't try to be perfect in everything that you do.

15. Remember that being judgmental is likely to do you more
harm than the people you are judging.

16. Always try to see the amusing side of any situation.
Laughter is the best medicine.

17. Move your head from side to side and rotate you neck in a
circle to reduce the tension in your neck and jaw.

18. Set small and smart goals for yourself and then work
carefully and realistically towards achieving them. Keep in
mind that unrealistic goals never seem to be reached and
this can add to your stress level. Try to set a goal for
yourself this week by using the SMART approach:

SPECIFIC: Choose one little goal and write it down.

MEASURABLE: How will you know when it is done?

ACHIEVABLE: Make sure it is not too big.

REWARDED: When you have finished, how will you reward
yourself?

TIME-LIMITED: Can you set an achievable deadline?


Lillian F Tighe is an authority on healthy living and has
written a book (http://www.besthealthylives.com)
10stepstohealthyliving which you can obtain for free on her
(http://www.besthealthylives.com) healthyliving website

Relaxation And Stress Management

Many people get caught up in their day to day lives and
focus on the future which can bring about anxiety or stress.
Stress can cause many problems such as concentration issues,
lack of good judgment, negativity and lack of productivity.
The best way to combat these feelings of stress is through relaxation.
Relaxation plays a key roll in leading a healthy happy life.
Relaxation takes as little as ten minutes a day and can be as simple
as breathing exercises, or as challenging as a kick boxing class,
the choice is yours.

Relaxation can happen anywhere, at work, at home or on a
little deserted island off the coast of Mexico. Unfortunately
not everyone can take a nice vacation to that dream island or
a seven year sabbatical. Many need to learn to relax in the
comfort of their own homes and lives. The key is to find something
you enjoy and teach your mind to relax when you do it.

There are many ways in which you can relax. Finding your
method is really your biggest obstacle, but it is easy, just
think about what you enjoy most. Maybe you like listening to
music, reading, meditating or walking. Any of these
activities can be a relaxation method and can be scaled down
to as little as ten minutes.

Watching TV, listening to music, surfing the web and
reading all offer a break from regular day to day
situations. They each create an alternative world that is
entirely your own. Your mind visually escapes into a place
that is different and exciting instead of dull, boring and
always the same as so many of us think our lives are.

Learning to control your breathing and meditation can be a
little more complicated since you must learn these
techniques in order for them to work properly. Meditation
can help you learn to reflect on situations and to control
your breathing to calm your mind. These techniques need to
be mastered and exercised in order to achieve the maximum
result. Once you have achieved your goal, you can relax at
the drop of a hat and find inner control in as little as ten
minutes.

Other people prefer to hit the gym to relax. Some like to
run, walk or lift weights. Others might prefer cycling,
kick boxing or tai chi classes. Running and walking burn off
excessive built up energy, however not everyone wants to run
a marathon. For them there are other types of classes which
sole purpose is relaxation such as yoga. Many people choose
to skip the classes and gym all together and simply walk
their dogs in the park.

Your body will tell you what it likes and what it doesn't
like, you just need to learn to listen. Take note of what
worked and what didn't while you were practicing different
relaxing techniques. If one doesn't work don't be afraid to
try a different approach. Make sure to keep yourself
motivated by reminding yourself you will be healthier and
happier in the end and think how nice it is to do something
enjoyable.

Teaching your body something new is always a challenge,
however once you get the hang of it, it is like riding a
bike, your body won't forget how. It is important to find an
activity which you enjoy and know you will stick with, but
you must make a conscious effort to remind and train your
body to relax while performing this task. It may take time,
but in the end the rewards will be fantastic for your mind,
body and lifestyle.