Stressful Work Situations

While stress and work seem to come hand in hand, they don’t have to. Peter George shows us how to identify the signs of stress, and offers a mix of tried-and-true and quirky techniques to help keep the workplace stress-free.

At the end of the year, if you are smart, you will take a look back at the year just gone and evaluate how you and your business have performed. If you are extremely smart, you will not just look at the bottom line of your company, you will examine the inner workings of your business, how it is run, and how your business has affected your quality of life.

Each and every year two resolutions come to the fore among workers, particularly those that own their own business: improve work-life balance and better manage the stress levels of me and my employees.

Running a small business is one of the most stressful occupations there is, with the constant worries of cash flow, improving work processes, on top of the ever-present need to bring in new business.

It is around this time of year, though, that small business owners look back and realise that all of those resolutions they made way back in December have been forgotten; they are as stressed as ever, and their employees are working harder and longer hours than ever before.

If, however, you keep this checklist handy, you should be able to identify the reasons for stress, the symptoms and how to change the work practices of you and your employee’s to reduce your stress levels immensely.

We all know the signs of stress, but often we choose to ignore them, whether we see it in ourselves or in your employees. It is worth remembering them in order to identify when your star employee is about to crack under the pressure and leave you in the lurch.Top 10 Ways to Know

You Are Stressed

The amazing exploding individual. Perhaps the most common and obvious sign of stress is a short temper. If you or your employees seem to be yelling at each other on a daily basis, the chances are you or they are stressed.The attention deficit disorder individual. A stressed worker, and that includes the business owner, is not a good worker.

Stressed individuals are unable to concentrate as well as a calm individual.Bags under the eyes. This one is a cliché, yes, but unfortunately it is true. Most of us cannot leave our stresses at the office, we take them home with us and dwell on the problems of the day, or the ones to face the next. Lack of sleep, though, is a vicious cycle: the more stressed you are, and the less you sleep; the less you sleep, the more stressed you become.Increased number of sick days. This symptom can display itself in two ways. Firstly, stress can manifest itself physically by lowering the immune system and causing you to become sick more often. Secondly, many people deal with stress by simply ignoring it and taking a day off from work.