Understanding stress,causes and symptoms of stress,20 most common mistakes made by employees that often lead to stress,practical ways to manage stress

1. STRESS MANAGEMENT IN
THE WORKPLACE
by AKIN. AKINPELU
(HR Learning Session)

2. COURSE PREVIEW
• Stress is people‟s natural reach on-to
excessive pressure.
• It isn‟t a disease, but if stress is excessive
and goes on for sometimes, it can lead to
mental and physical ill-health (eg fatigue,
depression, nervous breakdown, heart
disease, lost productivity, conflicts within
both the work and home environment and
could also be responsible for death).

3. COURSE PREVIEW (cont’d)
• Therefore, it is only when we
understanding how to work with, as
opposed to fighting stress, that we
can avoid the negative effects of
stress, particularly in the workplace.

4. COURSE OBJECTIVES:
• To analyze and define what stress is;
• To focus on specific work-stress
related problems;
• To work towards practical solutions to
them;
• To improve relationships & increase
productivity in the workplace.

5. UNDERSTANDING STRESS
• What is stress?
• The three faces of stress: ie, positive,
negative and neutral stress
• The physical side of stress.
• Fight or flight syndrome.

6. DEFINING STRESS
• There have been many different
definitions of what stress is, whether
used by psychologists, medics,
management consultants or others.
• What complicates definition is that,
intuitively we all feel that we know
what stress is, as it is something we
have all experienced.

7. WHAT IS STRESS?
• According to Richard Lazarus
“stress is a condition or a feeling
experienced when a person
perceives that demands exceed
the personal and social resources
the individual is able to mobilize”.

8. WHAT IS STRESS? (cont‟d)
• Pressure can be a good thing when it
helps to provide both stimulation and
motivation.
• It becomes a problem when it leads
to stress, resulting in ill-health or
individual poor performance;

9. STRESS DEFINED
• Any job worth doing is likely
to involve a certain amount
of ‘pressure’ when some
sense of urgency is needed
to meet deadlines and
produce good result.
• But prolonged pressure
leads to stress and then
chronic stress can lead to
destructive cycle of poor
performance, declining
confidence, inefficiency and
decreasing productivity

10. STRESS IN THE WORKPLACE !
Employees feel little stress when we have
the time, experience and resources to
manage a situation.
We feel great stress when we think we can't
handle the demands put upon us.
Stress could therefore turn out to be a
positive or negative experience.
It is an inevitable consequence of an event:
It depends a lot on people's perceptions of a
situation and their real ability to cope with it.

11. IS STRESS GOOD OR BAD?
• Selye said that “stress is not necessarily
something bad – it all depends on how
we take or manage it.
• The stress of exhilarating or excitement,
creative successful work is beneficial,
while that of failure, humiliation or
infection is detrimental.”

12. STRESS RELATED CASES TREATED
@ THE IITA CLINIC (2004-2007)
2004 2005 2006 2007
Psychosis 0 3 1 5
Headaches 95 119 145 149
Insomnia 59 70 55 57
Depression 10 08 14 13
Anxiety 36 43 32 72
Neurosis
Stress 19 25 47 33
Chronic 72 74 76 50
Fatigue

13. CAUSES OF STRESS
A lot more or a lot less • Violations of laws;
trouble with the boss
(difficult people) • Major business readjust-
Working environment ment (merger, restructuring,
(e.g., physical surroundings, office bankruptcy, retirement, etc)
layout/design, lighting, etc).
Job itself – too much, too little • A major change in our work
to do, conflicting roles & culture, ethics and
responsibilities, badly designed – commitment
shifts and rotas, etc)

14. CAUSES OF STRESS (cont’d)
•Outstanding personal • Spouse beginning or
achievements. ceasing to work outside
the home.
•Change in working
hours or conditions ie
major change in responsi- • Career development
bilities at work (promotion, (career uncertainty,
demotion, transfer, stagnation, insecurity and
dismissal from work, etc) low social value of the
work).
•Major change in living
conditions (ie building a
new home or remodeling, • Unfulfilled vision, goal and
deterioration of home or ambition resulting in
neighborhood). changing to a different line
of work.

15. MAJOR CAUSES OF STRESS IN IITA
•Work overload & close
deadline(s);
•Job insecurity;
•Problem jobs;
•Problem people;
•Personal financial mgt,
ie loans, unreasonable demands
from immediate family & friends;
•Our work environment,
ie heavy traffic with 7.30am

16. WHAT ARE THE SYMPTOMS OF
STRESS?
• Physical signs like headaches, insomnia,
indigestion and high blood pressure;
• Behavioural aspect such as poor work
performance, ie frequent accidents, poor
relationships at home/work; dependence
on anti-relaxant such caffeine, drugs and
alcohol, etc

17. SYMTOMS (cont’d)
• Emotional factors such as irritability, lack of
concentration, anxiety, depression, etc.
• However, a quick response or intervention by
colleagues/boss, can prevent the situation
from deteriorating further and may lead to
considerable improvement.

