Stressed At Work? Write It Off
Keeping A Record Of Your Stress On The Job Helps Pinpoint Sources
Jacqueline Tresl, R.N., gives tips on coping with stress
January 5, 2000, 3:05 p.m. EST
How do you feel on your way into work? Is your jaw clenched tight, your stomach queasy? Do the arteries in your forehead pound and throb? Are you cranky or sad? Do you feel like the only good part of your workday comes at the end of your shift? If so, you may be experiencing pre-workday stress that starts en route to your job, then builds and worsens throughout your entire eight-hour (or longer) day. Whether you work in an office or a fire station, a factory or an elementary school, your job can be a huge source of stress in your life. Even if you love your job, co-workers or company policies may aggravate you, keeping you off-kilter. Or maybe you hate your job, but can't afford to make an occupational change at this time. Even when your job is causing you great stress and fatigue, you've convinced yourself that work is a necessity of life, something you must "grin and bear." But is there another way? Can anything be done to reduce workplace stress?  If you break your leg, your doctor takes an X-ray, determines the location of the fracture and repairs it. When you find yourself in a terribly stressful job, do what your doctor would do to your broken leg: Determine, through careful scrutiny and evaluation, what part of your job causes you the most stress; then, try to fix it. Figure Out Your Sources Of Stress When you're trying to diagnose your anxiety, be careful not to expect a single source of stress. Emotional and physical symptoms start when you multiply stress on top of stress. To decrease stress in your workday, evaluate all possible stressor sources. In most cases, there will be many. Keep a work journal for at least a month. Evaluate what makes you upset and, throughout the day, take stress "readings" -- rank your stress level on a scale of one to 10 and note the number in your journal. (If you're feeling high-tech, you could even make a table in Microsoft Word.)  Assess your level of stress on your way into work, after you first arrive at work, in the middle of your morning, during your lunch break, midafternoon, and then back home at the end of your shift. Next to your notation of one through 10, jot down what particular events occurred around the time you felt more or less stressed. After a week or two, look for a pattern. Do your stress numbers always go up when you're interacting with a specific co-worker? Do your stressed-out feelings multiply throughout the day, or do they peak around lunchtime, decreasing in the afternoon? Are you just as stressed driving into and returning home from work as when you are at work? Make ChangesUnderstanding your workday stress patterns will help you to take charge of your environmental stressors and enable you to modify them.For example, if you document in your journal that you feel super-tense driving to work, change your commuting pattern. Between home and work, stop at the gym for a workout. Detour to your father's house and share a morning cup of coffee with him. Drive over to the mall and take a long indoor walk. (Yes, guys, even men can power-walk.) If your tension headaches intensify at two in the afternoon, evaluate the trigger mechanism. What do you do between noon and 2 p.m.? Perhaps you need to eat a lunch filled with "comfort foods," like chicken noodle soup, tapioca pudding, mashed potatoes and gravy.  Maybe you need to take a brisk walk in the fresh air on your lunch break. Or perhaps you and a few friends could spend your noon break eating Ritz crackers and peanut butter, playing Scrabble and sharing jokes about the workplace.
If your co-worker or boss is a source of stress, find ways to avoid him. (Click here to rate your boss' management qualities.) Limit your time with him, stay focused on your tasks, don't let him ruffle your feathers. And when you do interact with him, smile or offer a compliment. Source Of Job Stress: Work! Perhaps you notice that your journal-graph goes up with "project stress." As deadlines approach, tensions build. Your journal may show that when you have too much work to do in too little time, your stress level maxes out at 10.  Using your work journal entries, learn how to manage work time more effectively. Don't get too wrapped up in the small picture. Adopt a broad, far-reaching approach. Forget about the not-so-important stuff, and concentrate on what must absolutely get done. Instead of trying to do every task 100 percent perfectly, be satisfied with doing a good job. One of the secrets to reducing workplace stress is learning how to manage your time and maximizing the hours you have. Keeping a work journal will help you pinpoint your stress patterns and stress triggers. Knowledge is power. The more you know about your workday stress patterns, the easier it will be for you to reduce on-the-job hassles and headaches. Related links: --Jacqueline Tresl, R.N., a coronary intensive care nurse and nursing supervisor for over 20 years, has written about health and happiness for magazines and newspapers for three years. Now you know what we were talking about when we said her first book, "Whoever Heard of a Horse In The House?" is scheduled for release in March.
--First published Jan. 5, 2000.
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