Stress at Work Tips to Reduce and Manage Job and Workplace Stress Share RSS

In this difficult economy, many of us are finding it harder than ever to cope wi th stress in the workplace. Regardless of occupation, seniority, or salary level , we re spending more and more of our work days feeling frazzled and out of control, instead of alert and relaxed. While some stress is a normal part of the workplace, excessive stress can interf ere with your productivity and reduce your physical and emotional health. Findin g ways to manage workplace stress is not about making huge changes to every aspe ct of your work life or rethinking career ambitions. Rather, stress management r equires focus on the one thing that s always within your control: you. PATNA: Constant exposure to pollution and rigours of work has left a telling eff ect on city's traffic constables. Many of them are in bad shape, facing health-r elated problems. Take the case of Rajesh Choudhary. He complains about the behavioural change in him after joining the traffic police. Once known as an affable character, this c onstable now easily gets irritated even on petty issues."I don't know when this change took place, but I am sure it took place after I came in the job," he said . Sahdeo Prasad, another traffic constable, has lost his appetite which in turn ha s led to weight loss."I once had a robust built, but for the past six months or so I don't feel like eating," said a frail-looking Prasad who is also worried ab out the black cough he keeps throwing out quite often. Choudhary and Prasad are not isolated cases. Several traffic constables, whom th is correspondent met, complained about some or other health problem. While most of them complained about fatigue-related woes, some of them also comp lained about pain in knee joints. Strangely, none of them complained about heari ng disorder, otherwise a common thing among people exposed to high decibel level s on a regular basis. Noted physician and former head of medicine of PMCH Dr Gopal Prasad Sinha said m ore than a dozen traffic personnel visit him every month for consultation."Chron ic fatigue syndrome is almost commonly in them. Some of them have problems occur ring due to continuous exposure to heat or cold," he said, adding the matter sho uld not be ignored as complications may develop. Patna SP (traffic) Pradeep K Srivastava, however, expressed ignorance when asked about the problem. "No constable has ever approached me in this regard," he said and added in case of such problems, the department provides free medical aid to its personnel. The SP might not have been approached. That the stress level of traffic constables must be high is evident from the fac t there are only 250-odd cops against the sanctioned strength of 450 personnel t o manage the ever-growing city traffic. Ads by Google Numerous surveys and studies confirm that occupational pressures and fears are f ar and away the leading source of stress for American adults and that these have steadily increased over the past few decades. While there are tons of statistic s to support these allegations, how significant they are depends on such things as how the information was obtained (self-report vs. answers to carefully worded questions), the size and demographics of the targeted group, how participants w ere selected and who sponsored the study. Some self-serving polls claiming that a particular occupation is "the most stressful" are conducted by unions or organ izations in a attempt to get higher wages or better benefits for their members. Others may be conducted to promote a product, such as the "Stress In the Ninetie

s" survey by the maker of a deodorant that found housewives were under more stre ss than the CEO's of major corporations. Such a conclusion might be anticipated from telephone calls to residential phones conducted in the afternoon. It is cru cial to keep all these caveats in mind when evaluating job stress statistics. The NIOSH report on the right is an excellent