Job Stress & Coping Skills 1

It is crucial nowadays to possess both the technical skills to perform your job and
the coping skills to shrug off workplace stressors.  These stressors may result from something said or your own dissatisfaction with your work performance that day.  Many times this burden doesn’t stay in the office.  You take it home with you and brood, or snap at a loved one for no apparent reason.  If you know why you are thinking, feeling, or acting different, then you are that much closer to resolving the situation.  If not, examine your daily routine and perhaps keep a journal until you discover issues, situations or patterns identifiable as stressors. 

These stressors can either be completely eradicated or rendered powerless against your learned coping skills.  However, before you begin, it is advisable to see your physician so that any medical causes can be ruled out.   It is futile to work on anxiety symptoms such as upset stomach when the real cause is a medical condition.  If you are not happy with your physician then find one that will listen to you.  You are paying them and they are there to serve you.  Contrary to what some of them think, your fee doesn’t buy only three minutes of their time.  There are many caring and attentive physicians out there.  Find one!  You have to be able to trust your physician.  This in itself will boost your health.  If there are no medical problems then we’ll proceed.
 
Do you remember Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz?  She was trying to get back home after being displaced by that terrible tornado.  How many times has a tornado hit our life and disrupted it?  It happens to everyone whether you’re young or old, or you’re rich or poor.  Dorothy was knocked unconscious as a result of the tornado.  She then looked around for help in her quest to get back home.  Eventually she put her faith in the Wizard.  As we know, the Wizard didn’t pull through.  Do we act unconsciously and put faith in others when trying to resolve personal issues, situations, or problems.  It is time to wake up and look inwards for answers.  Yes, you hold the key to resolving personal conflicts.   You see Dorothy had the power to go back home all along.  All she had to do was click the heels of her shoes together.  She then rose from the unconscious to the conscious state and found she was back home.  Are you ready to click your heels?
 
We will examine three causes of most stressors namely person, situational, and environmental.  There may be a person at work that picks on you or your boss may be overly demanding or sexually inappropriate.  These are “person” stressors.  You may work for a company that now practices unethical or illegal activities which upper management ignores.  This is a new “situational” stressor. For example you work at a manufacturing plant that as part of the normal refining process produces toxic gases.  Although they are within EPA limits, studies show that the chemicals in the fumes can be carcinogenic.  This causes you to have health concerns.  This is an “environmental” stressor.  Let’s work with this one first.

If your workplace poses an environmental issue, there are a couple of possible solutions.  The first is to look for ways to minimze its impact upon you.  The other is to seek reassignment or a new job..  Look at the issue and answer these questions

• Is my concern really a sign of burnout?
  
• Is there a possibility this issue can be resolved by management?
  
• Is this issue just hearsay or is there evidence to support it?
  
• Do the long-term benefits outweigh the risk?
  
• Can I be transferred to another department or location?
  
• Do I practice preventive or safety measures?
  

Many times you’ll find these questions will lead you to solutions.  The issue may or may not be the real stressor.  Maybe it is burnout.   The key is to minimize the issue’s impact upon you.  If you discover that the real stressor is some other issue then you work on that issue.


John E. Epperson, M.S.C.P.
Master of Science Counseling Psychology

Discover the Truth about Anyone!

Copyright 2000 Great Web Info. All rights reserved.