WORK STRESS

First Aid for Job Stress

We’re all experts on job stress. We can recount the edgy incidents and daily hassles that send our stress levels skyrocketing—the computer that won’t work in the middle of a major project, long hours, work overload, co-workers who back stab or carry an arrogant "know-it-all" attitude. The list goes on.

Not all stress is bad, however. Positive stress can enhance job performance. Juggling different tasks and shifting mental gears may be the challenges that keep you from becoming bored. Deadlines can give you focus and momentum to accomplish more. The adrenaline you get before giving a presentation can make you sound lively and animated. Paramedics and firefighters know that stress is essential to their job performance. Positive stress can give us a sense of accomplishment and make our jobs more exciting and challenging.

To manage work stress, the key may be to find the level of stress that you’re comfortable with rather than to eliminate it completely. Where stress is low, you may become bored and lose concentration and motivation. Where stress is too high, your performance also can suffer. The optimal level of stress will vary for each person.

You also will need to consider the duration of your stress. Short-term stress such as a job interview, business presentation, or confrontational situations, in which you can monitor your level of adrenaline, can maximize your performance. Long-term stress, which causes fatigue, depression and tension, can sacrifice your efficiency and deteriorate your health.

To prevent job burnout, you’ll still need to cope with the challenges that come with most jobs—deadlines, sizeable workloads, quality demands and difficult people. The key to reducing job stress is learning to pace yourself. Pacing means the flow of tasks over a period of time. You or your boss may decide the number of tasks to be completed each day, but you exercise control over the pacing of your work. You decide the order in which the work is to be done, how fast you will do each task, how well each one is completed, and when each one singly and all together are to be completed. Learning to pace yourself can:

· maximize your productivity

· increase your job satisfaction

· help balance your work and life

Pacing yourself is a broad task that is broken down into specific topics below.

Hi–Tech: High Stress

Most of us would agree that technology has increased our productivity and simplified our work. Computers have automated much of the work we used to do manually and made managing information easier, and with the Internet, we’re only a few clicks away from the information we want. Fax, e-mail, and cell phones allow us to stay in close communication with others whenever and wherever we want.

The benefits of technology do have a downside which some call "techno-stress." As more of us are using computers and the Internet for work, we may find it increasingly difficult to slow down and unplug ourselves from the technology. Many of us spend hours sifting through electronic information and responding to e-mail each week. We may find it tempting to take work home and respond to e-mail and voice mail when we’re away from work and not really give ourselves a break. Our relationships and families often suffer as well when we’re disconnected and too focused on work.

Also, like humans, machines are not infallible. Have you ever felt like smashing your computer when it keeps crashing? Do slow Internet connections make you sigh? Perhaps just thinking about what can go wrong with cell phones, fax machines and modems can give you a headache. It is not uncommon for workers to take out their anger and frustration with technology failures by breaking keyboards, smashing monitors, throwing the mouse or cursing. The following reasons may explain our stress reactions:

We expect instant results. Our lives are more hectic, more crammed, more pressured, and we’re becoming more in need of quick solutions. It no longer takes days for documents to arrive; we can get them in minutes through e-mail and fax. Any delays due to technology failures can seem intolerable, especially when we’re under high time demands.

We just don’t have time. Due to downsizing, we may have more responsibilities and heavier workloads, and with so much to do, we don’t have time to waste on technology failures. In addition, some employers may not provide adequate training on using a new software or piece of equipment. As a result, we may not be prepared to handle technology glitches and breakdowns.

Our frustration may be a sign of deeper problems. Though we may be venting our fury toward the equipment, we actually may be upset with our boss, co-workers, responsibilities or an organization. Sometimes we may be experiencing stress in other areas of our lives.

However, few of us are ready to toss out our computers and go back to the days of typewriters and rotary phones. To make technology work for us, perhaps refocusing on our priorities and drawing a stronger line between work and life may be what we need. How can we keep our cool during technology glitches and breakdowns? Here are some suggestions:

Coping with "techno-stress"

KEEPING YOUR COOL

Take a break and relax—at least every hour you’re at a monitor, do a little something as a momentary distraction: stand up, briefly stretch or walk, shake out your hands, or perhaps sit back, close your eyes, and imagine something that makes you smile.

