Stress

Problems/Concepts

Stress is an everyday occurrence for some people. Personal stress also enters the workplace as employees are not able to leave their stress at the door. Management of stress, whether personal or work-related, is key to both success in the workplace and better health. Stress will affect not only the employee but also the company and its success as well.

Program Design

We have designed a program to better inform others on all areas of stress in the workplace and ways to manage stress with techniques to help employees at their desk. We not only wanted to lecture on what stress is, but also wanted the class to understand that it affects everyone in different ways. This will help to better the health and safety of everyone. To do so, we implemented activities and exercises so they can learn how to decrease their own stress and become a more successful employee.

Leadership Support

In the work environment, leadership support is required to continue this program successfully. Support in the workplace is management’s responsibility. They need to realize that stress happens and they need to monitor employee work load, which is more important now than ever. They need to make sure paid time off is taken, and provide other activities at work to create an enjoyable workplace where people want to be.

Program Goals

Our program goals are to further discuss and make people more aware of what stresses them how it can affect them, and what they can do to prevent and reduce their stress. We also want them to be aware of different techniques that can help them manage their stress, whether personal or work-related.

Presentation Summary

We will begin our presentation with a skit about two overly-stressed employees with an impersonal and demanding boss. The employees are discussing all of their personal and work-related stress. The Stress Buster will then enter to help them manage their stress.

Erica will then begin the presentation with the myths of stress including audience participation as an ice breaker. She will also provide an introduction to our topic and define stress as the harmful physical and emotional responses that occur when the requirements of the job do not match the capabilities, resources, or needs of the worker. Job stress can lead to poor health and even injury.

Note cards will be passed out next for an activity where we will have everyone write down three stresses and go around to discuss them. Dayna will then discuss the stress factors and the too busy syndrome. The stress factors that will be discussed are lack of control, extreme time pressures, inflexible working hours, too much/little responsibility, confusion regarding responsibilities, lack of variety, inadequate training for new skills, poor work/personal balance, difficult relationships at work, lack of support with co-workers, confusion: job change, restructuring, and feeling unsafe. Imbalanced lifestyles are caused by stress, work weeks