How do you guys deal with work related stress?

forget about outdoor survival.

work related stress is more likely to kill people than a bear swiping a hiker.

How do you guys deal with work related stress?

Well, once I reached 55 years of age and 32 years of service with the company, that gave me more, ah, "freedom" to say exactly what I feel like saying in a work situation. Once you are retirement eligible with full benefits your career becomes more of a "job du jour" and things get a whole lot less stressful.

When I was a younger employee, I found it useful to become a "guru" in a few areas so that others came to me for advice and guidance. That greatly helped my attitude about myself, and with others always coming to you as their goto person, you feel more secure in your job and things just don't seem to stress you out so much.

I continue learning to play guitar.
I watch less TV. It calms me. And, with time, I have skill to show for it. 15 min per night can show a LOT of progress if you focus well.

And I exercise several times a week. To stay fit and it helps me sleep.

work stress me out because I have to kiss everyone rear. They treat me like a scapegoat for anything that go wrong.

I don't have time to focus on my skills instead I have to watch my back all the time.

A few things I've learned through my career about managing job stress:

• eat right
• exercise regularly
• find something that relaxes you and do it regularly (I have pleasure reading, hiking and camping, bicycling, competition shooting and amateur radio, for example)
• always be improving yourself through education and training
• balance the need to not bottle things up with not obsessing about whatever is bothering you at work
• know when to say "enough!" -- I've found that vey few people are willing to look for other jobs even when they are completely miserable, under paid and hate the people they work with
• monitor yourself and make changes when appropriate

I hope this makes sense.

Unfortunately, this is a very timely topic. Chaosmagnet is right on with his suggestions. I have found that bicycle commuting, especially the ride home, is a great way to blow off steam and get essential exercise. Developing non-job related interests is critical. At some point, develop and implement an exit strategy. I am fortunate in that I can say "Only fifteen more days." That is a huge benefit!!!

Wow! Are you hanging up your bullwhip, fedora & satchel, Hikermor?

Ditto both hikermor and Chaos. When I was on active duty and stressing mentally, I found that stressing physically tended to balance it out -- endorphins or some such thing. Anyway not only do you get in better shape (which we all need) but the physiological toll of work related stress is countered.

So my advice is to work-out regularly and I mean to the point that you are physically wiped. You'll sleep better and if you watch your nutrition and fluid intake, you'll be better all around.

Then go look for another job. This one seems to not be a good fit personality-wise.

I retired, pretty much solved many issues.

excellent topic.
and you're dead right - pardon the pun - in this messed up economy "work stress" is gonna kill a lot more guys than hypothermia.

i use a mixture of things. i don't think there is one magic bullet. here's a few things i do ...

1. ride my motorcycle. it works for me. there's an old saying that you never see any motorcycles in front of the psychologists office :-)

2. try not to get hung up about "one thing going wrong". nearly always in life - there are multiple ways to work around a problem. instead of getting stressed out ... i just get out of the office for a couple of minutes, get some fresh air and sunshine, and think about alternative approaches.

3. Never tell myself I'm trapped. Because no-one is ever trapped. I always have a "dam* good getaway" in the back of my head. And if they really drag me into the boss's office in 2 months and fire me - I'm GONNA DO IT. HAHAHA!!! I may not make a lot of money with my future plans - but it will be fun :-) Seriously, you've got to give yourself an "out". Always.

cheers,
Pete2

retirement after 28 years of teaching 9th grade Integrated Science (14-15 year olds)and Chem I
competitive shooting for 30 years... USPSA and 3 gun
started riding motorcycle again (2003) after a 30 year hiatus
bicycle 45min/day morning
1/2 hour walk in evening
now eligible for Silver Sneakers at the YMCA

Maybe it´s appropriate to do less kissing and exploit the scapegoat part. After all it greatly improves efficiency when everybody can get on with their work instead of investigating who actually fouled up.


That is a dangerous path to walk. It is prone to increase the number of mistakes you make and it going to leave you with skills that are no longer up to par. Maybe you should think about shifting that focus back to your skills.

1.) What happens at work, stays at work. I do not take unfinished tasks home - neither physically nor in my mind.
2.) At work I keep silent unless I really know better. I never refer to the times when I knew better and told so - people will remember anyway.
3.) I have a ritual for arriving at home. I take the time to cook a proper meal. It helps to follow rule 1.
4.) I have a couple of fun activities. Some of them involve social activities. E. g. I learned to perform magic tricks. Practicing takes focus from work stress. The skills brought me invitations to parties I would normally not have attended before.
5.)I have a few projects. Making my own yogurt, keeping sourdough for making bread (makes mighty good pancakes too), brewing mead, making pralines (that one tends to give stress to girl friends)
6.) Enjoy my life.

