Idealism is what precedes experience; cynicism is what follows...

Friday, November 16, 2007

Archive : The early signs of negative stress

In case you didn't know, negative stress can be handled effectively if caught early.
Many organizations have a stress policy which includes information about stress and how to recognize it if happens to one of your co-workers or yourself.
However, if you happen to work in a place with no such thing, but still run the risk of negative stress you might want to know what the early signs of negative stress look and feels like.

The organization I work for don't have a declared stress policy, nevertheless are the lower strategic- and tactical-management pretty good at adjusting the work load in recognition of e.g. a tough haul up towards a deadline, so we are pretty well off in comparison to many other places.

However, in lack of a declared stress policy I will try to address the issue in a number of posts and attempt to give some quick and dirty (and easily implementable) advice for how to handle an emerging stress situation for either yourself or the team you work in.

Initially its important to recognize the fact that your co-workers most often will notice the changes towards a negative stress situation before yourself, so I will start with the symptoms for how you can recognize it in others and then move into the ones only you yourself (and perhaps your close relations) can know about.

PS. Please comment on this topic and please let me know if there are certain topics your would like to see covered.

1 comment:

George Formby said...

I like this approach when I get too much work on my hands:

1. Turn off your phone and lock the door to your office.

2. Clear your desk. File the stuff you can. Throw out everything you don't know what to do with. If you happen to throw out something super important someone will most likely remind you sooner or later.

3. Clear your laptop in the same way as your desk. Delete or file all emails in your inbox.

4. Eat really healthy for a while, get out in the air, run, don't answer your phone. Call back when you have time for it or email people.

5. Go to the nearest public school and beat up some kids in the school yard. Great physical exercise and if you're a big fat systems developer like myself, kids are an easy & fun fight.

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