Job Stress

You haven’t been at work for more then twenty minutes and already your day is going down hill. Your phone is ringing off the hook. Papers piled on your desk , and now you have to attend a meeting. Day after day it is the same thing at your job and you have become highly stressed out. In my paper I am going to explain why job stress happens and ways that you can relieve it.

One type of stress is job stress. Job stress is when the stressors involved are work related. “NIOSH” the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health states, job stress is the harmful physical and emotional responses that occur when the requirements of the job do not match the capabilities, resources, or needs of the worker. There are many things in life that cause stress and working a job is just one of them. Although it is one kind of stress it is a major factor in people’s everyday life. The first thing that can cause is overwork. This includes working late, taking work home, and not taking vacation time. Some ways to cope with over working and taking home work are to prioritize your work for that week. Even though it seems like everything is due at once, chances are that’s not the case. Figure out the hardest and most important tasks and put them first. This way most of your energy is focused on the most important thing. Then work your way down to the easiest task. If you know that you have a lot of work to do in a one week period try to schedule the greatest amount of work in the middle of the week. On Monday’s people tend to be tired and Friday’s people are anxious for the weekend to start. Also to minimize your chances of taking work home set goals and strive to achieve them. Assign an amount of work to each day of the week. This way you should have your work done before you go home. When you have a set plan you are probably going to stick to your agenda then if you have no idea of what work you are going to do that day. If you have a lot of work to do and you feel yourself getting frustrated take a short break. If you take five to ten minutes and walk around or listen to music this can take away some of your stress. If you take breaks regularly you are more likely to get as stressed out.

Another cause of job related stress is impending layoffs. Not many people are safe from this because labor in the workforce is not at a high demand right now. There’s not much you can do if you are in jeopardy of being laid off besides prepare for it. Have your resume ready and constantly try to update it. Also keep your network a live by asking co-workers about their status and if they have heard anything about layoffs. This way you can see where the company is making most of its cut backs. It will be easier to know if you are endanger of being laid off. The only positive to being laid off is if you had been wanting a career change. If you would like to pursue a different job now would be the time to attempt to. When you are still working and looking for another job you are not in desperate need of a job like you are when you are unemployed.

The last thing that can create stress at your job is conflict with a boss or co-workers. It might be hard to put your personality