I also ride motorcycle. I do not do it against stress though. For some strange reason none of the motorcyclists I know, have stress problems for extended periods of time. It seems to be a personality feature of the bikers.

Our company just exited Bankruptcy after 2.5 years,talk about stress and turmoil.

Our plan was avoidance, stay off the radar,keep mouth shut,anything the countless management teams that floated thru said,DO IT.RAH!,no matter what you think,smile and do it.

Yes,stressed people do look for targets,or to settle old scores.



We took every call off possible to be out of sight,out of mind,out of the stressing situations that flip out people....worked so far.

We tried to avoid being Hal.Yup,Im still gonna stress a good bit til it runs smoothly again.

Home today,took the call off.

Everyone of us is different. Every work situation is different. What may have worked for me , may not work for you.

FWIW, I am near retirement, have a nice big boss with a couple idiot middle managers. I stay calm despite their continuous (almost daily) flow of ridiculous decisions. Main reason for my calm is : I want to retire and leave the building on my feet, not on a stretcher. The way I see it is that if my views and suggestions haven't been taken the last few decades, they won;t be heard now. And if things have not been fixed the last 35 years or so, it is waste of time to try anything now.

So, in a way, I am psychologically retired already.

I mutter a lot of unprintable things under my breath. I complain to my wife. Sometimes I rage on Facebook. I get mood swings.

Exercise doesn't do much of that "endorphin rush" for me. I do enjoy shooting, but buying a lot of ammo gets between my wife and I, so that's a hit and miss hobby. I'd love to just take more time OFF from work, but that's not happening.

Mainly I think I'm just in the wrong position - I don't enjoy the job I currently am assigned to. Hopefully when/if I get the residency I want, it'll change. If not, I may just become a paramedic, make 1/3 the salary, and hopefully be 3x happier.

The primary thing for me is being in the right role & working for the right people. Stress is pretty low when you are doing something you do very well & tend to enjoy with people who support you.

That's not to say low stress equates to only doing easy things. I work for a consulting company so there is a lot of change involved as I shift from client site to client site; some projects have tight & sometimes unrealistic deadlines requiring extra hours and more intense effort, while other projects can introduce more soft, people related issues. But at the end of the day I am confident I can do the work required and have people within my own company who have my back if there is anything I can't handle.

And, for me, an aspect of this also does come down to the issue of confidence. I used to get a little stressed when starting on a new project with a new client due to the amount of unknowns involved. However, I've learned to relax about this; understanding that my track record has proven that I have the skills necessary to be effective and successful when I hit the ground even without knowing what exactly will be involved.

I read. A lot. I know it's escapism, but at the moment it's the only outlet that can be done regardless of schedule and not requiring both hands. Besides, it keeps me awake during the dark 0'clock in the morning feedings. Most of my exercise involves yardwork.

I still do fancywork (knotwork), but I've had to take a temporary hiatus from my other hobbies (archery, trombone).

I was thinking more about this and disagree with it as a rule, but I agree with the general principle I think it is getting at - balance is key & you can't let your work life take over your personal life.

For me, this balance is a 2 way street. I like the flexibility of being able to get work done during "home hours" but I balance that with the flexibility of being able to personal things done during "work hours." I think this also helps keep stress levels in check. For example, if I need to knock off early to deal with a personal issue, I don't worry that I'm not getting my hours; I know it will balance out when I need to get some extra work done at home. The goal is to not neglect any aspect of my life, personal or professional, at the expense of the other.

This allows me to tend to my family's needs in a hands-on way by doing things like attending doctor's appointments and teacher meetings that crop up during the day. Frankly, if I didn't have the opportunity to take work home with me I wouldn't be able to support my family in these ways which could end up negatively affecting the personal aspects of my life and I think staying low-stress is something that has to be holistic, not compartmentalized.

Speaking of not compartmentalizing life, one thing I omitted earlier was the aspect of spiritual health. A robust faith can aid greatly in dealing with stressful situations. Having gone through things like children's health problems (chronic health issues, surgery, hospitalizations, etc.), the trust I have provides a great measure of assurance and peace that brought me through those situations strong and relatively stress free.

Avoid stupid people. This can be a difficult one to achieve.

Don't spend too much time at work. I work 20hrs a week.

Don't get involved in the business Gossip and the Politics.

I also walk the 3 miles each way to work (avoids the stress of parking, public transport, traffic lights, other drivers etc) and will usually have a dog or cat come up to me to say hello on the way. The rustling trees and birdsong on my walk is quite relaxing even after a Hurricane force Storm

Avoid work

Actually productive work, with competent colleagues whom you respect, will be tremendously rewarding and a huge contributor to your overall wellness.

