Whether stress comes from work pressures or personal problems, employees who manage stress effectively will be more productive, safer workers.
The best stress management plans involve a two-pronged approach:
- Short-term coping mechanisms
- Long-term lifestyle management
Short-Term Coping
When employees recognize that they’re experiencing a stressful situation, there are several things they can do to calm down on the spot. For example:
- Counting to 10 (or 100)
- Taking a few deep breaths before speaking or acting
- Taking a sip of water
- Taking a short break to calm down and think over the circumstances that caused the stress and what the best response would be
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Long-Term Management
In the longer term, employees can manage stress by focusing on lifestyle management strategies. For example:
- Eating right. By eating a well-balanced diet, workers will feel better overall and be able to cope better with annoying circumstances. Limiting consumption of alcohol, caffeine, and sugar can also help manage stress.
- Sleeping right. Getting enough sleep every night so that they don’t come to work sleepy can also help workers manage stress. If they begin their workday tired, any problems that arise become magnified.
- Exercising. Exercise reduces the tension that builds up in muscles as a result of stress. Exercise also increases endorphin levels, which help a person relax, feel good, and think clearly.
- Relaxing. Scheduling time for relaxation is also important. With work/life pressures, workers often say they have little time for relaxation. But finding even a little personal time to do something relaxing and enjoyable every day is an important stress-reliever.
- Managing change effectively. Recommend that, whenever possible, employees avoid making too many lifestyle changes at once. Handling a lot of big changes all at the same time can be very stressful.
- Maintaining a sense of humor. Urge your workers to try not to take everything too seriously. Laughter is a great stress-reliever.
- Not sweating the small stuff. Knowing what’s really important, choosing your battles, and letting the rest go will definitely help reduce stress long term and make life much more pleasurable.
- Talking it out. Urge workers to find someone they trust to talk with about stressful feelings. If they are experiencing severe stress, they might think about consulting a professional counselor to help them sort out their feelings, the causes of their stress, and practical solutions.
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Turnkey Safety Training
Stress on and off the job is an inevitable part of life these days, and it must be addressed and managed if you want to maintain a safe workplace. So stress management training is essential. But, of course, stress is only one of many, many safety concerns that can be successfully addressed and managed with effective training.
And that’s where Safety Meeting Repros can provide invaluable assistance. In all, this remarkable resource has 50 completely turnkey safety meeting modules, each responsive to a key OSHA regulation, with trainee materials in reproducible form. Just check off the outline items as you proceed through the meeting and you won’t miss a single point of importance. Then follow up with the fully prepared quiz (with instantly available answers) and illustrated handouts that also come with each lesson. You’ve completed a full training cycle, with little more work than running a copier, at a cost equivalent of under $6 a session.
We don’t think you can appreciate how much this program can ease your training task without looking it over. We invite you to do so at no cost (we’ll even pay any return shipping) and no risk. Here’s how you can arrange a trial run, at our expense.