· Take a few deep breaths.

· Place work in the larger perspective of life.

· Keep kush balls, bean bags, and other toys around to lift your mood.

· Make needed phone calls, do paper work, arrange your desk, or water your plants during slow Internet connections.

· Have phone numbers of tech support near your work area.

· Anticipate tech glitches and find out how to fix them. Post the instructions near your desk. Ask others for help.

· Have back up plans for tech failures.

PREVENTING BURNOUT

Deal with the real source of your problem. Talk to your co-workers or boss about whatever chronic problem is concerning you.

Dealing with Time Demands

Most of us frequently find ourselves in a big race against the clock. At the end of the day, we may feel weary of completing only a fraction of the things we had on our "to-do" lists. We may become frustrated and even angry with ourselves. A lack of time to accomplish our tasks is one of the greatest sources of our stress.

SETTING PRIORITIES

An important part of time management is setting priorities. Try to think of time as a finite resource. To reduce your stress and better use your time, you will need to be more selective about the tasks you choose to do and ask yourself if you’re creating more unnecessary stress by setting up unrealistic goals, allowing too little time, or doing the tasks in a more difficult way.

PARKINSON’S LAW OF TIME

Perhaps it may help to understand Parkinson’s Law: work expands to fill the time available. This means that if you have eight hours in which to do ten assignments, you will finish the assignments in eight hours. If your boss gives you the same ten assignments the next day and adds two more, somehow you will manage to finish all twelve assignments in the eight hours. To accommodate the extra work, you may become more focused or pick up a faster pace. You may spend less time chatting with your co-workers, shorten your phone conversations, etc. in order to meet your goal.

Or you may have had this experience illustrating Parkinson’s Law in effect. You have to leave work by five o’clock, so you won’t miss a concert or dinner date you’ve been looking forward to. Somehow you plan ahead or pick up the pace and manage to leave on time.

This law states that our efficiency is defined by our time demands and the number of tasks to be finished. We can be more or less efficient, depending on our job demands. More importantly, this law says that we’re not slaves to time. We can set priorities and pace our work to manage our time effectively.

OBSERVING YOUR RESPONSE TO TIME DEMANDS

Becoming aware of how you respond to time pressures can help you come up with personal strategies for reducing stress. To learn how you respond to time demands, ask yourself these questions:

Does your boss typically expect a job done within a certain time?

How much time is permitted to finish the job? A few minutes? Several hours? Or longer?

How do you respond emotionally to these time demands? Do you take them as a challenge? Or get flustered? Or become angry? Or can you relax under pressure?

What happens to the quality of your work when you feel under time pressure?

If your boss is generous or vague about his or her time demands, do you create your own deadlines?

If possible, set your own time limits for completing a task instead of waiting for others to set the deadlines. Or speak with your supervisor and co-workers directly. Discuss in specific terms constructively what you need to change -- extended work deadlines, some temporary assistance, more flextime, etc. By taking initiative, you gain more control over the pacing of your work and avoid some external pressures. Setting your own time limits will allow you to stay closer to your normal pace and relax while working.

Also, instead of viewing time demands as pressure, trying to see them as challenges may be more productive. Seeing time demands a challenge will not only take your stress level down a couple of notches, but give you an opportunity to do things differently. You may be able to do some of your tasks less perfectly or in a way that takes less time. Remember, less time to complete a task doesn’t necessarily mean you’re compromising efficiency or quality.

SAY "NO"! . . . AND MEAN IT!

Saying "no" can bring your stress to a manageable level. It’s important for you to give yourself enough time to get things done to avoid feeling overwhelmed. Write down several polite ways you can say "no" to your co-worker or boss. For example, you might say:

"No, I am overloaded with work already."

