Pressure at work - how do you handle it?

[yello]

S'alright scoosh. I have my own training plan to stick to, that's more important than darting out for a quick 50 or 100 to retain my position. Besides longers effort deserves to be rewarded!

Part of my breakdown recovery therapy (says he getting back on topic!) was to learn to put distance between myself and the task in hand. To stop taking things quite so damned seriously and internalising.

 

[Scoosh]

S'alright scoosh. I have my own training plan to stick to, that's more important than darting out for a quick 50 or 100 to retain my position. Besides longers effort deserves to be rewarded!

Part of my breakdown recovery therapy (says he getting back on topic!) was to learn to put distance between myself and the task in hand. To stop taking things quite so damned seriously and internalising.

My point exactly

 

[Dayvo]

I'm lucky, I don't suffer from stress.

If there is a fair amount of pressure, then I prioritise what is most important.

Fortunately, though, I have a good boss who has the same work-ethic attitude as me.

 

[jack the lad]

A few years ago I did a stress management course. The basic message was that people flog themselves at work and get stressed about it because they are worried about losing their job if they don't get through the work. The trainer argued that if the job is that bad why are you so bothered about keeping it. Just say no to more work and the chances are they will do nothing. If they do sack you, then you are released from the stress with the opportunity to do something better. He claimed the evidence was that people who are sacked in these kind of circumstances, once they have got over the initial shock, usually end up happier and more fulfilled once they realise that the sh*t job they had wasn't worth the hassle.

Sounded like good advice to me. Just do as much work as you can reasonably cope with and no more. A good employer will value that you do the work better.

Our boss thought it was a dreadful course... I wonder why?

 

[beanzontoast]

Our boss thought it was a dreadful course... I wonder why?

Maybe he found it a stressful experience!

 

[Llama]

I been on a couple of time management training days and both mentioned this book - worth the £7 - all stuff that you know, but good to have it written out so you can order your work and then leave more time for the fun stuff.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/7-Habits-Highly-Effective-People/dp/0684858398/ref=pd_bxgy_b_text_b

 

[Dan B]

My recommendation would be

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Getting-Thi...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1240935898&sr=1-1

and especially for its advice to (1) externally record all the tasks you need to do (half the stress is the nagging feeling that you've forgotten something, and when you know subconsciously that you can't have done, that feeling goes away) and (2) keep to a minimum the places you record them

 

[Greedo]

When I worked for other people I never got that stressed despite being in a traditionally stressful sales (any recruitment person that say's they are not a sales person is a liar) job.

I just laugh at things. I always see the funny side of things. Like Fnarr a pint on your own does the world of difference as did going for a fag when I smoked!

 

[Batzman]

Us IT types have a saying "Poor planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part"...

 

[fossyant]

Us IT types have a saying "Poor planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part"...

That's the same in any job - poor planning....then 'Oh I need it now'..FFS.....

All depends upon the job - my last two jobs were very stressful -i.e. if it wasn't done, you'd be doing it, and we had mixed skills in our team. I'm a 'lets do it' sort of person, but I can't stand those that faff....

One bad time was when the payroll nationally fell down for BACS.... our payroll managed to get all bar one through by about 6 pm.....

The one that didn't go through was the weekly paid (which made up about 70% of the payroll). The FD's attitude was..oh the banks will have to sort it" and went home....erm no, you'll have a stack of staff raging tomorrow...... Me and another employee stayed till about 9pm, constantly reloading and pressing send on the system, rejected. I told her to go home.... Phoned the national help line - if it's not in by midnight, you'll have to wait till we re-boot everything......back on line at 2.00am...FFS....

So I'm sat there for another 3 hours pressing the send button on the BACS every few minutes....... midnight approaches.....press send................goes through....whooooo...... printed the reports etc. zarked off home..... Next morning got in and told HR that they had better send an email out saying all staff will be paid.....they hadn't thought of that - come on, customer service and all that......

Anyway left that place..... I am in a new job (nearly 18 months) with new challenges, but very different issues......most of which I have no control over, so we 'best fit it'........plus I get to bike every where !

 

[gbb]

I've had two kinds of pressure to deal with in different jobs, and each one, you deal with it in different ways.
My last job was basically a co-ordinator for an engineering team, plus administration, plus buyer, stock controller etc etc. The workload could occasionally be too much, to put it mildy.
At those times, you almost cease to be able to function. You become rooted and dont know what to do next.
At some stage, i'd make myself disappear. Twas a large site, so no problem doing it. Stay disappeared for a day getting your head going again, decide which jobs you could complete easiest and quickest. Made that my starting point and i always seemed to be able to get going again.

My job now...different pressure. If i cant get a line or machine working, 20 people or so cant work. Its GOT to be fixed. I struggled at first, occasionally got a sweat on with the mental pressure (probably self induced).
Now i dont allow myself to get pressured. It takes as long as it takes. You have to think and work in a methodical way otherwise you miss the obvious.

Its actually a huge release....plus now i think, if you think you know someone else who can do better...go find him. (actually, there are more skilled and knowledgeable people out there who know the machines...but not many. Its very specific machinery that took me 2 years to even begin to know all the faults)

 

[PashleyPrincess]

Type 'pale blue dot' into Google: read the Wikipedia info and then watch the YouTube clip.

This is how I deal with stress and it works everytime. May it work for you too.

 

[Globalti]

Back to the OP - yes, I do get the fog behind the eyes. It's almost a physical feeling. It comes on when I've got too many things stacked up to do. I even worry sometimes that I might be getting Alzheimers like my Dad did. Best remedy I find is to pile everything up in a heap then re-sort it, throwing away as much of it as possible. It's amazing how you can distill 10 tasks down to 2 that really need doing today.

 

[punkypossum]

I get something similar - I call it "Spongebrain", total brain overload where all of a sudden it seems to turn all soft and squishy and nothing will go in anymore, not even basic stuff. Had quite a few episodes of that while I was on my counselling course, but since that finished, it's been much better!

 

[Randochap]

Quit. Go for a ride.