Feeling Overwhelmed by Work? You Can Fix That!

Do you feel overwhelmed by too much to do in work (and life)? Many of us do-but you don't have to! There are simple ways to get overwhelm under control and to even feel good about all you have to do. Let's take a look at one way that I believe will help you greatly.

Urgency Leads to Stress
These days, it is very easy to reach an overwhelmed state. With the amount of e-mail we get, and with all the responsibilities in our dynamic lives, we are working on overload. As a result, there is no way we can do it all. In fact, I suspect that for many of us, 50 percent or more of the things that land on our plates never get done!

The good news is that most of the many things that cross our desk each day we can ignore without issue-there is no impact if we never take them on. Things like low priority e-mail requests, invites to unimportant meetings, and even seemingly brilliant ideas we may have can all wait without causing alarm.

But if items on our list become obligations, then real problems can arise when too many of those obligations pile up on us all at once. At that point we go into urgency mode-we can start missing deadlines and everything looks like a fire needing to be put out. In that frothy state, even things we would normally dismiss can look critical, and that leads to an explosion of stress and overwhelm. Not only does it feel lousy, but we become hugely nonproductive-this is definitely something to avoid!

Controlling Urgency is the Solution
When overwhelm happens, the solution is to control urgency. That might mean cutting out some unnecessary sources of urgency and reducing your load-for example, saying "no" to additional must-do-now assignments from your boss, or taking on fewer new projects in your own business.
But an even more important way to control the impact of urgency is to learn how to approach your workload in a way that does not cause so much stress. To do that, you need a way to change your mental approach to work. A smart approach can lead to a major reduction in your feeling of overwhelm, and, ultimately, make you much happier.

Mental Models
One such solution lies in understanding our mental model of work. Mental models are subconscious beliefs we hold about things in the world that do not always hold up to scrutiny when examined. We all have many such mental models, and some of them are widely shared, even if they're wrong. For example, in the Middle Ages people thought the sun rotated about the earth-that was a mental model that was just not accurate and was later dispelled. We also have mental models about work, and being aware of those can help us work better.

In fact, there is a significant mental model nearly all of us have about our work, which once understood, can help us get a handle on our urgency. Very simply it is this: most of us believe that in one to two weeks from today, our workload will decrease. We consistently think "this week is the worst; in a week or two it will get better." And yet, it almost never comes true-we are just as busy when that week arrives as we are now. While the misunderstandings in many mental models can be harmful, this one is good, because we can use it to help solve our feeling of overwhelm. Here's how.

Three Steps to Solving Overwhelm
The point in time one to two weeks out, when most of us stop feeling worried about our workload, is what I call our Workday Now Horizon. Like a physical horizon, it is the distance (in time) beyond which we do not see work clearly, and so we do not worry about it. Remember that term as you do the next steps.

For Step 1, you need a list of all the work items that you are currently worried about. If you do not have an exhaustive to-do list like that, then create one now. I suggest you do this on a computer in a new blank word processing page or in a new spreadsheet page. On that blank page, list everything you need to do now or soon that is currently on your mind-everything that is contributing to your feeling of being overwhelmed. Include items from paper to-do lists, from sticky notes, and especially items in your head. Get them all recorded. Also, go through your e-mail in-box to find things that you have left there that you need to work on and that are contributing to your concern about work.
Once done, at the top of that list, write the label "Worry List." This is everything that you need to worry about, all in one place.

For Step 2, create another page in a new document, and label it at the top "Over the Horizon." This page represents time beyond the Workday Now Horizon that I described earlier; that is, it represents a time period about two weeks out and beyond.

Step 3 is the key one. By cutting and pasting items, start moving tasks off your Worry List and onto your Over-the-Horizon list. As you move them, tell yourself these items do not need to be started until sometime beyond two weeks or more. Make that agreement with yourself. You cannot do it all, so something has to give, and these are the items that will wait. As you move them, you are removing them from your Worry List.

Keep moving tasks until your Worry List is no longer "worrisome." Do it until that list feels fairly reasonable in size-until the items on the list appear they can be completed in the next week or two. When you reach the number of tasks that feel reasonable for that period, stop.

