Questions You should ask yourself if you feel stressed or if you work with stressed out colleagues:
- Is your Job Chasing You in your Dreams?
- Your colleague doesn’t do the same amount of work.
- Is Your Job Chasing You in Your Dreams?
- Don’t you know how to work away all your work?
- Are you trying to finish all your work in one day?
- Are you really tired after the end of a work day?
- Do you feel like everyone is giving you their work because you can do it all?
- Do you feel you do the work of others and they get a raise and you don’t?
If you have (one of) the above symptoms reading my article might be very valuable for you. All you have to know is that these tips aren’t written by some kind of an (Anti Stress, relax) Guru. All those tips are written because I, myself, was working under stress circumstances myself as well. That’s why the tips in this report are a result of my own experiences, that’s why I think they might be very recognizable for other people.
I wrote the anti stress tips, because I learned from my mistakes and I learned from them the hard way. I want you to read my tips so that you can avoid common mistakes that can cause you a lot of stress. I want you to not make my mistakes, or I want you to start acting now and become a more relaxed person than you was before.
Anti Stress tips for the Working Environment
Tip 1: Relax, there will be another day tomorrow
The more work you are doing, the more work your boss will give you. I don’t mean you should be lazy, but you should work under a normal work pressure. You should finish a normal amount of work a day. Finish the work that is important to finish that day.
Plan your work for a full week, don’t plan to finish the work of a whole week in one day. The more work you will do, the more work you will get. And the more frustrated you will become, because there will be a time that you can’t finish all your work anymore. And you will have to leave work for tomorrow.
Tip 2: Think before you offer your help to someone
If you offer your help to someone that has a lot of work, it's easy to say "Yes I will help you" But it's a lot harder to say
"I got to much work now, I can't help you anymore".
If you are in a working environment you will see people that have so much work to do. and maybe you have less work to
do. But if you start offering your help your colleagues and other colleagues will think it is normal for them to give you their work.
It is harder to say "No" or "I Can't do this anymore".And it can be very hard to get rid of the extra work you get.
Tip 3: If you work on different departments don’t try to split yourself
On a daily basis I work for different department of an organization. In the beginning I tried to finish the work I have to do in the morning as quick as possible so that I could go to the other department. Or if it was busy there I went there i took some work of that department and worked on that as well.
Right now I don’t do that anymore, trying to do to much work at the same time is causing to much stress for me, but also for you. You can’t split yourself, so try to do a decent, normal amount of work. But also try to relax in between you work, don’t become a workaholic, like I was for a long time. That will cause you a lot of stress without any reason. Most likely you will not get paid anything more to work harder than you should, you only will be more tired and more frustrated when you do.
The more work you do the more work people suspect you can do. They will think you are stronger than you really are. But even you will have a Break Even point and you will get over that over that Break Even Point. I don’t mean that you will make a profit or make a loss.
I mean that you will get tired, and you will not be able to do all that work anymore. You will get to much work after a while, and you will get tired of your job and all the tasks you have to do. And it’s harder to get rid of work then to get more work. You have to prevent that or have to start acting now to get yourself from a workaholic to a more relaxed person.
Tip 4: Don’t do the Work of your Colleague unless Your Boss Tells You So
- Is your boss working with the “Opposite World System”? Decide if your boss works with “The Opposite World System” by checking the following points:
- You accept to help your colleague without your boss asking you to
- The work of your colleague that you accepted to do becomes more and moreThe work of your colleague that you accepted to do becomes more and more. And your colleague expects you to keep on doing the work. If you go on holidays you colleague doesn’t do the work you are doing for him . Instead he tells you the first day after your holidays that you need to catch up and need to work away the work he left behind.
- Your colleague gets a raise. (And you don't)
- You only seem to hear what you do wrong, not what you do right.
- You don’t get a raise because you are stressed because of the work you do for your colleague.
- People are starting to say you can’t do your own job. People are starting to say you can’t do your own job.
- Your boss doesn’t see the amount of work that you are doing for your colleague because you accepted to help your colleague without him officially knowing it. (In your eyes he supposed to see it though).
Even if just two or three of the following points apply you need to make some changes. Now that you know what not to do, accepting to much work, and also doing to much work because you think that’s the right thing to do. It’s time to work on an “Open And Honest Business System". Try to work on the following points to look at the organization with a new and fresh mind:
Talk with your colleague in a nice way. Don’t criticize, always stay kind. For example If you get more work from your boss . Take that moment to tell your colleague, that you have enough on your own work. And that you can’t help them anymore. Your colleague might have taken your help for granted, but you have helped them all this time, so it’s also your fault that you didn’t talk to your colleague before. You kept the situation the same way, your boss didn’t hire any more people, because you did all the work for him (and he perhaps didn’t know and gave your colleague all the compliments).