18. 20 MOST COMMON MISTAKES MADE BY
EMPLOYEES THAT OFTEN LEAD TO STRESS
• Not setting realistic goals; • Not leading by example;
• Poor communication; • Not using the brain
• Dictatorial, aggressive correctly; (incompetence)
behaviour;
• Paying poorly/low salary;
• Wanting to be liked by all;
• Poor hiring decisions; • Lack of relevant trainings;
• Not motivating staff; • Poor time management;
• Criticism and negative • Unrealistic deadlines;
discipline; • Prejudice, race, status, etc
• Creating a "them and us" • Overlooking the wisdom of
culture; other employees;
• Not managing conflict; • Lack of empathy; (leave days)
• Resistance to change.;
• Taking life too seriously;

19. PRACTICAL WAYS TO MANAGE STRESS
(WAY FORWARD)
 OVERCOMING WORK OVERLOAD
• Learn & find out how to distinguish the essential tasks
that you must complete from the distractions that
contribute to overload;
• Learn about effective time management:- discover
ways to balance conflicting time demands, develop
your professional skills & efficiency, through this, you
regain control of your workload.
• Identify inconsistencies and structural problems within
your job that can cause huge problems.
• Once identified, with your job under control you can
win back your leisure time, spend more time with
friends and family, and do the things that bring real joy
to your life: this is what is referred to as – (Work Life

20. TAKING THE STRESS OUT OF WORKING
RELATIONSHIPS
• Working in a multi cultural, multi ethnic and multi discipline like
IITA, we must learn about (RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT)
• In doing so, you become a valued member of a happy,
effective and successful team (DYNAMIC TEAM MANAGEMENT)
• Develop support networks to relieve stress and adopt
enjoyable pastimes to counterbalance the unpleasantness of
stress. (PROFESSIONAL GROUPS/INSTITUTES)
• These among others will win you respect in the workplace,
and mark you out as someone who can maturely and
positively handle difficult situations. ie, learn techniques for
mutual satisfaction, how to work harmoniously with co-
workers, be fair and firm.

21. BUILDING STRESS DEFENSE
• Equally important is achieving a good „Work-
Life Balance‟ ie. by offsetting the unpleasant
and stressful events in our lives with plenty of
good, enjoyable and relaxing events.
• Doing this, we make life more tolerable and
reduce the risk of burnout.

22. SIMPLE TOOLS TO AVOID „BURNOUT‟
• Burnout is a very „real threat‟ to people in
challenging and stressful jobs.
 It is exhausting oneself or ruin one‟s health
especially by working „too hard‟.
 The feelings of intense tiredness and
disillusionment that come with it brings serious
unhappiness and can spell the end of
otherwise promising and emotionally
rewarding careers.

23. TOOLS TO AVOID BURNOUT (cont’d)
• Think about what you want to get out of your job and
then compare this with the reality of your situation.
• Identify possible areas of mismatch, as these
mismatches are possible pressure points that may
develop into burnout. (ie know your stressors)
• You are most vulnerable to burnout when the
stresses you experience impact negatively on the
things that you find most fulfilling in your job. Not only
do you experience the unpleasantness of stress, you
lose the job satisfaction.

24. TO START USING THIS TOOL:
• List the things that give real meaning to what you do.
• Write down what attracted you to your current job or
profession in the first place.
• List the things about it that you find fulfilling now.
Include the values of the profession to humanity and
what excites you about it.
• Think about what you want to achieve within it and
what you think is important to doing the job well.
• This will give you a long list of things that are good
about what you do.

25. USING THIS TOOL (cont’d):
• From this list, identify 5 things that give the
greatest meaning to your work.
• These should be the things about the job
that most inspire you. Write these down in
chronological order with the most important
item at the top of the list.
• This list shows you the things that you
should protect as much as you can.

26. USING THIS TOOL (cont’d):
• Next, write down the things that frustrate you most about
your work. This may involve things like inadequacy of
resources, lack of recognition or bureaucracy, etc.
• List the factors that are causing you difficulty and which
are likely to cause stress in the future.
• Now work through the list of things that give you meaning
item-by-item. For each item, look at the list of frustrations.
Where these threaten the things that are most important
to you, note these down: These are particular pressure
points that you need to monitor.
• Think these through carefully and plan in advance how

27. OTHER WAYS OF RELAXING/TO AVOID
BURNOUT
• When you are stressed,
remember to give yourself
“special treats".
• This is not self-indulgent: It is
an important part of keeping
yourself functioning
effectively and avoiding the
problems of burnout, anxiety
and depression that come
with intense & sustained
stress.
• Do the things you enjoy mos

28. AVOID DESPERATION @ WORK
(MY EXPERIENCE IN IITA)
• To be desperate means to rush, to be
hasty, to be frantic, hopeless and helpless.
• Don‟t be desperate about making money,
securing visa to travel abroad, positions,
promotion, upgrading, change of jobs, etc;
• It makes you do silly things which you will
regret later;

29. DESPERATION @ WORK
• Look before you leap. Be patient, because if you
are not patient you may soon become a patient in
the hospital;
• Take a close look or seek 2nd opinion on every
major issue at work and at home;
• Be simple in your approach to things;
• Do not put yourself under pressure and never
allow anything/anybody to put you on
„unnecessary‟ pressure;

30. CONCLUSION – In everything:
• Be diligent - work hard, do your very best
at all times;
• Follow basic principles and professional
ethics/codes;
• Take precautions - ask yourself: what you
are about to do/say, is it fair? How would
you feel if others get to know?
• Pray and praise God always!!!!!!!!

31. THANK YOU FOR
LISTENING !
TIME TO ASK ME QUESTIONS