Now, here's the hard part of Step 3. If any of the items you just moved over the horizon represent promises to other people, and you feel it may be irresponsible to delay them without notice, make a plan to contact those people to tell them the items will be postponed about three weeks. Plan to take some heat, but do it-your mental health is at stake. This is worth it. You cannot do it all so, it is better to let people know now rather than at the last minute. As you consider this, feel free to juggle items between the lists to balance the impact if necessary, but keep the Worry List small enough to be reasonably completed within two weeks.

Now, Your Worries Are Over the Horizon!
That's it! Put the Over-the-Horizon list away, out of sight. Keep it handy in case you need to move more items there, but don't study it again for one week. You have negotiated with yourself and others not to worry about it, so don't!

You can now focus 100 percent on the relatively small list that remains on your Worry List. It is by definition a reasonable list, so it is much less stressful. I call this short list your Now Tasks list. These are the tasks you feel good about focusing on right now. In fact, go and change the name of your "Worry List" to "Now Tasks"-it's a much better name. Know that it represents the best that you can do right now, given the time you have.

While working off the Now Tasks list, most new requests may need to go on the Over-the-Horizon page to keep your work balanced, and that's okay. Plan on visiting the Over-the-Horizon list once a week; when you do, consider if anything on that list has become more urgent. If so, move it back to the Now Tasks list. However, you will be surprised how few things on that list are still important over time; very few things need urgent attention once given the test of time, and many simply fade from importance.

Overwhelm Under Control
Guess what? You have gotten control of your overwhelm! You have created a system that allows the urgency of tasks to be tested by time. And you now have a plan for the next week or so that allows you to focus and to complete quality work without killing yourself. Feel good about it! Celebrate your new freedom-and, of course...now get to work!

The above article is based on Michael Linenberger's newly released book, Master Your Workday Now! -a book that presents powerful new approaches to managing tasks, e-mails, your goals, and your career. Michael is also the author of the #1 best-selling Microsoft Outlook book called Total Workday Control Using Microsoft Outlook; in that book Michael shows how to use Outlook to get tasks and e-mail under control. Formerly a VP at the management consultancy firm Accenture, Michael now travels the US and the world giving lectures and teaching seminars showing others how to get back control of their out-of-control workdays. http://www.michaellinenberger.com.

How to Separate Work and Home

A busy businessman finds it hard to separate work from home. Leaving the stresses of the job is easier said than done. But learning to separate work from home is actually the key to a happier home life and quality time with family. The blur of work and home can easily make the boundaries disappear over time.

Here are a couple of tips to leave work at work.

1. Physically relieve yourself the stress of work at work. After long hours of working, try a simple breathing exercise. Picture yourself in a solitary place. Listen to your breathing. Steady your mind by steadying your body.

2. Stretch. This helps relieve tension in mind and body. Stretch your arms and legs. Visualize the negative energy leaving your body.

3. Use pen and paper. Write notes on what you have to do tomorrow. Put them in a place where you know you look first thing in the morning. Your desk will do well. Then visualize your home and the people in the house.

4. Plan the transition. Mentally list your routine from work to home. Then use it as a signal to leave one behind.

5. Never over do the unloading process to your spouse. This creates tension in the marriage or relationship. Try to set a limit on how many minutes you will talk about your worries so that your partner will not feel like you are bulldozing her emotions. She, too, experiences stress on a daily basis.

6. Take a breather. Do not worry too much about tomorrow or its problems. It will come.

These are just a few things you can do. Feel free to improvise.

by Summer S.

The author is a SME for an account in Voiceville Communications, Inc. Think Better Life. Think Voiceville. http://voicevilleinc.com/

Overloading - A Simple Solution to Reduce This Workplace Problem

What?

What if by simply drawing a line you could reduce the suffering and anguish of thousands and save lives in the process? Wouldn't you think it was a good idea?

In 1874, seafarer Samuel Plimsoll did just that. Plimsoll found a way to prevent ships from being overloaded and sinking under the weight of excess cargo. Literally thousands of lives were saved because Plimsoll Lines, indicating the maximum vessel load capacity, were painted on the side of ships. Given today's overloaded workplaces and lifestyles, we can learn a lot from Plimsoll's approach. We can learn to draw a line indicating our maximum capacity and prevent the negative effects of personal overloading. The Plimsoll Line is a 19th century solution to a 21st century problem.

