Month: May 2022

I scored very low for the stress inventory. While I wasn’t surprised after reviewing the various life events listed, I do still feel like I have significant life stressors that are not listed. I don’t personally want to share these with the class but I just wanted to note that I feel we all have external stressors that may have not been considered in this list. 

For the coping and stress management skills test, problem-focused coping was my highest score. Again, I don’t like to disclose much about my personal life but I do know that I am able to handle the stress of situations by focusing on the problem itself rather than the emotion. If I get caught up in the emotion I am not able to see things clearly and it is harder for me to recover from them. As mentioned in the text above, this can be difficult when issues are not in my control or cannot be easily fixed. 

Ok, this one I am confused about. I do not consider myself impatient or irritable but the score of 30 seems low so I am not sure what to take away from this one. I do recognize that I have some Type A tendencies and preferences but I would not consider impatience or irritability as one of them. 

I currently try to manage my stress in a number of healthy ways. The first is keeping organized and knowing my schedule. While working from home during the peak of the pandemic, my husband, dog, and I shared one tiny office. Talk about stress! We quickly learned that we needed open communication and each morning we would list when we had Zooms or lectures that required quiet from the other person. This tiny communication saved us many tiny fights! Second, I try to exercise 3-5 times a week. This is a positive outlet for me and allows me to clear my mind. I also leave to go home for lunch (I am lucky I live 1 mile from my work) and take my doggo for a walk. Removing myself from the workplace, and going outside, allows me to come back for the second half of the day refreshed. Third, create personal boundaries for work and life. I have had positions in the past where I had no delineation between the two and it can be consuming. I no longer have work or school email on my personal cell phone and on the weekends I leave my work laptop turned off and in the office to avoid the temptation to work. This has been very important for me. Lastly, I take mental health days when I need them. As mentioned in our text, job burnout can be shown through emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment. My employer actually encourages mental health days acknowledging we all need a break at times.

Other ways to manage stress include:

-Eat healthy

-Get enough sleep

-Have a positive support network

-Deep breaths 

-Dedicating personal time

-Listen to music that makes you happy

-Self-care

Some unconventional ways to reduce stress at work:

In my previous blog post When “And other duties as assigned” has gone to far, I talked about how I absorbed multiple people’s job duties and when I asked to reclassify my position I was denied. After being denied I began actively and aggressively looking for new positions. For me it wasn’t solely based on compensation. The reclassification process was laborious and frustrating and in the end to be awarded no change was very discouraging. In a way HR was saying, “we acknowledge that you are now doing the work of multiple people’s job roles but we don’t think your work is valued any higher.” Talk about a tough pill to swallow. 

When I was looking for a new position it wasn’t for a target compensation but more for a position and company that I thought would be a good fit for my skill set. I was satisfied with my current compensation as long as I was only doing one person’s assigned duties. Employees want to feel appreciated and proper compensation is part of that package. 

As with many job onboarding processes, when I began my current position they assigned me something around 100 hours of online training to be completed. These trainings consisted of powerpoint slides with voiceover that you could not skip to the next slide until the voiceover was finished. (We all know those boring modules that HR requires you to watch) This took forever and the content was very dry. Not only did I dread logging in each day, at the end of the trainings I could not tell you one important thing I learned. The reason this type of training was not successful for me was because I don’t learn that way. I am more of a hands-on learner who needs to go through the motions or apply the material in order to understand it. Trainings that are successful for me allows me to walk through the motions and ask clarifying questions along the way, or relate the information to situations around me for further understanding.

For a fun contrast, each month I participate in a cookie decorating class. The instructor not only shows you the steps in a photo series, she tells you them highlighting important tips, and then you get to do it yourself. Then while you are doing it yourself, you can always ask for help. This is successful for the entire class because some are visual learners, others are audible learners, some have to do it themselves, and some need a combination. Of course I would much rather participate in a cookie decorating class instead of online training modules, but it is the understanding of how people learn that is really important here. The cookie instructor presented her content in a variety of methods to best capture the attention of everyone in the class.