Work Stress - Tips

1. The gift of trust - lack of control over one's own work is number one on the top 10 stress list. It poses a risk to the cardiac health of workers as great as that of smoking. The gift of trust gives employees the freedom to make decisions about the tasks before them, fusing a pledge between employer and employee to trust each other in order to do good work and receive the benefits of it.

2. The principle of inclusion at work - isolation at work such as not getting information, not being invited to meetings, feeling shelved, your work going unnoticed, your suggestions going unanswered, the boss playing favourites is number two. Isolation breeds unhealthy insecurity, a loss of self-esteem and even depression. Replace isolation with inclusion, information and a sense of belonging to the team.

3. Time and space - help employees get off the treadmill at work. Many people are getting ill not from too much to do but from their sense that they have too much to do all at once, all the time.

4. Convey what is expected - give employees a clear picture of what is expected of them; what, fundamentally their job is; what priorities they are being asked to observe from one day to the next.

5. Job fulfilment - money is not the only reward people work for. Give them something just as valuable in the long-term - appreciation for doing good work, the boss saying thank you for the extra effort, helping them realise that what they do contributes to the organisation's success.

6. Sharing success at work - help employees to see that success is something to share, not own. This requires leadership by example in the management ranks. Share the credit.

7. Email and voicemail ceasefires - email overload is a huge source of frustration and anxiety in the workplace. Casualties are mounting daily. Liberate employees from the enslavement of email where possible and try and make this the year you have a real person at the end of a phone line - at least sometimes.

8. The gift of clarity - in setting a future direction for the company. Productive employees need this sense of direction. Without it, bad management practices produce confusion, frustration and reduced output. This generates stress on a large scale. Weak leadership is bad for your health.

9. Listening to others at work - is an art form, hearing not only what others say but understanding how they feel and what they need to do their job. Body language means a lot in communication between people and we can't read body language by email.

10. Redistributing workloads wisely - heavy workloads are one of the major stressors in the workplace today. Employees are worried their workload is preventing them from doing what they perceive to be a good job. They are worried about quality, and about making mistakes. Supervisors and managers must hear those concerns, and interpret them wisely.