"No, I have too many deadlines to meet."

"Yes, I do want to attend the conference, but I’ve made plans for that weekend."

Practice this skill! Chances are most people will understand and accept "no" for an answer. Remember, your time and energy is as limited as everyone else’s, and time management is equal to self-management.

Leave at least one day of the week when you’re not answering your e-mail, voice-mail and cell phone. Ask yourself whether you really need to know the message right now. If not, resist the temptation to respond immediately.

Before adopting new technology, evaluate whether it will really make you more productive, and request the proper training.

Remember, machines aren’t infallible. If we’re more understanding of the problems technology can cause for others, we may find it easier for ourselves to relax and help fight techno-stress.

Sequencing and Prioritizing Your Work

Do you often feel overwhelmed with too much work? Do you feel rushed, flustered, or irritated? Most of us try to cram in too many tasks into a block of time. Perhaps what may be happening also is that the unimportant and low-priority tasks get sandwiched in with the more important ones. What can you do if you find yourself in such a situation?

The first thing to do when you feel rushed or frustrated is to look at the sequence of your tasks and go through a review of your priorities. You should spend a few minutes to review your priorities at least twice a day and ask yourself these basic questions (it may be helpful to close your eyes when you do this, so you can visualize your answers).

What tasks are to be done today?

What must be done today, and what can wait? Wait until when?

In addition, what do I want done today?

For other tasks I want to do, when do I want them done by?

You may want to review your priorities for the day before you begin working in the morning and again, before lunch. Going through these questions will help you separate between what you want to do from what you must do (or think you have to). Separating what is voluntary from what is involuntary is critical. If every task is a "have to," you may resent doing it. It should be possible for most of us to view some tasks as voluntary.

The second step is to select the sequence in which you do the tasks. For your day to go more pleasantly, you may want to start by doing a task you must do or do not really care to do and follow it with a task that you enjoy and want to do. This way will give you something to look forward to as you march through the less pleasant assignments.

Another strategy is to march through a series of tedious tasks first, and then, go on to the larger, more important ones. Do the most enjoyable ones last. This way, you won’t have tedious ones to look forward to after finishing a large task. You’ll have something pleasant to look forward to as you work. Whatever your style, try to select some sequence for doing the assignments that ends with positive feelings.

To visualize the sequence of your work, you may want to label how you feel next to each task on your "to-do" list. For example, you may label certain tasks with the feelings, "enjoy," "sometimes enjoy," "do not enjoy," "negative," or "neutral."

KEEP AN ACTIVITY LOG

Before you make any changes in your time management, you may want to keep a log on all the activities you’re doing and how long each took. Also, note how you feel throughout the day, whether you’re tired, alert, energetic, tense, etc. Once you have logged your time for several days, analyze your log. You may be surprised to see the length of time you spend opening mail, talking to your co-workers, dealing with interruptions and other low value tasks. You may notice that you’re more energetic or tired during different parts of the day. The rest breaks you take, the times and amount you eat, and quality of your diet can affect your mood and energy level. The activity log can provide valuable information to help you experiment with these different variables.

SCHEDULE IN YOUR BREAKS

Many of us may forget to take breaks or eat lunch while we work. Snack breaks, lunch, rest and brief pauses help restore your energy and allow for a change in pace. The breaks are well worth your time because you’ll be able to work more efficiently. Rest periods can be activities you can look forward to after completing a tedious or large task.

PLAN FOR THE UNPLANNED

Allowing additional time for unplanned tasks and interruptions, especially tech failures, can reduce undue pressure and stress. Understandably, these unplanned tasks can cause us a great deal of stress. Some of us may react by saying, "How am I going to fit this in? I need 36 hours in a day to do this job!" If this is the case, stress may be threatening your health and sense of well-being! You may be doing the job of two people, and you may need to request (maybe demand) more help. Or maybe you aren’t as efficient as you could be and need to prioritize your work. Consider your options, and decide what you want to do.

Balancing Quality Demands

Before you roll up your sleeves and pour every ounce of your effort and attention into a job task, consider the quality that the work actually demands. Many people mistakenly assume that all work requires equal quality. By working toward the quality the task actually demands, you can reduce stress and save a lot of time and energy for higher priority tasks. Here are some time-saving guidelines to keep in mind:

Quality demands vary according to the context of the task (i.e., Is this a private or public memo?).

For each situation, decide what quality standards are necessary and which are desired. Again, don’t make the mistake of assuming that all situations demand equal quality. If you can’t decide, you may want to request a clarification of the standards from your supervisor.

Evaluate your own personal standards. Do these match what is expected of you? You may be projecting your own standards onto a situation and overestimating the quality demands really needed in that situation. Are your personal standards hindering or facilitating your efficiency and work pace?

Reducing Your Tension

Do you often get headaches or muscle aches at work? Do you find yourself becoming more disorganized or making more errors as the day progresses? Perhaps you’re getting tired more frequently. If so, you may be experiencing a high level of tension. Tension can reduce your efficiency, pacing, and enjoyment of your work. Here are other signs of tension to watch for:

· Your mind wanders and your ability to focus on a task decreases.

· You make errors more frequently.

· Your memory gets worse.

· You become more disorganized in your thinking and planning.

· You experience tiredness more frequently.

· You experience more accidents.

· Your speech is less fluent.

· You get body aches (i.e., indigestion, headaches, lower backache).

· You feel more irritable.

· You enjoy your work less.

· You find that you’re losing your sense of humor.

· Your desire to smoke increases.

· Your desire to drink alcoholic beverages increases.

· Your desire to eat may increase or decrease.

· Your desire to escape and leave work increases.

These events are signals that your body is tense and due for a break. Doing relaxing activities during your break is important to restore your energy. Relaxation exercises can be very effective in reducing tension.

After you have developed an awareness of your body’s signs of tension, you may want to find out the causes of your tension. Many books have been written on this topic. Here are common causes of tension:

· Noisy environment

· Inadequate lighting

· Poor ventilation

· People working too close to each other

· Stagnant positions (i.e., sitting, standing in one place too long)

· Doing what you have to do more than what you want to do

· Time pressures

· Pressures (internal or external) for exceptional performance

· Constant pressure to make important and high-risk decisions

· Lengthy time between vacations

· Frequent demands for overtime (and therefore, less leisure time)

· Working with clients who have many personal problems

· Working with people who are always serious

· Doing work that involves mostly fine motor coordination

· Doing tasks that require a lot of close visual work

· Working with tense people or people who are always in a rush

· Inadequate sleep

· Inadequate diet

· Cigarette smoking

· Too much drinking of alcoholic beverages

· Lack of exercise to release tensions

· Marital conflict

· Psychological conflicts (i.e., unresolved historical conflict—your boss reminds you of your father, whom you hate)

· Economic insecurity or financial pressures

· Continuing low self-esteem (i.e., you persistently remind yourself of your faults and errors)

· Major life changes (i.e., job change, move to geographic location, death or illness of someone close, divorce, other losses)

· Unexpressed feelings (How many times have you had a headache when you were angry with someone?)

Lack of recognition for work performance (Too often after leaving school, people go to work only to find no one consistently praising them any longer, and they find themselves getting depressed at work. This points to one of life’s major and most difficult task -- learning to praise yourself.)

After going through this list, you may be able to think of other causes of your tension. Understanding the cause of your tension is often enough to help you think of solutions to eliminate or cope with your stress. Be proud you’re taking active steps to reduce your tension and enjoy the relief and relaxation that follow. If you don’t understand the causes of your tension, you may want to seek the guidance and support of a counselor trained in stress management. You can find qualified experts through your personal health care provider or your local mental health agency.

Understanding Your Personal Style

We all have personal styles that affect the way we work. Some of us demand perfection in even the most minute details, whereas others are not as concerned about the specifics. Some of us may thrive on doing several tasks at once, whereas others become frantic at having to do several tasks simultaneously. The qualities that make up your personal style can be strengths or weaknesses, depending on the type of work you do. To learn more about your personal style and whether it is working for or against you, consider the following questions.

What are your attitudes toward work and what style do those attitudes generate? How does this style influence your mood, accuracy, and efficiency? And how does it affect the workers around you?
In terms of attitudes and beliefs, for example, do you look at life and work as a very serious matter?
Or do you believe your work must be perfect and exact in order for you to feel worthwhile?
Or do you care little about what you do and how it reflects on you?
Or do you believe that the first person to finish a task is the best worker? Therefore, do you rush to finish your work as fast as you can to prove that you are superior by doing so?
Or do you believe that being neat and meticulous is a virtue and should be the standard at all times?

WHO YOU ARE AFFECTS HOW YOU WORK

Are you a fast or slow worker?
Are you methodical or haphazard in your approach?
Do you focus mostly on details, or do you see the larger perspective when you approach a task?
Are you the kind of person who is single-minded and can do only one task at a time, or can you easily flow with many tasks simultaneously?
Are you a leader or a follower? Do you initiate your pace?
Do you like to create projects, or to carry your projects, or to do both?
Do you tend to be passive, or are you assertive?
Answering these questions should give you clues to whether or not your personal style is lowering your efficiency, morale, and organization. Are you the type of person who is overly serious about work and see work performance as a life-and-death situation? If so, you may need to relax more and remind yourself that your job is only one part of your life.
Are you’re a perfectionist in everything you do? If so, you may be wasting your time and energy when you don’t need to and creating undue pressure on yourself.
Or some of us tend to wait for others to make the decisions or make decisions at the last minute. A passive style often creates crises, confusion and disorganization, lowering our efficiency and causing undue stress. If you discover that your personal style causes stress or decreases your efficiency, what can you do?

First, you’ll need to ask yourself this tough question:

Are you really willing to change your personal style just to improve your efficiency and your feeling about work?

Changing your personal style takes a lot of courage and practice. Making changes or adjustments in our behavior and attitudes are some of the most difficult things we can ask of ourselves. However, if you do decide that benefits of changing your personal style are worthwhile, here are some of your options:

Get a consultation on how to change. Remember you CAN change, as long as you’re motivated. Personal and professional help should come from a trained and licensed psychotherapist. You can find qualified experts through your personal health care provider or your local mental health agency.

Observe your peers. Find someone who is relaxed, happy, and efficient, and observe what that person does and how he or she does it. After you observe, ask the person what goes on inside his or her head while completing the tasks. Remember to translate the alternative behavior styles into specific and manageable goals, so that you can practice them frequently. Also, be patient and don’t give up when progress seems slow. Praise yourself for having the courage to observe your behavior and to change. Reward yourself for every small success you experience along the way. It’s important to encourage yourself as small steps and consistent effort can add up to big payoffs in the end.

If none of the steps above has worked for you, you may want to gather a group of your co-workers together and begin a discussion of the issues to discover and share your observations and ideas. Many times you’ll find that other co-workers share similar difficulties and concerns about how they approach work. Knowing that others share your difficulties and concerns can relieve your tension and may initiate a process of finding solutions to reduce stress in your workplace.

Taking Control of Your Emotions

Your emotions can affect your efficiency and work performance. If you feel angry, sad, disappointed or tense, you’ll probably make more errors or work less efficiently. If you’re relaxed and in a positive mood, you’re likely to concentrate better and move through your tasks more easily. The factors that can influence your emotions are infinite and fall under the following categories:

Biological. Are your enzymes in balance? Is your blood sugar level up or down? Do you have normal functioning of your thyroid, respiration, etc? When was your last physical exam to be sure all your biological functions are normal?

Social. Are you getting along with your spouses, friends, relatives, and boss?

Personal. Are you doing activities you enjoy? Are you getting enough exercise? Sleeping well?

Environmental. Is the office too hot, noisy or stuffy? Have you been sitting in one position too long? Is your place dirty, cluttered, neglected?