So What?

Although overloading can enter your life in different forms, it typically creates the same kind of problems for the person or object being overloaded. Overloading creates a burden that is too great to bear and the consequences of that excessive burden negatively impact your life. That is as true today as it was in the 1800s. You might think we are the first generation to find ourselves trapped in this overloading dilemma, but history tells us otherwise. Overloading was actually a much more serious problem in earlier times. Rather than being a matter of getting smoothly through the day or coping with stress-inducing technology, overloading was literally a matter of life and death. This was especially true in the world of shipping.

When it comes to matters of staying afloat, a brief review of Archimedes' principle is in order. Archimedes discovered that a body immersed in a fluid is buoyed up by a force equal to the weight of the displaced fluid. Apply this to the world of shipping, and the consequences of overloading are clear. Ships sink when they weigh more than the water they displace. Ships will actually float at different levels depending on water temperature and type. Therefore, a ship loaded to capacity in a North Atlantic saltwater port would be in danger of riding too low and possibly sinking in a freshwater port in the tropics.

In earlier times, with only hand tools for the job, it took years to build a ship. Moving only under the power of wind and sails, it took months or years to sail across the sea and return. It made sense that ship owners and sailors would take extra precautions to assure the safety of their vessels. Unfortunately, ship owners did not always care. Why? As seafaring commerce developed, insurance coverage on the ships and cargo underwritten by such entities as Lloyd's of London often enticed ship owners to overload their ships. If the ships arrived safely, the payoff was greater for the more heavily loaded ships. If the ships sank, insurance covered the loss.

Also, in the mid-19th century the Irish potato famine reached its peak. Irish land owners, eager to shift their focus from potatoes to wheat and livestock, looked for ways to clear their land of Irish paupers made destitute due to the devastation of the potato crop. Landlords either evicted paupers with no promise of support, or packed them into unseaworthy vessels with phony promises of assistance in British North America, sending them out to sea. You can probably guess why these overloaded vessels were known as coffin ships. Many people lost their lives on these dangerous voyages. Eventually the general public became concerned enough about the loss of crafts, crew and passengers that British Parliament was forced to appoint a committee to investigate the growing number of sinking ships.

Enter Samuel Plimsoll. As a young man Plimsoll was fascinated with the problems of shipping coal to London. The main problem that attracted his attention was the simple fact that too many ships were sinking. In 1868, Plimsoll was elected a member of British Parliament. He immediately began to campaign for legislation to protect seamen. In 1873, he published a book titled Our Seamen that documented the fact that every year nearly 1,000 sailors drowned on ships near and around the British shores. These numbers did not include casualties from British ships that sank in locations other than the British coastline. Fishing vessels were excluded from this total and so were non-British ships that sunk.

Plimsoll's solution was simple: determine the maximum safe load a vessel could handle and make sure the vessel never exceeded that load. He proposed that a mark or line be painted on the side of all ships to indicate the limit to which the vessel could be legally loaded. If the weight and buoyancy of the ship caused it to dip below the line - referred to as the Plimsoll Mark or Plimsoll Line - the ship could not set sail. The Merchant Shipping Act of 1876 made these load lines compulsory. Unfortunately, the line's actual position was not fixed by the 1876 law. As might be expected, the ship owners loosely interpreted the law and painted the line wherever they wanted, until the position was finally fixed by another law passed in 1894. It is estimated that this simple line has saved countless lives since the late 1800s.

Now What?

So here we are at the beginning of the 21st century. Many of us live nowhere near the sea. What can we learn from the Plimsoll Line story that will make our lives better?