Just avoid those other kind of work places....

It´s not a rule, it basically is a principle in a form that´s easy to remember. It clearly needs adaptation to the personal way of life. I think you got the spirit of it very well.
I do not mind to finish a task when it takes staying after my usual office hours. However when I decide to call it a day, I do so. I do not keep chewing it over when I am out of office. The results benefit from it.
A coworker who used to allow work life to take over his personal life entered a vicious circle. His performance dropped rapidly causing him to have to sacrifice even more of his personal life. Eventually he ended up with almost a year of treatment for a burn out syndrome.

I am trying to figure out the shooting thing, too-do you think that air rifles, archery, or video game shooters might push the same marksman buttons?


Good luck with the residency-being a doc seemed to be a lot more fun years ago than it is now. Happiest doc I know retired from faculty radiology work and opened up a clinic on st. thomas-no labs, no radiology, limited pharma for folks with no money and no access to health care. he gets paid in fruit and chickens, everybody loves him, no lawyers, no quality improvement studies...he smiles a lot.

Speaking for myself, archery does nothing for me. Air rifles are a little bit of fun but I have never bothered to own one. A really good shooter on PC or a console gives me a little bit of the same fun I get from real shooting, but it isn't much of a substitute for me. YMMV.

Excellent discussion. In my case I have a lot of different hobbies and I switch back and forth depending on my mood. I hunt, fish, bicycle, metal detect, read, hike, etc.

I have an awful time leaving things at work. I'm an RN working on a critical care unit. I couldn't even begin to count the times that I have woke up in the wee hours of the morning worrying about a patient. I told a colleague once that my job would be a lot easier if I didn't care so much.

LW

Having a few close friends and relatives going through burn out syndrome really started some thought processes. Each and every person has to work out the balance between their own ambitions, their boss' ambitions and the need to dedicate part of your time to something completely unrelated to work. Nothing stimulates those thought processes as seeing people close to yourself being reduced from aspiring, ambitious and industrious hard working fellows into passive, doubt-I'm-up-to-anything-today kind of guys and girls. (Of course, watching their gradual recovery was highly fascinating...)

My shortlist to avoid that from ever happening to me:
1) Nothing work related is my personal problem. My spouse is at home, NOT at the office. I am married to her, not to my work.

2) Don't try to solve everything "urgent" at once. Nothing immediate is life threathening crucial to solve RIGHT NOW (and if it actually comes close, you WILL know it, and everything else will have to be put aside for a while!). Prioritize and realize that you only can do SOME of those urgent tasks today - the rest will have to wait.

3) I am not Superman, and won't pretend I am.

4) It is my duty to report any shortcomings in an honest manner up front, including the fact that me prioritizing X, Y and Z means that A and B won't get much attention. Or that area Q is outside my compentence, requiring reading, training and TIME if I am the person that should do it.

5) Work should be FUN, as much as possible.

6) It is my duty and responsibility to make sure I MAKE TIME for building my own competence in new and interesting areas. Otherwise, forget about item #5 ever happening...

7) Use electronic meetings to your advantage. In particular, any potential dull meeting that you can't avoid should be electronic. Checking email at the conference table is NOT ok, but you can do whatever you want in a dull electronic meeting. That strategy has the added benefit of reducing travels if you are located off-site from the main office.

8) Don't multitask, with the possible exception of #7 (which is only done to preserve your mental health and increasing the odds of #5). Multitasking doesn't work, will give you the attention span of a squirrel (you actually train yourself to not consentrating on anything for more than 3 minutes straight!) and will both degrade the quality of your work and increase your stress level. Some tips:
- NO bells and whistles for incoming emails and other means of electronic communications.
- Make yourself unavailable when you have to concentrate.
- Schedule yourself for "email processing" once, twice or a similar low number of times each day. You MIGHT allow yourself to scan through your inbox for anything particular interesting when you aren't explicit doing something else, but it is dangerous territory which quickly degrades into "have to respond NOW" syndrome.
- Switching tasks after a reasonable amount of hard work is OK, but that time intervall should not be too short. And know yourself well enough to distinguish between procrastination, "check email"-fewer and the healthy need to refocus after prolonged concentration.
- Use an electronic "to do" list (todoist.com is GREAT) and releave yourself of the burden of carrying "due dates" in your head. Not to mention the fear of ever forgetting something... Dumping all that into a reliable electronic system is a huge stress reliever and greatly increases creativity!
- Take electronic notes. Searchable and much more reliable than your head. Your head is not a memory storage facility, stop treating it like one and use it to THINK instead!

how do you guys respond to executives demands setting their personal electronic toys?

