by Andrews Victor

Created on: February 15, 2010   Last Updated: February 18, 2010

Let’s face it. Stress in the workplace has become unavoidable these days and words like “automation”, “budget cuts” and “layoffs” have only succeeded in increasing fear and uncertainty thus leading to higher levels of stress.

Some experts say a little bit of stress is good, inasmuch as it helps motivate employees and leads to increased productivity. But excessive and prolonged stress can result in a host of mental and physical health problems like high blood pressure, cardiovascular diseases, arthritis, asthma, insomnia or other sleep disturbances, eating disorders, migraine headaches, ulcers, respiratory or lung problems and skin disturbances.

Job stress ultimately manifests itself in apathy, negativism or cynicism, low morale, boredom, anxiety, frustration, fatigue, depression, alienation, anger or irritability, physical problems like headaches and stomach problems and absenteeism.

Learning to manage stress is the key to saving your job – and your sanity. Ironically, it is a skill that you acquire ‘on the job’!

Have a good night’s rest: Make a bright start to a working day by ensuring that you have had your quota of sleep and are relaxed well enough to be able to tackle a full day at the office head-on.

Start off on a positive note: Set off early from home so that you can reach the office in time, making allowances for traffic jams and the like. Also make sure that early morning domestic chores don’t stress you out even before you have reached office.

Identify stressors: At work try to pinpoint the factors causing you stress and see if you can avoid, eliminate, accept or adapt to them without compromising your efficiency or your health. Some jobs are stressful by definition, like firefighting, but even simple jobs can become stressful if the demands don’t match your abilities.

Assess your work environment: Factors to consider here would include – are you physically comfortable at your workstation? Are your superiors cooperative? Do you get enough support from your co-workers? How is your relationship with your boss and/or co-workers?

Plan our schedule: If you are loaded with too many things to do, prioritize your work and handle it one at a time, according to the order of importance. Multi-tasking is not everyone’s cup of tea – and not a good idea to begin with anyway.

Talk it out: If you think you are being unfairly swamped with work that can easily be shared

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