Acknowledge that consistently overloading yourself is a form of dysfunctional behavior driven by irrational thinking. Therapists usually embrace one of two approaches when trying to help their clients solve such behavioral problems. They focus on the past so their clients can understand more about the source of their behavior, or they tell their clients to "forget the past" and work mainly on changing the unproductive behavior going forward. Here are examples of each of these approaches that you might consider trying:


By studying the history of shipping in the 1800s, Samuel Plimsoll began to understand why so many ships were sinking and developed a simple solution to the problem of overloading. If you are struggling with problems related to overloading, it is a good idea to study your personal history and discover past events and decisions that led to your present dilemma. One bad habit or decision rarely creates an overload of demands on your time and energy. It is usually a combination of many decisions and patterns of behavior. For example, people-pleasing behavior, and the inability to say "no" when it is appropriate, can create overloading. Study your personal history and see if you can identify specific decisions that are creating an excessive workload. I know this strategy sounds a bit oversimplified (somewhat like drawing a line on the side of ships and saving countless lives), but here's an idea for you: Stop making those same decisions if you want to eliminate overloading in the future.

Forget the past and just experiment until you discover your personal Plimsoll Line. Make a commitment to work no more than eight hours most days. You are kidding yourself if you think working 12, 14, 16 or more hours per day is a productive use of your time. Doing this sounds impressive to some people, but not to those who understand how the various systems of the human body work to optimize your performance. Your productivity plummets when you exceed your optimal workload. You will eventually sink. Try breaking an eight-hour day into 48-minute segments (there are, of course, 10 of these segments available). Make a commitment to spend at least 48 uninterrupted minutes tomorrow working on the most important things you need, want, or have to do to be successful. Then operate in your normal manner for the rest of the day. The next day go for two 48-minute blocks of highly focused time. My suggestion is that you draw your Plimsoll Line at about three 48-minute blocks of focused time most days. I am not suggesting that you only work 144 minutes each day. I am simply suggesting that you mentally designate three highly focused periods in a workday as a highly successful day. Then, cut yourself a little slack and stop pushing yourself so hard.

In the end remember that overloading is an upstream problem. When the ships began sinking in the warm freshwater due to being overloaded in the cold saltwater ports, it was a little late to start working on a solution to the problem. It would have been better to prevent the problems before the ships embarked on the voyage. The upstream issue that leads to work overload is making the decision to take on any additional tasks. If you are already overloaded, start focusing on how to eliminate tasks, not increase them. Start making sound decisions today to prevent overloading in the future.

Chris Crouch has spent years researching and studying both the mental and physical aspects of being more productive. He shares his discoveries through books, articles, presentations and training materials.

This article is an excerpt from his book Being Productive: Learning How to Get More Done with Less Effort available through Amazon.com

How To Improve Your Lousy Writing Skills In The Workplace

If there’s one important reason why you need to write effectively in the workplace, it is this: the quality of your writing imprints a lasting impression on the reader. This reader may be your boss, a client, or a person who is ready to make a billion dollar business deal with you.

Have you ever read a poorly-written document that made you lose interest right away? It was so poorly-written that you lost trust in the author and asked yourself why the author was wasting your time? How about those junk e-mails that sneak into your junk box like annoying cockroaches? You know the ones I’m referring to: the ones pitching vitamins, software, and sex aids. These e-mails are the biggest showcase of writing blunders, stricken to death with grammar mistakes, misspellings, and sloppy sentences. I doubt these e-mails pull a sale because their poor writing style immediately alienates the reader.

What impression does your writing leave on your boss, clients, or co-workers? Does your writing alienate readers, cause you to lose sales or clients, or cost you job promotions? Or does your writing build streams of loyal readers, increase sales for the company, and help you earn six figures a year at your job?

Whatever type of writing you do in the workplace, always know this reality: readers believe the quality of your writing reflects your skills, work ethics, and integrity as a person. If you write eloquently, clearly, and lively, the reader trusts you and you are able to build rapport quickly. If your writing is sloppy, disorganized, and riddled with errors, the reader assumes the rest of your work is flawed, your work ethics are flawed, and perhaps as a person you are flawed. Why should this reader waste his time reading the rest of your junk or even do business with you?

This article provides fail-safe strategies to help refine your writing and help you to communicate with clarity, simplicity, and impact so you will never write junk again. You will learn five masterful steps to guide you in planning, writing, and refining an article; and you will learn how to avoid common writing mistakes.

AIM! FIRE! FIRE!

To become a superb writer, your first task is to establish your aim.

Yiddish novelist, dramatist and essayist, Sholem Asch, once said, “Writing comes more easily if you have something to say.”

