What would make your job LESS stressful..?

If you coulkd change something about your job to make it less stressful, what would that be..?

• do you have a manager who is useless?
• do you have rules to follow that are ridiculous?
• stupid Health and Safety criteria that defy commonsense?
• too much work and unrealistic deadlines to do it in..?
• dangerous conditions?
• are the people you work with annoying?

To make your life easier...   what would you change?

Our jobs rely on the input of another team.

If they did their jobs better, we could too. Instead we have to explain requirements and deadlines to them over and over and over again, year after year.

Despite this stuff being business critical nothing has ever changed and I can't see that it will. And, just to put the tin hat on it, whenever anything goes wrong, its always "our fault". 

Luckily we have all been here enough to know to keep email trails so we can usually turn round and say, "No, actually, it's your fault".

It's satisfying to be able to do that but it doesn't improve the efficiency that was lacking in the first place 

My jobs i a mother and wife...........I would do it a lot better without any kids to mess me around and take up my time

Sacking Michael Gove would be a good start. Arses shouldn't walk and talk.

Whatever it is, stress in your job is all created by your mind.  Change your mindset, change your feeling of stress.  Meditate.  Chill.  Does whatever is making you feel stressed really matter in the long run?

I would feel better if this office was warmer.  My feet are freezing.

Our CEO has made us all (including himself) work in open plan offices, with no doors on the openings to the corridors.  It's COLD in here! (and no, it's NOT in my mind, SB!)

My job isn't really stressful it's just mindnumbingly boring. I work with adults with severe learning difficulties. It's as exciting as working in a goldfish bowl.

I cycle to and from work and that is enough for me to forget what has gone before.

If I could change me I'd change jobs but I don't cope well in the working environment. I don't cope with full time employment. It just doesn't do anything for me. I've only had one job that I really enjoyed but then it changed and tried to become too streamlined. I like variety, change, I actually like pressure in the work place, I don't like everything being chilled or relaxed. (didn't know that until I had a psychological assessment and one test where my scores (work performance) got better the more stress I was under. I enjoyed that test as well).

So all in all, If I had some stress in my life I might function a little better than I do.

Strangely - I agree with you in some respects, but I would say that only 90% of stress is self-induced, there is an element of stress beyond personal control in all jobs.

My motto is control what is with my control and don't worry too much about the rest, I believe it is worrying over something you cannot control that causes stress.

That's the thing - a lot of people feel stressed when they feel that they have no control!

I think youve both said the same thing.
Its the things that are beyond our control that can cause the most stress.

Maybe theres a scale, big stress and little stressed. I can get stressed over x or y. y will cause me a lot of stress and x only a small amount though x may seem like a bigger deal its something that I can control and change while y is something that I can not.

Just a thought.

Wilkie wrote (see)

That's the thing - a lot of people feel stressed when they feel that they have no control!

Exactly - it is the external factors (the other people we have to rely on) that cause the stress. We can do something about how we work in our own department.

I know I don't get as stressed as some people because I know I've always done as much as I can. It's just the fact that the need to scream "WHAT PART OF "THIS IS DAMAGING OUR PROFITS" DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND?" should be unecessary after about the third time.

EKGO wrote (see)

Strangely - I agree with you in some respects, but I would say that only 90% of stress is self-induced, there is an element of stress beyond personal control in all jobs.

My motto is control what is with my control and don't worry too much about the rest, I believe it is worrying over something you cannot control that causes stress.

That exactly it.  It's all purely down to how we deal with things, especially pressure.  People talk about stress as if it's an uncontrollable force but you have every control over it.  Even if the situation is beyond your control, you can still control how that makes you feel. 

Never said that was easy to do, mind

I feel a bit of pressure at times but never get stressed. If I dont know something I know somebody who will or where I can get the information I need. If deadlines are tight and there is a chance they might be missed then I escalate my concerns or ask for help/resources. I'm afraid I'm not very patient with people who get stressed out because they have run out of staples or their pen has ceased to work. I appreciate we all handle pressurised situations differently but I dont understand why so called professional people dont see that getting stressed is not helping the situation. If there is a problem in front of you deal with it.

I don't really get stressed at work but like T Mouse my work can be very boring (MrGFB is an osteopath and we have our own clinic...I man the phone) I'm on my own for long stretches (I see people through the day to book appointments and take money and stuff) - we do have good wifi and I'm up to date on all my favourite programmes and films and so on though lol.

What does stress me is clients who (even with a reminder text) don't show for appointments or run late...most of of clients are in some kind of pain or other so can be short tempered or snappy to me...I've learned to deal with that.

i'd just like it to be closer to home

i generally love my job, even the stressful times (more intensive than stressful), but the hour journey in each direction is the problem. but the job itself, no real complaints.

 What would make your job LESS stressful..?

A room full of puppies.

(Actually, I prefer cats)

Oh yes, a kitten room - not that I'd ever go back to my desk 

Not having to do it?

I'm in sales, I've been doing it for 10 years. I feel totally burnt. 

So when I say, not having to do it, I mean it. I'm staying with it for the time being to give my wife the opportunity to leave her high-stress sales role to do something she really wants, which is to teach. Once she's settled, I'll try and make the move myself.

Being in media, I'm constantly faced with unrealistic targets, plucked from thin air, and most of my day is spent cold-calling and even on the warm calls clients tolerate you rather than enjoy speaking with you. So this is not my natural state and I'm usually a pretty upbeat person.

I don't like it but the rewards are as high as the job satisfaction is low, and I don't have to travel to London. Day-to-day I'm essentially left to my own devices which allows me to run for at least an hour 3 or 4 times per week at lunchtime which, on a day like today, atop Box Hill, is simply awesome (in the proper sense). So it could be worse.

You know what else we have in my office? Dogs. Lots of dogs. 130 people, 20 or so dogs. I love them all. The chap sitting next to me hates it - he has eczema, asthma and is allergic to... the world!

Well i'm a nurse, and you have three years of training. You kind of have time to prepare yourself, for the knowing, that stress is an every day thing. The wages are crap, the hours are long, and you are seeing and doing things which most people couldnt and wouldnt want to do.

I suppose the only thing i would change would be to have a coffee machine in the lounge, that serves a decent cappacuino. The little things can make all the difference.