I work in IT and they treat me like some slaves. I have to set up their personal phones. It isn't even related to work.

I am afraid this is like preppers should not show the world what they have on store. If your boss knows everything you are capable of doing, and he is the right ( or wrong ) type of personality , he will enslave you by his endless demands.

Try using the phrase ( I don't know ) more often.

I let my supervisor deal with it. It´s his job to assign tasks to me and say no to customers if there is not enough capacity. The real problem with those tasks is that time needs to go there and the time is taken from the tasks I am supposed to accomplish with a deadline. If the supervisor is not involved he just sees that my tasks get delayed without proper cause.
We are required to write up our time, so even when I do it we charge for it (which means if push comes to shove, the executive has to respond for wasting resources on private issues). When my supervisor is comfy with me delaying work items for that setup, I am comfy too. Experience shows that he usually is not comfy with delay on his projects.

picard ... personal is not covered by work.
if they want that - offer it to them as a private service. tell them that you have received a message from the CEO that you can only do work-related requests during work hours. However, you can do personal phones privately on your own time - for a charge.

Pete2

This is the safe and appropriate route. When there are issues like this, it has to go up and down the official food chain. If you try to take a shortcut across the org chart and deal with it directly, you'll alienate all parties involved. (Been there.)

Of course if you're in a small company, things are much less formal. That can make resolution more difficult. But you can still say "let me check my delivery schedule -- okay, I'm full-time on xxx project until next week, and then I can schedule you in." Message delivered, without being confrontational.

I would avoid saying "I don't know" -- it sends the wrong message about the currency of your skills and/or your level of motivation.

It's not necessarily a bad thing for top brass to see you as the go-to guy for their new tech. But if it interferes with your assigned duty schedule, i.e. your real job, that message needs to be delivered.

My 2 cents'.

And the award for "Best Deadpan Delivery" goes to ... hikermor.

everyone else seems scare of their wits to tell CEO, senior managers about it. They have to cater to CEO children laptop too.

Doug , what you are saying is correct in a professional organization where everyone knows their limits. In this case, CEOs do not know their limits and/or they are not professional in the way they are treating their employees. If a CEO asks me to fix his kid's laptop, and it is getting on my nerves , I would tell him I don't know. He can take it at face value ( that I really don't know) or he can be smart enough to understand that I am fed up with this nonesense. Either way, I don't care. YMMV.

Picard, FWIW, you are not alone in facing such stressful problem. If it makes you feel better, other folks face delimmas like this not at work but at home, and they do not have the option of leaving or even stressing the situation futher. I know some people who have stressful relations with their dads. I also have a friend who had a very bad marraige . I often wonder (how this guy and his wife managed to have kids while they were fighting all the time).

Finallly he had enough and left her. But in most cases , leaving a spouse is harder than quitting a job. I am not saying you quit, but trying to make you see your problem with a less apocalyptic attitude.

Good question. I really like video games but tend to avoid them, mainly because I had them really distract me in college. I actually mentioned trying archery to my wife last month. I liked it in Boy Scouts, and might be easier to do at home in the backyard. I really don't like air rifles, but I started experimenting with .22lr conversions to help manage costs. That has been a bit of fun so far.

Some day when residency is over I'll think about being paid. First things first.

Not knowing something and admitting it is a sign of strength and maturity. Following up with action demonstrating your willingness and method to get to an answer is all most people need to be put everyone at ease.

Pretending that you know everything is one of the most annoying character traits a person can demonstrate. It also creates unnecessary stress on the self-proclaimed know-it-all.

+ 1

And this makes good "training" for more stressful survival situations like when anti-prepping folks show up and need your "help".

Belive me Picard, I have skills that I keep for myself and would NEVER tell the supervisor I can do. He is not mature or professional enough to trust him on that. He has already called me a few times during may vacations to ask me solve problems that have been created by him or were so easily avaoidable.

Sometimes, we need to think iof what WE need, instead of wasting our lives seveing other people's needs.

Having said that , situations are very different. Also, there are so many angles to look at any specific situation. For example, being a prepper, picard can "invest" in these favors he does for the CEOs. Consider them part of a career portfolio. If and when you want a raise or promotion, you may approach these CEOs. Also, if you layoffs on the horizon, you can approcah them for protection. That is one way to look at irt if you choose/prefer to continue the same way.

Just to lighten it a little ....

Here's something for you picard

http://cubiclebliss.com/10-ways-to-say-no-at-work-with-a-no-button/