STRESSED AT WORK? YOU'RE NOT ALONE

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, April 2, 1993                   TAG: 9304020402
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A-7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Knight-Ridder/Tribune
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Long
STRESSED AT WORK? YOU'RE NOT ALONE
Statistics confirm what you probably already knew: The workplace has become increasingly stressful.
A management newsletter reported recently that eight of 10 American workers are "headed for collapse." An insurance company survey of 1,300 workers found 40 percent report frequent bouts of anxiety, anger, fatigue or exhaustion. One in three was thinking of quitting.
And everyone is working harder. The average American worker has added a month a year to his or her working time since 1969, calculates a Harvard economist. The Bureau of Labor Statistics says Americans are logging more overtime than at any time since the '50s.
Workers are unhappy.
"The 1990s are the balancing decade," said Larry Harmon, a Miami psychologist who specializes in career counseling. "People are tired of the emptiness that comes from the endless search for external rewards. They want to balance what they get from the outside with how they feel on the inside about themselves."
How to accomplish the balance? Harmon and others offer some suggestions.
First, understand what is happening in the workplace, said Kevin J. Murphy, book author and president of CDK Associates & Consulting Inc., a Salem, N.H., firm specializing in personnel evaluations and customer and employee opinion surveys.
Many companies have eliminated jobs or merged with other companies. Many middle-manager jobs got eliminated in the process. Surviving staffers have twice the work. Surviving managers have to justify their positions with more written reports and updates. The burden falls on their subordinates.
Adapting to the changes requires applying more of your inner standards, Murphy said. If your workplace is full of rumors, criticism and office politics, you should pay less attention to the environment and focus on your performance. Even if outside recognition is not forthcoming, you still will have a good performance record and the satisfaction of doing a good job.
Murphy recommends that you:
\ Please yourself first. Whatever your job is, do the best you can. If you work in sales, for example, sell your product and forget about home-office politics. You can enjoy your customers and your results, whether your company recognizes it or not.
\ Stay away from negativism. There always are people for whom conflict and pessimism is a way of life. Their attitudes can sap your energy. Tune out and don't become a sapper yourself.
Robert Roskind, owner of a small company in Oriental, N.C., that makes and distributes home-improvement videos, promotes the idea that the way you view the world influences how the world turns out for you.
If you view the world as hostile, your workplace will appear threatening. If you view the world as antagonistic, your workplace will become conflictive.
"You're going to create what you internally fear," he said.
The threat of being worthless creates more anxiety than having to come up with an alternative source of income if you were to lose your job or business, or fail to get a promotion. To change the fear:
\ Broaden your sense of self. Instead of linking your self-worth only to your work, you can think of your worth as intrinsic, simply for being a person. Turning your fear into a positive view of yourself and your life will help you function harmoniously in the workplace, even a chaotic one, Roskind says.
Harmon, the Miami psychologist, suggests two rules for making your workplace work for you.
\ Ask for what you want. For example, you may want to start leaving at 5:30 p.m. or get a computer to facilitate your work if staying late has become a habit. If your requests are reasonable and you're a responsible worker, you should be able to get what you want or negotiate a compromise with your boss.
\ Set limits. This means saying no when you're given more work than you can handle with the amount of time and resources you have. Don't rely on your boss to guess your limits.
"If you're doing a good job from 9 to 5, your boss is not going to fire you for setting some limits," Harmon said.
\ WORK GOT YOU FRAZZLED?\ Give yourself one point if you disagree with the statement, two if you agree\ somewhat and three if you strongly agree.\ \ 1. I can't say what I really think at work.\ \ 2. I have a lot of responsibility, but not much authority.\ \ 3. I could do a much better job if I had more time.
\ 4. I seldom receive acknowledgement or appreciation.
\ 5. I'm not proud of or satisfied with my job.
\ 6. I'm picked on or discriminated against at work.
\ 7. My workplace is not particularly pleasant or safe.
\ 8. My job interferes with my family and personal needs.
\ 9. I tend to argue with superiors, co-workers or customers.
\ 10. I feel I have little control over my life at work.
Scores: 10-16, you handle job stress well; 17-23, you handle it moderately well; 24-30, you need to resolve your problems.

- Source: American Stress Institute.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB