- •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
Voice projection
We communicate with our voices even when we are not using words. It is possible to convey a considerable amount of valuable information through one’s tone of voice, pitch, volume and speed. For example, if someone’s voice, is shaky, high pitched and fast, they may be communicating that they are anxious. Alternatively, if a person is talking in a slow, quiet and monotonous voice, it may be indicating that they are sad or depressed, or a loud and booming voice may indicate anger. These non-verbal speech sounds provide valuable information about the person’s underlying feelings. If you are attending well, you will be able to pick up information about the other person through their voice as well as their eye contact, posture, gestures and facial expressions. Also, the tone, pitch, volume and speed of your own voice is important. Speaking in a slow, calm, soft, warm and empathic voice can help a lot to get the other person to relax and open up to you.
Personal space
Personal space refers to an invisible boundary that individuals draw around themselves. If someone stands too close to us, it can feel uncomfortable and is referred to as invading our personal space. Research has shown that there are four different zones of interpersonal space that we draw around ourselves. The closest zone ranges from touching to about 18 inches (46 cm) apart. Only people who we are very close to are allowed to invade this space, which is reserved for lovers, our children, close family members and friends. The next zone ranges from 18 inches to approximately 4 feet (122 cm) and is reserved for friends and work colleagues who we know reasonably well. The third zone ranges from 4 to 8 feet away and is reserved for strangers and new acquaintances. The final zone starts at 8 feet (244 cm) away and is termed public distance. It is the distance reserved for public performances such as at the theatre, giving a lecture or speech to a larger audience. It is an important social skill to be aware of the rules relating to personal space and to stand at the appropriate distance when interacting with someone. Being too close to the other person can make them feel uncomfortable or intimidated, but too great a distance may communicate being detached and coldness.
Touch
Related to personal space is touch. We communicate a lot through touch. Examples of the everyday use of touch include giving someone a pat on the back when they have done something well, giving a firm hand shake as a welcome gesture, giving someone a hug when you meet them, or placing a hand on someone’s shoulder to comfort them. In terms of deciding what level of physical contact is appropriate, it depends on how well you know the person and how intimate with them you are. For example, you would not walk along holding hands with someone who you were not fairly intimate with, but you may hold their hand to look at their engagement ring. There are also certain areas of the body that are considered out of bounds if the relationship is not an intimate one and if invaded could result in someone being grossly offended and even constitute a criminal act. An example of this would be to touch a female who you did not know intimately on her chest or bottom. There is also a risk of some kinds of ‘innocent’ forms of touch being misinterpreted. For example, a demonstrative person may put their hand on another person’s knee or wrist when talking to them. They may mean nothing by it, but there is a risk that it could be misinterpreted as a gesture indicating that they are attracted to the other person. It is thus important to be aware of the rules relating to appropriate physical contact in a given culture. There are also cultural differences which should be taken into account when interacting with people from other cultures.