What message do you want to convey with your writing?

To establish your aim, ask yourself:

1) “Why am I writing this document?”
2) “What do I want to communicate?”
3) “Do I want to inform, educate, report, persuade, challenge, or entertain?”

Developing your aim will help you to adopt the best writing style for your reader. For example, an educational document will likely be more formal than one written for entertaining.

CONNECT WITH YOUR READERS

To write effectively, you need to connect strongly with your readers. Ask yourself:

1) “For whom am I writing this? Will I be writing for colleagues, my supervisor, my team of employees, or our clients?”

2) “How much information do my readers need?”

3) “How familiar are my readers with the topic?”

4) “How much time do my readers have? Would my readers prefer a short, succinct presentation of facts and statistics, or more narration and exposition?”

Knowing your audience will allow you to write content in a way that appeals to your readers.

SHAPE YOUR DOCUMENT

You know your aim. You know the people who will likely read your document. Now plan your document. What information will it contain? What information will most likely grab the reader and hold their interests? What points do you need to get across? Start with a rough outline of ideas. Then go through the outline and add more information and more detail. An outline will create the structure for your document. Soon enough your writing will come more easily, quickly, and with greater clarity.

WRITE WHAT YOU KNOW BEST

At this stage, read over your outline and write the first draft. Establish the main idea of the document and support your argument throughout. If a blank white page glares back at you like headlights, just start writing on whatever topic you know best. According to American novelist Jack London, “You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.” Don’t worry about the sequence if the ideas come to you out of order. You can cut and paste later.

WORDY WEIGHT LOSS

If you have time, step away from the document. Come back to it later with a fresh mind. Now add material where needed. Trim away unnecessary sections. Refine the text to communicate what you want to say. Remember: less is more. Try not to repeat ideas. Repetition, unless necessary, is tiresome for the reader. Keep the piece moving along. Use a lively pace. Progress through your points efficiently.

The following sections address some of the most common writing problems. Use these tips to write more clearly, effectively, and lively.

I.) PUNCTUATION

a) Apostrophes

Do not use an apostrophe in the possessive form of “it.”

Incorrect: Our department submitted it’s reports for 2005 last week.
Correct: Our department submitted its reports for 2005 last week.

Do not use apostrophes in the possessive forms “his,” “hers,” and “ours.”

Incorrect: The window office is her’s.
Correct: The window office is hers.

Do not use apostrophes in plural nouns.

Incorrect: How many new computer’s are we getting?
Correct: How many new computers are we getting?

b) Commas

Do not connect two complete sentences with a comma.

Incorrect: The meeting was cancelled, I finished my work early.
Correct: The meeting was cancelled, so I finished my work early.
Correct: Since the meeting was cancelled, I finished my work early.

II.) MECHANICS

a) Split Infinitives

Do not insert words between “to” and the infinitive form of a verb.

Incorrect:I was told we needed to slightly tighten the deadline.

Correct:I was told we needed to tighten the deadline slightly.

III.) SPELLING

a) “A lot” is always two words.

Incorrect: I have alot of work to do.
Correct: I have a lot of work to do.

b) “To” is a function word often used before the infinitive form of a verb (to go).

c) “Too” is an adverb that means “excessively” (too difficult).

d) “Two” denotes the number 2.

Incorrect: This file cabinet is to heavy for me to move.
Correct: This file cabinet is too heavy for me to move.

e) “There” is an adverb indicating a place (over there).

f) “Their” is a possessive word that shows ownership (their computers).

g) “They’re” is the contraction form of “they are.”

Incorrect: There results for this quarter were excellent.
Correct: Their results for this quarter were excellent.

Incorrect: Their working very hard today.
Correct: They’re working very hard today.

IV.) STYLE

a) Sentence Variety

To write more lively, vary sentence structure. Use alternate ways of beginning, and combine short sentences to create different sentence lengths.

Before:

I organized the files for all the new accounts this week. Then I created a more efficient labeling system. I color-coded everything. I made sure all paper files had been documented electronically. I put these files in the empty file cabinet.

After:

This week I organized the files for the new accounts and created a more efficient color-coded labeling system. After I documented all paper files electronically, I put these files in the empty file cabinet.

