Stress problem

Hi

Sometimes working in an office is very stressing. Some of my colleagues have reported in sick for months now due to high amount of workload and high stress level.
I'm beginning to think it will happen to me soon.

Are there any effective methods that you know of that work? Any advice is much appreciated.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Better time management is great for reducing stress. Although I have to say that staying home "sick" because you have too much work to do does not help you get on top of your work load.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

I realize both a) I'm going to get shit for this and b) it's unhealthy, but...

I drink. I get rowdy and do incredibly stupid shit. I partake in recreation drugs (on occasion). So do a fair amount of my friends. By no means does it treat the source of the problem, it merely helps with the symptoms, and even that is only temporary. To steal a line from Thompson, "I wouldn't recommend sex, drugs or insanity for everyone, but they've always worked for me."

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Gaming, your situation sounds eerily similar when I worked at a call center for Comcast a couple of years ago. You had a lot of people take stress leave because of the amount of stress they had to deal with when it came to working at a job like that.

For myself, on the other hand, I constantly deal with a lot of work related stress on a regular basis, but I try my best not to let it get the best of me. If I ever let it control me than it contributes to the effectiveness of my work and I do take my work very seriously.

How I personally handle any kind of work related stress is never take it home with you. Once you finish your job, that day you leave any thoughts concerning your job until you start the next morning. I also like taking a bit of humour out of each and everyday. I could be having the worse day ever and people around me know it when I start reciting funny lines from comedians, sing muppet show theme songs, or anything along those lines. I know, I'm a fucking loser.

Those kinds of things keep me in a good mood. As long as I keep myself in a good mood even if sometimes I act a little silly. It helps me with any kind of work related stress I may experience. It may not be for everyone, but that's just me.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Join a gym. That's what I did and it worked. I would go to the gym 4 or 5 days a week, sometimes nearly in tears but it sure helped. It also helped me feel a lot better about myself too. Don't let it get to you too much. Work is work and home is home, don't bring the stress from work home, leave it at the door. That is what I try to do.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by Anazai

Join a gym.

This. Or just be physically active. This'll help evacuate stress better, and you'll feel better overall.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Yeah, I second the option for being physically active. I also experience quite a bit of stress from my job and the gaming usually helps a little bit, because I tend to get even stressed out when I lose too much. XD

But when I go workout or just jog for 30 min, it makes me feel really refreshed and relaxed after the sessions.

How ya doing, buddy?

Gaming and drinking is where it's at. I have plenty of stress working in an office and taking 15 units in college and it makes for a long hard week. But come the weekend I sit back, drink beer with my friends, and play video games. It always relieves me of all my stress and I'm good to go on Monday.

Shame on your co-workers for calling in. I despise it when people can't handle it and constantly use their sick days for personal time off because it makes it more stressful for me. When they do that I hope they get testicular/breast cancer.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

I recently found farming and gardening to be extremely therapeutic. I now go volunteer at our on-campus organic farms on a 4-hour-per-week basis. In return, I receive about $15 worth of vegetables in exchange for my labor.

There's something therapeutic and mind / stress relieving about tilling and working the soil and weeding. There's another plus that I'm getting free food and I have the added pleasure of cooking (another one of my stress-reliever venting areas) those vegetables when I get home. Then I get to eat amazing food. Can't beat that.

Of course... this is all in consideration that I need to first forget how time consuming this process is because that's what usually that gets me stressed out in the first place: "Too much to do, not enough time."

If gardening is not an option and I'm looking for a quick fix, I start doing some mini-projects like knitting / crocheting a scarf (which helps me forget about stress for about 2 hours) or take a long hot bath.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by gaming

Hi

Sometimes working in an office is very stressing. Some of my colleagues have reported in sick for months now due to high amount of workload and high stress level.
I'm beginning to think it will happen to me soon.

Are there any effective methods that you know of that work? Any advice is much appreciated.

If your job is so stressfull it's resulted in half the workforce calling in on long term sick leave, I'd suggest getting a different job. No job is so good it's worth making yourself ill over.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by Shin

If your job is so stressfull it's resulted in half the workforce calling in on long term sick leave, I'd suggest getting a different job. No job is so good it's worth making yourself ill over.

Quoted for truth. Though, if you really need this job, the best ways I know of to deal with stress are physical exertion and making sure to get regular rest. By 'rest' I mean time to think strictly about other things and relax your body and mind. I take my Saturdays very seriously, and try to not let anything insert non-restful things into it.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

I concur greatly about leaving work and home as separate entities.

One of the things I had to do in China was to separate them.

I remember my first year being constantly full of work (and stress). If I wasn't teaching (or doing stuff related like making lesson plans), I was either grading essays (try 300+ per week for maybe three months straight), going to English discussions that were similar to how I handled class (constantly being asked how to improve one's English, considering having to decipher what is being said, constantly having to lead the conversation and get people to talk, etc), going to lunches/dinners (which quite a few times were actually meetings in disguise in which they'd try to give us more work), or going to activities in which once again I had the same situation as the classes I taught.

By the end of the first year, i was totally wiped out and while we were suppose to get a break for the summer and even stated we needed the break, we were given/accepted even more English-teaching work.

Eventually, I had to put my foot down because I knew if I kept this up, I would be stressed out and go nuts. So this meant turning down some English chats, turning down teaching extra classes (although in truth this didn't work out so well....blah) both within and out of the university, being a bit more cautious of school-related surprise dinners (that many times would result in work-related talk and even result in the distribution of more work), and turning down some other activities. Overall, this meant separating the two into separate items and when I'm at home, not thinking about work-related or doing work-related things.

In order to further separate the two, I did things that helped me NOT think about work during that time, such as watching movies, making food, and playing games. It really did help.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?