
- •Overcoming Your Workplace Stress
- •Overcoming Your Workplace Stress
- •Martin r. Bamber
- •About the author
- •Preface
- •Acknowledgements
- •The ‘fight or flight’ response
- •Harmful stress
- •The consequences of harmful stress on the individual
- •The consequences of harmful stress for the organization
- •Conceptualizing stress
- •The ‘camera analogy’
- •The emergency response
- •Changes in thinking
- •Changes in motivation
- •Changes in emotion
- •Changes in behaviour
- •The development of stress syndromes
- •Dispelling some myths about stress
- •Answers for the stress quiz (Table 1.1) Statement 1
- •Statement 2
- •Statement 3
- •Statement 4
- •Statement 5
- •Statement 6
- •Statement 7
- •Statement 8
- •Statement 9
- •Statement 10
- •Statement 11
- •Statement 12
- •Statement 13
- •Statement 14
- •Statement 15
- •Statement 16
- •How well did you do in the quiz?
- •How stressed are you?
- •A stress checklist
- •Scoring and interpreting the checklist (Table 1.2)
- •Summary
- •Chapter 2
- •Identifying the causes of your occupational stress
- •Introduction
- •An overview of the causes of occupational stress
- •Individual factors
- •Genetic/inherited factors
- •Acquired/learned factors
- •Personality/trait factors
- •Factors in the work environment
- •Job demands
- •Physical working conditions
- •Control
- •Supports
- •Relationships
- •Pay and career prospects
- •The home–work interface
- •The employer’s ‘duty of care’ to provide a healthy working environment Case study: Schmidt
- •The impact of employment legislation
- •Demands
- •Control
- •Support
- •Relationships
- •Further developments in management standards
- •Identifying the main causes of stress in your own working environment
- •Interpreting the results of your questionnaire (Table 2.1)
- •Interpreting individual items
- •Interpretation of subscales
- •Summary and main learning points from Part I
- •About Part II of this book
- •Primary level interventions
- •Secondary level interventions
- •Tertiary level interventions
- •Doing a job analysis
- •Case study: Tony
- •The benefits of doing a job analysis
- •Interventions aimed at reducing the demands of your job Reducing the volume of work
- •Enlarging your job
- •Enriching your job
- •Improving your physical working environment
- •Interventions aimed at increasing the control you have over your job
- •Interventions aimed at increasing the supports you have at work
- •Interventions aimed at improving working relationships
- •Gather evidence
- •Find allies to support you
- •Stand up to the bully
- •Present the bully with the evidence
- •Be prepared for the backlash
- •Take things further if necessary
- •Interventions aimed at clarifying your role at work
- •Interventions aimed at improving the way that change is managed in your workplace
- •Interventions aimed at improving the home–work interface
- •Some tips for negotiating with your employer
- •What to do if your line manager is not receptive to your plight
- •What to do if you do not get the problem resolved within your workplace organization
- •Chapter 4 Living a healthy lifestyle
- •Introduction
- •Living a healthy lifestyle
- •Regular exercise
- •Some tips for doing more exercise
- •A healthy diet
- •Some tips for eating more healthily
- •Monitoring food intake
- •Medication and other drugs
- •Alcohol
- •Some tips for reducing your alcohol intake
- •Caffeine
- •Nicotine
- •Some tips for stopping smoking
- •Sleep and rest
- •Some tips to help you sleep better
- •Summary
- •An exercise
- •Developing your own ‘Healthy Lifestyle Plan’
- •Chapter 5 Developing effective time management skills
- •Introduction
- •Case study: John
- •Case study: Peter
- •What can we learn from the case studies of John and Peter?
- •Developing effective time management skills Plan ahead
- •Be clear about what your goals are
- •Manage your diary effectively
- •Create some ‘prime time’ for yourself
- •Prepare for meetings
- •Choose the best time to tackle difficult tasks
- •Overcome procrastination
- •Case study: Jenny
- •What can we learn from the case study of Jenny?
- •Learn to delegate
- •Stay focused
- •Prioritize tasks
- •Be organized
- •Developing an action plan to manage your time more effectively
- •Chapter 6 Developing assertiveness skills What is assertiveness?
- •Why are some people unassertive?
- •What are the consequences of being unassertive?
- •Case study: Caroline
- •Case study: Rosie
- •How can you become more assertive?