V.) ACTIVE VOICE vs. PASSIVE VOICE

The English language has two "voices": active voice (the subject performs an action); and passive voice (the subject is acted upon). In business communication, all good writers write in active voice. Lazy writers write in passive voice. Writing in active voice shortens your sentences and makes your writing sound more direct and formal.

Examples:

PASSIVE: The recipe book is read by her.
ACTIVE: She reads the recipe book.

PASSIVE: The radio announcement should be listened to by everyone.
ACTIVE: Everyone should listen to the radio announcement.

PASSIVE: The photo is being taken by the photographer.
ACTIVE: The photographer is taking the photo.

HELPFUL RESOURCES

To learn more about fixing common writing mistakes, check out The Electronic Writing Course ( http://www.ElectronicWritingCourse.com ). It’s a program that teaches the basics of good writing and editing. If you want to check your document against 36,000 style and usage mistakes, check out StyleWriter ( http://www.StyleWriter-USA.com ). It’s a style and usage Plain English checker. If you want to write more lively and creatively, check out WhiteSmoke Software ( http://www.WhiteSmokeSoftware.com ). It’s a program that fixes and enriches your text.

If you follow these guidelines, you’ll stop yourself from writing lousy in the workplace. Your writing will be lively, clear, and concise, and you will build rapport with readers. Perhaps it’s now time to e-mail your boss a perfectly-written e-mail requesting a salary raise?

Brian Konradt has been a professional freelance writer for over ten years. He is founder of http://FreelanceWriting.com ( http://www.FreelanceWriting.com ) and http://LiteracyNews.com ( http://www.LiteracyNews.com ).

Understanding Burnout Associated With The Workplace

Burnout associated with the workplace is a common issue. This is normally a result of stress that is experienced in the workplace. When an employee suffers from work-related burnout, they often feel as if they are emotionally and mentally exhausted. In addition to this, it is also quite common to experience a true, physical exhaustion as well. When this common experience appears in an individual's life, a general sense of apathy may overwhelm them. They may feel disheartened, and lack the motivation to perform even their basic responsibilities. Here, you will gain an understanding regarding burnout in the workplace.

When an individual experienced work-related burnout, it is a condition that has developed over time. It is not likely that an employee will become overwhelmed with burnout overnight. This is mostly a slow process that develops more and more as time progresses. This is a direct result of stress that is experienced in the workplace. Deadlines, dealing with uncooperative coworkers, unfavorable work conditions, and personal unhappiness in the work environment can all lead to burnout. This condition can affect all areas of an individual's life - job performance, relationships in the workplace, personal relationships, and even a person's health.

There are many signs and symptoms associated with work-related burnout. If you are in charge of employees, it is important that you gain an understanding of these signs. If you are an employee in the workplace, you should also learn the signs and symptoms associated with burnout. The more quickly that you are able to recognize that burnout is becoming evident, the quicker you can work to resolve the issues that you are facing. Listed below are some of the most common signs and symptoms associated with this common, and every real issue:

- One of the first signs of burnout is when an individual becomes frustrated. This frustration may be self-directed, directed to others, or towards the company in which they work.

- The second sign that an employee may be experiencing burnout is when their performance starts to falter. In many cases, this sign may be the most evident. A once reliable individual who completed work in a timely fashion that displayed a high level of quality may begin to take longer completing tasks, and the quality of their work may decline rapidly.

- Many individuals who experience workplace burnout may start expressing the fact that they feel as if they are "trapped" in their work situation. If an individual feels "trapped", this is a bad sign. It is important to be happy and content with the work that we do. If we feel anything else than this, it is important to seek assistance as workplace burnout is becoming evident.

- Those that experience this common work-related issue may start to detach themselves from friends, relatives, coworkers, social situations, and more. Social detachment is not a good sign. This is especially true when an individual is normally not socially withdrawn from others.

- Many who experience workplace burnout may seem extremely irritable. This may show in the means of rapid moods, and similar situations. If there is no apparent cause for this type of personality change, the issue may be related to workplace change.

- Many individuals may feel as if there is no hope for their current situation. They may walk in and out of each and every single day feeling a lack of motivation; many individuals may witness this behavior in the workplace and realize that it is uncharacteristic of the individual. This is a probable sign of work-related burnout.

