Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Stress Management

Feeling stressed out about work? Angry and overloaded because your hours keep growing as the staff gradually shrinks?

Don't expect much help from management. They're not taking aim at stress in the workplace, consulting firm Watson Wyatt reports.

Only about 5 percent of employers are aggressively combating work-related stress, and many underestimate the impact of stress on worker defections. When they do tackle stress, they are likely to focus time and money on safety or work-life balance issues, according to Watson Wyatt.

Yet workers that the company surveyed said their No. 1 source of stress is long and longer hours; half said that affects performance.

Work-life balance and tech tools such as laptops and PDAs also were high on the stress-o-meter, according to Watson Wyatt.

So what's a stressed-out worker to do, besides quit? Enlist your boss in setting priorities and making clear where you can take shortcuts. Watson Wyatt also suggests employers must commit to "appropriate staffing," training, and "performance expectations that are aggressive but realistic."

After all, realistic beats ballistic any workday. -- Vickie Elmer