De-Stress Your Employees

While technology has raced forward, our ability to effectively deal with the
stresses resulting from these changes has not kept pace. There are combination
of factors that contribute as stress inducers, which could be work, personal or
health related, along with each individual's response to a particular situation.

Stress is the wear and tear on the body in our normal lives. Some stress is
good and required for a healthy performance. Negative stress has a cumulative,
destructive effect which if uncontrolled can cause physical, emotional and
family damage and becomes a social disease.

Stretched beyond endurance, an individual's very survival can be at risk. At
the same time, stress can also make a positive impact on our lives; it energizes
challenges, motivates and spurs us to act. There is a famous saying that it is
not stress that kills people, but their reaction to it.

Understanding stress

In order to help keep your employees' stress levels under control, first and
foremost it is important to understand the root cause of negative stress. The
primary pillars of stress management are self knowledge, managing interpersonal
relations, time management, relaxation and health to get control over our lives;
we need to look at two contrasting tools, which are usually instrumental in
directing us towards what we should be doing: the clock and the compass.

The clock represents our commitments, appointments, schedules, goals,
activities ie, what we do with, and how we manage our time. The compass
represents our vision, principles, values, mission, conscience, direction ie
what we feel is important and how we lead our lives.

The problems usually come, when there is a gap between the clock and the
compass. One tends to feel trapped or controlled by other people or situations.
We see deterioration in our relationships, especially with our loved ones and
eventually we just learn to live with this imbalance in our lives, by giving
endless excuses and justifications; and all this leads to stress.

Taking control

Individuals can choose to be in charge of a lot of their stress and not let
it be in charge of them. For starters, one must try to get rid of the urgency
addiction. Prioritize and focus on the important as opposed to the urgent.

Some of us get so used to the adrenaline rush of handling crises, so much so
that we become dependent on it for a sense of excitement and energy. Addiction
to urgency makes us feel stressed/pressured/tense/ exhausted. But it is also
sometimes exhilarating. We feel useful. We feel successful. We feel validated.

We get a temporary high from solving urgent and important crises. Then, when
the importance isn't there, the urgency fix is so powerful we are drawn to do
anything urgent, just to stay in motion.

People expect us to be busy, overworked. If we're busy, we're important; if
we're not busy we're almost embarrassed to admit it. Business is where we get
our security. It's validating, popular and pleasing. It is also a good excuse
for not dealing with the first things in our lives.

"I'd love to spend quality time with you, but I have to work. There's this
deadline. It's urgent. Of course you understand."

"I just don't have time to exercise. I know it's important, but there are so
many pressing things right now. Maybe when things slow down a little."

It's important to realize that urgency itself is not the problem. The problem
is that, when urgency is the dominant factor in our lives, importance isn't.
What we regard as 'first things' are urgent things. We are so caught up in
doing; we don't even stop to ask if what we are doing really needs to be done.
As a result, we exacerbate the gap between the compass and the clock.

Address the gap

Time manager (with daily planner)

The fundamental premise of this is that you look at your urgent and important
task carefully and then schedule them on daily and weekly basis.

Concept of 'Quiet Hour'

One should have the ability to spend some time, in complete isolation, to
introspect and continuously look at life's priorities.

Re-design your work place

The work place should be convenient to and not obstructive to facilitate
your ability to manage 'yourself and your time' in a relaxed manner.

Waste paper bin

Anything which is not useful to the work situation should be destroyed as
quickly as possible and not lay around. It is useful to periodically review
one's values, principles, relationships and attitude to self. Most of us review
our professional goals periodically but don't consider an inner review as
equally important. Without the periodic 'checking in' we deprive ourselves of
valuable insights and learnings that are necessary for continued growth and
development.

HR initiatives

As an organization we have an induction system which gives complete
direction to new joinees, to give them a feeling of belonging and a sense of the
organization. We carry out regular in-house and external training and
development to accelerate personal growth. For skill enhancement, we promote and
sponsor our employees for various certifications and technical upgradations.

To take care of the emotional well being of our staff we have established a
'Fun-desk', where people come together voluntarily to indulge in creative
activities as per their choice. This provides them recreation and they are able
to bond with each other across hierarchies. As part of this initiative we
organize cricket matches, table tennis tournaments, women's day out, movie
shows, children's fun day, photography, writing for our internal newsletter PSPL
IN-TOUCH, etc.

To keep employees motivated we have various schemes like recognition and
reward (R&R), where some rewards and accolades are spontaneous and others are on
a quarterly basis. Outstanding achievers are awarded annually and the 20
qualifying individuals are sent abroad as a group trip. Internal job postings
help to ensure growth opportunities and keep staff motivated.

Punita Taneja is a Director of New Delhi-based PC Solutions and Sr
Consultant, Door Training and Consultant