Psychological. Do you worry about job performance? Do you feel okay about taking orders? Are you in conflict about what you do at work, home, or play?

Sometimes factors in our life and personal history can influence our emotions at work and contribute to our stress. Perhaps we may experience tension, depression, or anger at work. Although we may attribute our emotional state to work overload, time pressures or the difficult people at work (all of which can be legitimate reasons for our distress), we don’t want to overlook other contributing factors. The real issues may be unhappiness with our jobs, a lack of control, family conflicts, taking orders from authority, etc.

To find out whether your emotions are interfering with your work, answer the following questions:

Do you tend to overreact to minor irritations?

Are you preoccupied with negative emotions?

Do you experience the same negative feelings at different jobs?

If your answer is "yes," consider exploring other factors that may be contributing to your negative feelings at work. Without really considering the real issues, finding solutions to work stress is equivalent to groping in the dark. We also live life at the mercy of our emotions, and most of us would like to have more control over our reactions. It is important to realize that there are better ways to cope with tension, depression, anger, and other negative emotions.

You can gain more control of your feelings and feel better about yourself.

Setting Your Own Pace

Our environment and the behavior of the people around us can be contagious. If you live or work around people who are tense, chances are you’ll pick up some of that tension. If you work around fast workers, you may feel pressured to pick up the pace. You may even start to compare yourself to those around you and question your work performance.

If you find that happening to you, don’t sweat! You may be doing harm to your self-esteem when you frequently compare yourself to others. Also, what is happening is that the sound (faster typing, shuffling papers, etc.) of others working at a different speed is distracting you from your own pace. The self-doubt and interruption in work flow can make you work less efficiently, and make it harder for you to regain your normal pace.

If you’re having trouble focusing on your own pace take the following steps:

Stop your work and relax. A brief pause may be all you need to regain your focus.

Tune into your psychological state. Is your mood, tension level, and peace of mind (negative feeling about the day’s events?) affecting your ability to stay focused?

Pick up a new rhythm. Try and practice one that is faster, slower, or varied (i.e., type at varied speeds, talk to customers slowly, skim through your reading, go through your mail briskly). Focus on the feelings that you have as you take on this new pace. Enjoy the new rhythm.

Take time off work. If none of the previous suggestions work, it may be time for you to take a vacation, long weekend or personal day off to recharge yourself.

Seek advice of a psychotherapist. If you have a pattern of repeatedly being distracted from your own pace by the rhythms of others, you may need some psychotherapy to know yourself better and to learn to focus.

Minimizing Distractions

Do you find it difficult to ignore the conversations of others around you? Do traffic noises, ringing phones and the hum of office machines permeate the background of your work place? Such environmental conditions can make you feel irritable and tense and interrupt the flow of your work. These distractions can be easy to fix once you’re aware of them. Check the list below to see which of the following distractions are in your work environment.

DISTRACTIONS IN THE WORK ENVIRONMENT

Noise. Traffic, phones, photocopiers, scanners, printers, conversations

Poor Ventilation. Chemical fumes and vapors, cigarettes

Crowded Workspace. Work areas which are too close together, no partitions, lack of privacy, movement of people in your workspace

Poor Lighting. No windows, lack of natural lighting, glare on monitors

Inconvenient Placement of Supplies. Twisting and straining the body to reach for supplies, disorganized work area, stopping work to get supplies

WHAT YOU CAN DO

List the noises in your environment. Also write down solutions for eliminating or reducing the noise. Adding insulation in walls, ceilings and windows, putting barriers between work spaces, and establishing rules for loud talking can reduce noise tremendously. Simple solutions such as hanging drapery or laying carpet, or installing insulated vinyl floor material can cut down noise noticeably. Move scanners, printers and photocopiers further away from your desk, or place a sound insulation cover or some screening if they are particularly noisy.

If you’re not in charge of these, find out who is, and discuss your concerns with the person in charge. Also, speak with peers or others who are affected to motivate their concern and involvement where appropriate.

