don's report archive

by Donald B. Ardell, Ph. D.

Wellness in the Headlines
(Don's Report to the World)

A recent NY Times piece ("Always at Work and Anxious, Employees Pay With Health," September 5, 2004) might perpetuate (if readers take it seriously) what I consider a widely held myth, namely, that workers are helpless, hapless or hopeless (or all three!) in the battle against workplace stress.  The Times piece makes the following assertions:

• Workers are "stressed out" due to a shaky economy, fear that Bush might be re-elected (or NOT re-elected), a greater than ever workload, the intrusion of new stress-inducing technologies (BlackBerries, cell phones and laptops, for examples), worries about retirement, uncertainty of the office environment and job security, inflation and, if you live in Florida, hurricanes! This is just a sampler--there are more things for workers to worry about, the Times piece implies, than there are grains of sand on all the world's beaches!
  
  
• Workers are also stressed out because of "iffy job security, rising health care costs, ailing pension plans, taking work home with them (especially white-collar types) and the fear that a financial setback could put mortgage payments out of reach." For many, the Times asserts, "the office has become an echo chamber of angst."

All this, the Times author suggests, costs about $300 billion annually in expenses related to "health care, missed work and payments to the stress-reduction industry." (I wonder if payments to pharmaceutical companies were included in the latter?) 

The article does not offer a lot of suggestions for overcoming or avoiding these stressors, except the obvious ones that are as basic as advice can get. These include "getting enough sleep, avoiding cigarettes and alcohol, eating sensibly and exercising." The Times article mentions "emotional support can also make a difference," as can "spending time with family and friends." Yes, I suppose people know these things, but somehow the overstressed ignore the basic common sense safeguards. I certainly have no intention of suggesting that my "ten tips" are simple and not obvious, as well, but perhaps they are a bit more specific than those in the Times article. Let's face it--life (and work, too) is tough, challenging and not for the faint of heart, but then it never has been. 

Without further ado or background on the seriousness of stress in the workplace, and without belaboring what has already been covered, here are my ten tips for doing your job more effectively with less stress. If you can use mental and other techniques to lower your stress by enjoying your work more or at least suffering less from it, you will automatically be more productive at what you do. 

1. Find some way to do things you enjoy at the workplace, even if you are not being paid for such initiatives. These activities (entertaining others, discussing your passions, describing how things could be improved) most likely are not going to be part of your job description, but work them in to your daily routine anyway, at least until you are ordered to cease and desist doing so. 
   
   
2. Keep perspective--and remind yourself what that perspective is. One possibility is that what you are doing is just a job; it is not necessarily your life's work forevermore. You are doing this job until you can find something more fulfilling, perhaps. Now THAT'S perspective. 
   
   
3. Get physical!  Do things that burn off stress. These might include all kinds of initiatives you could attend to BEFORE going to work, such as exercising vigorously, eating well, sleeping sufficiently but also include activities AT work that feel good and are not illegal and don't require brazen overtures to co-workers. Examples might include massaging your scalp--or someone else's, doing calisthenics instead or in addition to taking coffee breaks, brisk walks for lunch while choosing light, nutritious snacks instead of heavy restaurant meals at midday.
   
   
4. Play mind games during the workday. Let's assume that your boss is difficult, to say the least, and thus a source of likely stress. Here is the tip-conclude (to yourself-this must be kept a secret) that he/she is a lunatic, and must be artfully managed and that doing so is your special mission. You can't get too upset if you are dealing with a nutcase-and you won't take his/her temper tantrums, unreasonable demands and expectations seriously. Do humor the wretch-and go about your business as well as you can.
   
    
5. Go out of your way to experience laughter, fun, humor and play using any number of the myriad forms that enable the good feelings that such endeavors engender. Humor and play are proven therapeutic phenomena (and vital skill areas in my three-dimensional wellness model) but, why wait till you need therapy? The workplace is tough enough—-don’t go along blandly with the norm that the worksite should be be a barren, humorless void. Explore varied forms of humor that might succeed in your workplace, from spontaneous to structured activities. If you are a manager, hire a humor consultant—-there are plenty of good ones out there who can show you how to increase productivity by “lightening” the workplace environment with humor initiatives.
   
   
6. Reach out and be of service to others. This is the mantra of existentialists from Frankl to Yalom and others who write of ways to find meaning in life. If you are interested enough in workplace stress to read this, you probably know quite a bit about the dynamics of stress that might enable you to serve others as an unofficial, in-house outreach facilitator. You could, for example, talk with coworkers about relationship dynamics, and
   encourage them to think constructively about overcoming dysfunctional perspectives (feelings of guilt over imagined wrongs or shortcomings, for example) While many people who seek to serve others with helpful information do have a positive impact on others, the certain beneficiary of good deeds, particularly in the sense of experiencing less worksite stress, will be those who perform good works. In other words, by serving others, you also serve your own best interests.
   
   
7. Be skeptical in a light-hearted fashion. You won't be easily fooled, or easily disappointed, if you expect that the boss as well as co-workers and everyone else will sometimes disappoint. Even those who are ethical, well intentioned and truly good and loving beings will let you, and themselves, down a bit, at times. We're all human, which is to say  besides being frail, vulnerable and mortal, we make mistakes and fall short of our best
   intentions. This may shock you but I have to acknowledge at this point that this stress reducing insight reflecting a sad fact of nature applies even to me! When I promise you something, be skeptical--in a light-hearted fashion.
   
   For example, I promised you ten tips for doing your job more effectively with less stress but I just ran out of steam--at seven tips, just a little more than half what I promised.  Sorry.
   
   Wait! Here's one more, bringing my total to eight, not quite ten but better than seven.
   
   
8. Consider organizing your work and spare time so that you can explore, test and otherwise prepare yourself for the day when you can be under the direct and exclusive supervision of the only person truly qualified and worthy of having you under his or her authority, namely, yourself. This is not for everybody but if it seems to apply to you, start now to plan to become self-employed at some point in the future--but not before you are
   reasonably confident (with evidence for same) that you are ready to do so successfully!

Good luck.  I do hope some of these eight tips will prove sensible and useful. If you can help me to think of two more, I'd love to hear from you and will quote you in a future essay. Remember to look after yourself by living a wellness lifestyle and always look on the bright side of life--the two ultimate stress relievers that I did not count in my list of ten tips that would have brought my stress tip count to the promised ten!

(Note: This essay will be filed in the archives in the MENTAL DOMAIN under the skill area of stress management. Additional articles related to this theme may be found there.)

(Ed. Note: Views expressed in this and other columns are those of the author and not necessarily those of the SeekWellness Editorial Board.)

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