Working for almost ten hours a day everyday for five days (sometimes even more) can be truly stressful. Each day, you wake up in the morning, getting a bit harried since you’re going to be late. You eat a bit of breakfast, drink lots of coffee, and quickly do errands on the way to work. Once you get to the office, the world seems to be different. A whole new scenario away from your comfort zone, the workplace would be your “home” for the whole day.
In the office, there is nothing more to do but work. Of course, work can be fun, if you want it to be. More often than not, work means business. And with this comes stress and anxiety. It is fairly common for people to experience such stress and anxiety when at work, since they are bound by projects, deadlines, reports, and other work related issues for the rest of the day. Stressing about deadlines for example, can give the person a feeling of worry and fear. It means that stress is usually accompanied by anxiety as well. Unfortunately, they go side by side in giving the person more headaches and thus having poor input on their work productivity.
Stress management is critical for people who work tirelessly, also known as workaholics. They are more vulnerable to stress and anxiety, since they are really into their work. These people really give all their best in committing to the best work performance and productivity. Such feelings of heaviness and being tired and worrisome can result in sickness absences in work. By practicing stress management, one can reduce such absences, increase on employee’s commitment to work, increase staff performance and productivity, staff recruitment and retention, staff turnover or leave intentions, good customer satisfaction, and overall organizational reputation and image.
Stress and anxiety cannot be avoided, especially in the workplace. Employees suffering from these feelings are apt to smoke or drink excessively, doing several jobs all at once, missing breaks, rushing, hurrying, being available to everyone, eating on the run, taking work home, and having no time for exercise or relaxation.
Stress management can be easy if all the employees in the workplace support and contribute to the prevention of stress in the office. A simple stress policy, for example, can help in reducing such stress during office hours. The company implements a stress policy by identifying all the workplace stressors and give out risk assessments to stop stress, providing training in good management skills for all supervisory staff, giving confidential counseling for staff affected by stress and anxiety, among many others. This kind of policy can decrease stress in the workplace, if properly executed.
Supervisory personnel could also help an employee suffering from stress and anxiety in the workplace. By understanding his/ her current situation, giving support, and developing a plan to deal with the pressure and stress, they can ensure good employee performance by working together in omitting stress and anxiety at work. Remember, a happy worker is a productive worker.
Tags: Absences, Comfort Zone, Customer Satisfaction, Feelings, Headaches, Increase Productivity, Productivity Management, Recruitment And Retention, Reputation, Rest Of The Day, Staff Performance, Staff Recruitment, Staff Turnover, stress and anxiety, Stress Anxiety, Stress At Work, stress management, Work Performance, Work Productivity, Work Stress, Workaholics
Leaving a job is often a difficult step. Sure, there is the exciting opportunity to do something different, but if have been with an employer for over a year this can become an emotional step. People leave jobs for various reasons. The old job might just plain and simple suck. The pay is lousy and the boss is behaving like a dictator of a 3rd world country. Or the job might be target of outsourcing and the employee is pro-active by looking for his/her own way out. Or the job is a dead end. No opportunity and the daily routine is boring. It could also be that the immediate co-workers and managers are just not as nice and that there is no great work relationship that makes the employee to love to go to work. A not so exciting job can still be a great place to work if you have great co-workers and managers around. Work is about money, but the socializing part is important, too.
We’re not trying to get into the reasons for leaving a job here for the matter of this article. However - we want to concentrate on the actual part of resigning from a job. And again - there are several different ways of leaving a job. If you absolutely do not care about your old job you could just leave but this step can have severe impact on your career down the road. Keep in mind that employers like to check the places you worked at before they want to hire you. These sins of the past might come back and hurt your reputation. “Oh, he left that job without any notice. What if he does the same thing to me?” - This could be just one thought a new employer might have. Depending on the job a one week or two week notice should be given. In some cases 3-4 weeks can be appropriate. As higher you get up in the ranks this might be the way to go. An executive leaving a company without taking care of a proper transition might hurt himself if the company gets into problems afterwards and this becomes public knowledge. Treat the employer fair and do not burn any bridges. In the long run this will be the best decision an employee can make.
When resigning you should be prepared to avoid unnecessary stress. In most cases resigning is a stressful event. A well prepared employee can take some stress out of this big step with proper planning. Write a 2 or 3 line letter of resignation. Nothing fancy. Try not to explain why you leave. Just state that you are resigning from your position and let the company know what your last day at work will be. Sign the letter and hand it to the manager you are resigning to. Do not just turn over the letter and walk away. Say that you are resigning and then hand over the letter of resignation. Be prepared to answer questions why you are leaving. Do not make up things. Prepare a quick list of pain points if needed. You might even help your co-workers by giving constructive feedback about certain situations and problems. I personally recommend never to mention the word money as the main reason of leaving. If things come down to money if often gets dirty.
Eventually be prepared for an immediate counter-offer during your resignation. Some companies try to fix the problem of an employee leaving by throwing more money at him/her. Or they want to buy time and pretend giving you more money. They give you more money but work on your replacement at the same time. Things might also work out Ok for a while but when the going gets tough and it comes to layoffs the guy who took the counter-offer might be one of the first ones to be let go because of the cost factor. I see only one situation when it can be good or Ok to accept a counter-offer. Say you are leaving because of the work environment and you are able to point out problems and issues. Some employers are blind about these things and just don’t realize how employees feel about certain things. Suddenly a good employees leaves and the issue comes to the surface. Some employers are willing to fix the issue and these are rare situations a counter-offer can be accepted. Still - the employee has to carefully evaluate the situation. It is important to know who you are dealing with from a personal side. Can you trust the employer?
Sometimes a counter-offer can come up during the last few days at a company or shortly after the last day. We have seen cases when counter-offers were made within 60-70 days after the employee left. These situations are not good. I highly recommend not to accept such a counter-offer no matter how tempting the offer is. The employee has to keep in mind that he/she already left. This mark will always stick. One day the employer might be in a different situation and has to decide who to let go first. Will it be the loyal employee who is with the company for 8 years or is it the “Gung-Ho” who left just to be lured back by money and who eventually leaves again if the next employer is willing to hand out even more cash? Make a bet ….
These are just a few things to keep in mind when thinking about resigning from a position. Be prepared. Be strong. Change can be very good for your career
Tags: Boss, Bridges, Co Workers, Daily Routine, Deci, Dictator, Emotional Step, Exciting Job, How To Quit A Job, Jobs, Leaving A Job, Love, Old Job, Public Knowledge, Reasons For Leaving A Job, Recruitment Agency, Recruitment Jobs, Reputation, Resigning From A Job, Several Different Ways, Target, Transition, Work Relationship