- •Education
- •Aggressive behaviour
- •Submissive behaviour
- •Manipulative behaviour
- •Assertive behaviour
- •Knowing your rights
- •A ‘Bill of Rights’
- •What can we learn from the case study of Caroline?
- •Developing assertive attitudes
- •Developing assertive behaviours
- •Other useful assertiveness techniques to help you
- •Use the ‘broken record’ technique
- •Use fogging
- •Be concise
- •Be specific
- •Clarify
- •Use ‘I’ statements
- •Active listening
- •Aim for a workable compromise
- •Negative assertion
- •Empathic confrontation
- •Self-disclosure
- •How assertive are you?
- •Table 6.1 scores and interpretation Scoring of individual items
- •Interpreting the total scores for the questionnaire
- •Developing an action plan to become more assertive
- •Chapter 7 Developing effective interpersonal skills
- •Introduction
- •What are interpersonal communication skills?
- •Why are some people interpersonally less skilled than others?
- •What are the consequences of being interpersonally unskilled?
- •Developing your own interpersonal skills
- •Body posture and gestures
- •Facial expressions
- •Eye contact
- •Voice projection
- •Personal space
- •Personal appearance and presentation
- •Verbal skills
- •Paraphrasing
- •Reflecting feelings
- •Summarizing
- •Minimal encouragers
- •Asking open questions
- •Immediacy
- •Concreteness
- •The use of small talk
- •Higher level interpersonal skills
- •Developing cognitive skills
- •How interpersonally skilled are you?
- •Developing an action plan aimed at becoming more interpersonally skilled
- •Chapter 8 Developing relaxation skills
- •Introduction
- •Informal relaxation techniques
- •Semi-formal relaxation techniques
- •Massage
- •Releasing your shoulder tension
- •Soothing your scalp
- •Relaxing your eyes
- •Formal relaxation techniques
- •Deep breathing exercises
- •A deep breathing exercise
- •Progressive muscular relaxation
- •A progressive muscular relaxation exercise
- •A brief relaxation exercise for the neck and shoulders
- •Mental relaxation techniques
- •Meditation
- •Mindfulness
- •Mental refocusing
- •Visual imagery
- •Summary and main learning points
- •Chapter 9 Changing the way you relate to your work
- •Introduction
- •Understanding the links between thoughts, feelings, behaviours and bodily reactions
- •The cat vignette exercise
- •Identifying unhelpful patterns of thinking
- •Labelling dysfunctional thinking styles
- •Catastrophic thinking
- •Jumping to conclusions and mind reading
- •Overgeneralization
- •Magnification
- •Minimization
- •Personalization
- •Black and white thinking
- •‘Should’ and ‘must’ statements
- •Challenging dysfunctional patterns of thinking
- •Examining the evidence
- •Exploring the alternatives
- •Identifying advantages and disadvantages
- •The friend technique
- •Checking it out
- •Estimating probabilities
- •Reattributing meaning
- •Conducting behavioural experiments
- •Case study: Sarah
- •Challenging work dysfunctions
- •Challenging patterns of over-commitment Modifying perfectionism
- •Modifying workaholism
- •Challenging patterns of under-commitment Modifying underachievement
- •Modifying procrastination
- •Summary
- •Chapter 10 Overcoming stress syndromes
- •Introduction
- •Treating anxiety syndromes
- •Performance anxiety
- •Case study: Philip
- •Treating Philip’s performance anxiety
- •What can we learn from the case study of Philip?