- If you feel as if you have absolute no power, you are not getting anywhere, and you find yourself constantly feeding negative thoughts and emotions, you may be experiencing workplace burnout.

- Many individuals who experience burnout often start experiencing many different kinds of failures. These failures may be directly related to their work performance, or they may be experienced in their personal life.

There are a number of causes that may lead an individual to experience burnout associated with the workplace. The following reasons may be associated with this type of work-related stress:

- Many individuals set their goals in the workplace too high. Setting high goals or having others in the workplace place too high of goals is a common factor in workplace burnout.

- Many individuals may feel as if they are stuck in a particular job because they are unable to afford a change in careers, or they are unable to pass up the benefits that a job poses. For these individuals, workplace burnout may be experienced.

- Many individuals who have proved to be dependable and provide a high quality of work may be expected to consistently asked to perform additional work on top of their standard responsibilities. While many are flattered by the fact that they are given more work, this work can often become exhausting.

- There are many who do not feel personally challenged by their work. This type of work can become dull and a person may not feel as if they have anything to look forward to. This can result in workplace burnout as well.

Workplace burnout is a common issue that must be dealt with. If you are in charge of employees, it is important to know and understand the basics of workplace burnout. If you are an employee, it is important that you know and understand the basics as well. By understanding the conditions that cause this to occur, the symptoms associated with the condition, and how to overcome it, you can beat work-related burnout!

Kevin Sinclair is the publisher and editor of My-Personal-Growth.com, a site that provides information and articles for self improvement and personal growth and development.

The Causes Of Workplace Stress And How Best To Prevent This From Happening

The modern world is work focused and employment based. We spend the majority of our waking hours at the workplace and this has its own benefits and problems. One of the most common of these problems is workplace stress. This is a chronic ailment caused by conditions that negatively affect your performance and overall well-being. It can also affect an individuals' psychological and physical health, as well as organization's effectiveness. Workplace stress is affecting a whole spectrum of the population ranging from doctors to plumbers

Workplace stress is now recognized globally as a condition that can affect all categories of workers, in all types of jobs. Stress is a source of tension and frustration that may arise through a number of interrelated influences on behavior, including the individual, group, organizational and environmental factors. This usually leads to loss of concentration, sleeplessness, and it can also increase the risk for illness, back problems, accidents, and lost time. Workplace stress is now one of the most prevalent reasons for lost working days, which hinders the progress of the organization as well as the individual.

There are various reasons for workplace stress and one of them is management. This usually happens when managers behave in an authoritarian way, offer no constructive support or advice to the work force or deny promotional opportunities to the deserving members of the company. This is when employees become frustrated or cynical towards the organization. Another reason for workplace stress is overbearing or jealous work colleagues. Office gossip can be harmless fun if kept within reason but if it is constantly directed towards one particular person then it can be quite damaging and lead to a lot of workplace stress for the person concerned.

There are steps that organizations can take to prevent or minimize the effects of workplace stress, so that they have more contented and happier employees. Some of the ways to achieve this is to make sure that your workforce have a voice and are heard, they are aware of their importance to the organization and are seen as unique and exceptional. Some of the policies that can help towards this are to include flexi-time, working from home, stress coaching, on the job support, keeping jobs open during sick leave, provision of quiet rooms, exercise provision, training initiatives and social activities.

Workplace stress can also be caused because of the work place atmosphere, for instance noisy, dirty, messy areas can all contribute towards job stress. It is therefore a good idea to keep the work areas clean and tidy to have a healthy, relaxed and stress free working environment.

Employees can also contribute towards minimizing and preventing workplace stress. Worker s should refrain from harassment or bullying. They should not tease, insult or even threaten others due to their sex, religion or race. Under no circumstances should they spread malicious gossip in order to destroy another's good name.

By working together, employees and management can minimize and prevent a lot of workplace stress. Organizations should always be looking for ways that lead to a workforce that is happy, healthy and therefore more productive.

Nim Aulakh is a writer and webmaster. Find out more about the causes of workplace stress and how to deal with it. There are so many easy ways to prevent job stress. One easy way is by having aromatherapy stress relief