Provide adequate ventilation. Noxious fumes and cigarette smoking assault our sense of smell and leaves a grimy film on our bodies, not to mention the hazard to our health. Respect your body and demand a solution to pollution! Establish a no smoking policy at your work place if you don’t already have one. Start by surveying the staff to find out how they feel about smoking and then make the rules to benefit as many as possible.

Reorganize layout of your work environment. Rearrange furniture and other objects which block traffic in your work area. Partitions may reduce the frequency of intrusions into your work space and improve the flow of traffic. Put supplies you frequently need in a convenient place, so that you don’t have to constantly stop your work or strain your body to get them.

Provide proper lighting. Effective lighting can boost morale and relax your eyes while preventing eyestrain. A lack of natural lighting from windows may cause you to feel gloomy and less energetic. Some people need to be exposed to a full spectrum of light, including ultraviolet light, to experience a sense of well-being. The solution is to install full spectrum fluorescent lights in offices that don’t have natural lighting. Though these lights cost a little more, the improvement in morale and productivity will more than make up the cost.

Seek some assertiveness training. Sometimes we may find it difficult to express our needs, i.e., asking others to be more considerate, reporting equipment that is too loud. Make a list of the distractions and review them with your co-workers for alternatives to improve your work environment. Should you have difficulty, ask others for help to solve the problem

Take more frequent breaks. Even a five to ten minute break to get away from your work area can greatly reduce your tension. Going to a quiet area or doing some relaxation exercises can restore your calm and sense of well-being.

Build Your Resistance to Stress

Being healthy and well rested is important to maintain your sense of well-being. While some of us can get away with less sleep or work when we’re ill, most of us need a good night’s rest to function well in our daily activities and cope with stress effectively. Getting the proper sleep, exercise and nutrition builds your body’s resistance to stress. Sleep helps maintain balance in biological functions in your body and restores your energy. Exercising helps you release tension and strengthens your body’s ability to cope and recover from stress. Proper nutrition supplies your body with energy and nutrients to cope with stress. If you learn nothing else about stress management, taking care of your health is your best protection against stress.

Protecting Yourself from Muscle Injuries

Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) are one of the fastest growing work-related injuries every year. MSDs include more than 100 different types of job-related injuries and illnesses, such as carpal tunnel syndrome, back pain and wrist tendinitis. Repetitive motions, overexertion, awkward postures and heavy lifting are the specific risk factors for MSDs. Nurses, construction workers, people who work on computers or assembly lines are among some of the occupations with such risk factors.

Often MSDs result in permanent disability where workers can’t return to work or perform simple tasks as combing their hair, picking up a baby, or reaching for objects on a high shelf. According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), over 2 million Americans suffer from MSDs every year and employers spend $15 - $18 billion dollars a year in worker’s compensation for medical costs and lost wages.

The good news is that for almost any job, simple measures to modify the task or work environment can prevent these painful injuries. Many of these changes don’t have to cost a fortune. For example, one poultry plant gave their employees knives with curved handles to minimize the bending of their wrists unnaturally to cut the birds apart. If you work on the computer, taking more frequent breaks to rest the muscles and a proper workstation setup can prevent MSDs. Assembly line workers can vary their tasks to avoid repeated stress for the same muscles. Many employers who have implemented such measures have been successful in preventing MSDs while keeping employees on the job and boosting morale and productivity. Here’s what OSHA recommends to protect yourself from musculoskeletal injuries:

How You Can Protect Yourself:

Identify specific tasks that contribute to pain and lost days and report these problems to your supervisor.
Discuss with your supervisor and co-workers what changes will help make a difference.
Report signs of MSDs and seek medical attention early on.
Find ways to reduce repeated motions, forceful hand exertions, prolonged bending or working above shoulder height.
Use equipment rather than your back for heavy or repetitive lifting.

OSHA is a federal agency that monitors the safety and health of the work environment. If you think your work environment is physically dangerous to your safety and health, you may want to contact this agency.