- •Panic attacks
- •Case study: Andrew
- •Treating Andrew’s panic attacks
- •Phobic avoidance
- •Treating phobic avoidance
- •Case study: Maxine
- •Treating the depression syndrome
- •Challenging depressive thinking
- •Challenging unhelpful behaviours
- •Activity scheduling
- •Conducting behavioural experiments
- •A note on the burnout syndrome
- •Treating burnout syndrome
- •Treating the hostility syndrome
- •Summary
- •The eight stages of a self-help plan
- •Make a problem list
- •Prioritize your problems
- •Set your goals
- •Establish the criteria of success
- •Plan your interventions
- •Develop a self-help treatment plan
- •Monitor and review your progress
- •Prevent relapse
- •Case study: Helen
- •Making a problem list and prioritizing the problems
- •Setting the goals and establishing the criteria of success
- •Comfort eating and weight gain
- •Avoidance
- •Procrastination
- •Unassertiveness
- •Anxiety
- •Poor self-image
- •Planning the interventions
- •Interventions for comfort eating and weight gain
- •Interventions for avoidance
- •Interventions for procrastination
- •Interventions for unassertiveness
- •Interventions for anxiety
- •Interventions for poor self-image
- •Developing a self-help treatment plan
- •Monitoring and reviewing progress
- •Summary
- •Chapter 12 Summary and conclusions
- •Appendix Useful books and contacts
Set your goals
Starting with the problem at the top of the list, identify the specific unhelpful behaviour(s) and/or thinking pattern(s) that need to be addressed. For example, if you identify that you are ‘living an unhealthy lifestyle’, you need to be specific about what aspects of your lifestyle are unhealthy and need changing. You need to ask yourself some basic questions such as ‘Do I need to take more exercise?’, ‘Do I need to reduce my alcohol intake?’, ‘Do I need to get more sleep?’, ‘Do I need to eat a healthier diet?’ If the answer to any of these is ‘Yes’, it needs addressing. Reflecting on the problem in this way allows you to identify the specific aspects of it which need changing and clarifying the goals you need to set yourself.
In a similar way to the lifestyle example above, other problem areas can be explored in order to identify the specific goals you want to set yourself. For example, if you identify that ‘poor time management’ is a problem, you should explore which specific aspects of managing your time are problematic and need to be addressed. For example, ask yourself ‘Do I need to overcome a tendency to procrastinate?’, ‘Do I need to learn to delegate more?’, ‘Do I need to learn to prioritize tasks more effectively?’, ‘Do I need to develop my planning skills?’, ‘Do I need to develop my organizational skills?’ You need to specify each problem area at this level of detail in order to identify a specific goal.
If you identify that your social and interpersonal skills are lacking, you need to be specific about what aspects of your social skills are lacking in order to identify the goals for that particular problem area. For example, ask yourself ‘Do I need to focus on changing some of the “non-verbal” aspects of my behaviour? such as “body posture”, “facial expression”, “eye contact” or “personal space”, or “verbal” aspects such as “paraphrasing”, “summarizing”, “asking open questions”, or “appropriate self-disclosure”?’
If you identify that assertiveness is a problem for you, you need to identify what specific aspects of your behaviours and attitudes are unassertive and require changing. For example, ‘Do I need to learn to manage conflict more effectively?’, ‘Do I need to learn to “say no” more often?’, ‘Do I need to learn to stand up for my rights more?’ Similarly, if you identify that you are prone to negative thinking then you need to identify the specific dysfunctional thinking style(s) that you need to change. For example, ‘Am I catastrophizing?’, ‘Jumping to conclusions?’, ‘Mind reading?’, ‘Overgeneralizing?’, ‘Magnifying?’, ‘Minimizing?’, ‘Personalizing?’ or ‘Thinking in black and white terms?’
Identifying your goals is therefore about deciding exactly what unhelpful patterns of behaviour and thinking you want to change. The relevant questionnaires and checklists presented in this book should assist you in this task.
Establish the criteria of success
Deciding which specific unhelpful patterns of behaviour and thinking you want to change does not in itself tell you very much. You also need to decide what criteria you are going to use to determine when you have successfully achieved the goals you have set yourself. A problem solving approach can be helpful in deciding on your criteria of success. This essentially involves acknowledging where you are at now in terms of the problems that you have identified (Point A) and where you would ideally like to be at some point in the future (Point B). After all, if you have no vision of where you want to be in the future, how do you expect to get there? Point A is the present unacceptable state of affairs or the current mess that you find yourself in and Point B is your preferred scenario at some time point in the future. It is no good just hoping that when you wake up one day, everything will be sorted out. You need to have a clear idea about what changes you want to make, how you are going to get from Point A to Point B and what the shorter-term targets on the way to achieving this are.
The goals and criteria of success that you set yourself should be ‘SMART’. That is, they should be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time bound. Some illustrations of this are given below. For example, if ‘leading an unhealthy lifestyle’ is at the top of your problem list and your goals are to ‘take more exercise’ and ‘reduce your alcohol intake’, these objectives are not ‘SMART’, since they are too vague. However, specifying that you will increase your exercise from its present level to half an hour per day within four weeks, or reduce your alcohol intake from forty to ten units of alcohol per week within four weeks would constitute ‘SMART’. This is because you are identifying specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time bound goals.