That’s why you are telling them now, and that’s why you keep telling it in a nice way. Be prepared of the fact that your colleague can behave less nicely to you, because you don’t do his work anymore. No matter how nice you tell it, the result might be that you will lose his friendship. But if the friendship is only based on the work for him, you have to ask yourself “Is this friendship real?” If you doubt about helping your colleague, you shouldn’t do it unless your boss tells you so.
Tell them you will tell your boss about what you discussed, so that they will not be pissed because you talked to your boss behind their back. They can tell you what they don’t want you to say or want you to say about the situation to your boss. Even though you decide what to say to your boss. Again if you talk to your boss you will tell them you did help your colleague, but you don’t have time to do so anymore. Your boss might say, they didn’t even know you actually helped your colleague(s). Which indicates how important they think your help was, or that they really didn’t know you helped your colleagues all this time
Only help your colleague if your boss asks you so. Now that your boss know you need to really stop helping your colleague, do what you say, because otherwise they will not take you serious anymore. You will only help your colleague from now on, if your boss asks you too. And if your boss asks you so you ask him to free you from some other work while you work for the colleague.
Gain back the respect of your other colleagues. Especially the ones that warned you not to help your colleague all the time. Stop working like a slave, start just doing what you are supposed to do. And you will be less tired and you will feel relieved.
Tip 5: Go Home If You Want to
You see your colleagues leave at 15:00 while you are working until 19:00. You feel tired and frustrated on the end of the day but you want to finish that one thing before you go home. Because you have such a long working day, because you work until the end of the day you will get more and more work and people will start calling you a workaholic. If you feel It’s time to go home and the normal work times have come to an end – you have to go home.
It’s possible are able to choose how late you start and end with your job, and you can clock in and save some time for another day. You can do that but don’t save to much time. Try to work during the work times in your contract, the hours that you are supposed to work. After you are finished your normal work hours, please do go home. If you save hours spend them in the same week for example to get a half day off.
Don’t keep on saving time the whole year. And then in the last week before the holidays decide to take a bunch of half days off. Not only you work harder than you are supposed to. You do more work than you supposed to because your are working longer than you should.
If you work more than your contract hours your boss might not see that. They think you do all that work in the work hours that where set in your work contract. Because they think you can do that amount of work in that amount of time, you will get more and more work to do. And that’s when you become a workaholic.
Tip 6: The Power of Positive Thinking
Start to think more positive about your work then you start to feel more positive too.
If you only have negative feelings about your work, it’s hard to come through every day. Maybe you hate to go to your work again to spend another week with the same work. If you change the way you are thinking, ignore the things people might say about you. It’s positive that you start to think more positive.
If you want to apply for a job, don’t think anything negative. Don’t think you are a failure that will not get the job. Think yourself in that job.
What can you do to prepare yourself for the job interview? Make sure your clothes look alright, check that long before you have the interview. Make sure your hair looks fine. Make sure you already read the background of the company, and think about the tasks that might come with the job. Make sure you are in time and you have every ingredient taken to have a positive Job Interview.
Your own feelings will reflect on others. If you feel positive and you treat your colleagues positive you will get more compliments. If you feel positive you feel less tired by the end of the week. Because negative feelings and frustrations about your work you will get more and more tired. Try to overcome your frustrations.
Be kind to every colleague, even if you hate him or her. Even if you think they are chasing you in your dreams on purpose, always be kind to them. If you give kindness you will receive kindness back.
Some Simple Anti Stress Exercises
Walking
The perfect anti stress exercise is to walk away from your desk every once in a while. You give your eyes a rest from the monitor.
You will get some rest from your work. And you might become more productive and think about other things when you come back to your desk. It also reduces the risk for RSI.
When you have a break or after work you can take some time to walk too. To get some rest. If you have nice nature or a nice wood near your house take a halve hour walk every day and get your mind to relax from the rest of your day.
Watch tv, Listen to the radio, let your mind rest
If you go home take some time to relax, don’t jump behind your computer or laptop right away when you worked behind a desk all the time. Let your mind get some rest. You will sleep a lot better without a mind which have been busy all day.