HELPING YOUR CLIENTS IDENTFY & GET RID OF THE TPO SEVEN CAUSES OF WORKPLACE STRESS
(September/October 2005 Issue)

Anyone who has ever worked knows that stress is part of the deal. The fact is most people who work are feeling pressure from things going on both inside and outside of the workplace. As career development professionals, we are intimately familiar with all the "stress traps" out there. However, sometimes we assume that our clients are similarly aware, when in fact, they may not be aware at all.

Stress in itself is not bad, in fact, we can't live without it. Applying the correct amount of stress hardens our muscles, sharpens our minds, and strengthens our spirits. It is when we move from this "good" type of stress into distress that things begin to go wrong. Following are some points you may want to review with your clients who are currently immersed in the workplace to help them identify any stress points they may be experiencing and what to do about them.

There are seven common stressors that affect how people feel about the workplace:
1. Being out of sync with one's career values
2. Consistently applying burn out skills rather than motivated skills
3. Being delegated responsibility without authority
4. Being expected to produce more work with fewer resources
5. Job and career uncertainty and insecurity
6. The pace of change
7. Balancing family and work obligations

A combination of some or all of these seven stressors is the root cause of most, if not all, stress in the workplace. The indicators pointed out by many workplace surveys (working harder, feeling overwhelmed, work/life time priorities, irritability and frustration, zoning out with TV, feelings of helplessness, etc.) can be viewed as symptoms of these underlying root causes. Stress can be manifested by something as benign as someone having a tiff with a coworker to something as tragic as a disgruntled worker harming others. Following is a brief overview of each of the seven workplace stressors.
1. Being Out Of Sync With One's Career Values
Put simply, career values are the personal principles or standards that govern our behavior in the workplace and that are important in our overall career decisions. Examples include job flexibility, time freedom, preferring either a fast- or slow-paced work setting, working alone, working with others, helping society, monetary reward, job stability, and so on. It is important that workers narrow down and define their 5 to 10 core career values. These core career values then become decision making and assessment points for people to measure and see if where they are working (and what they are doing at work) is in sync with their values. It is when someone is not in sync with her or his values that stress occurs. For example, if Jane's top career value is work/life balance, but she is spending 80 hour per week at work, has not taken a family vacation in two years, and consistently misses her children's school events; she has a values clash and stress occurs. The more she works, the greater the stress.
2. Consistently Applying "Burn Out" Skills Rather Than Motivated Skills
Skills are what people bring to the table to get work done. Budgeting, supervising, editing, computer programming, training, designing websites, etc., are examples of skills.

Motivated skills are the things that a person does well and likes to do. Burn out skills are the things a person does well but does not like to do. If someone is constantly applying his or her burn out skills rather than his or her motivated skills on the job, performance will begin to decrease, motivation is lost, and eventually "burn out" occurs.

Why don't people always use and apply their motivated skills in the workplace? Most companies have a performance management system or performance appraisal process. It is in these systems and processes that motivated skills can be sabotaged. For example:

Sam, an account manager in a healthcare organization, has always been good at working with people, getting others to buy into his ideas, and documenting his work results. He completes a motivated skills assessment and learns that his main motivated skills are employee training, sales, and writing. His burn out skills turn out to be planning and budgeting. His supervisor invites him to the annual appraisal meeting and the following conversation ensues:

Supervisor: "Sam, you did such a great job on the budget last year that this year instead of having you just do the planning and budgeting for our department, I'm going to ask that you do the planning and budgeting for the entire company. Again, you were so thorough and did such a great job that I think you should be rewarded."

Sam: (Afraid to appear ungrateful and possibly jeopardize his job). "Well, thanks, but I."

Supervisor: "Now don't worry. I know working on the company-wide budget is going to take a lot of time. So I'm revamping your account manager position and taking all of the training, sales, and report writing tasks off your plate. That should free you up to work strictly on planning and budgeting."

Danger: Burnout ahead! Unless Sam speaks up and finds a positive way to negotiate himself back to what he likes to do and is good at doing, he will experience burn out, usually sooner rather than later. This burn out will lead to decreased motivation, which leads to less productivity, which leads to poor performance appraisals, and worse case, can result in Sam losing his job.

3. Being Delegated Responsibility Without Authority
This is a classic stress builder and is occurring more and more in organizations. Many people, especially those who have been with the company for a period of time, become taken for granted. Because they are always there and always willing to pitch in, it is often assumed that they will take on more and more work and responsibility. In essence, this creates a vicious cycle - as soon as one task or project is completed, it is assumed these loyal people will take on the next one with no consideration of their own time or motivational needs.

Because of the fast pace in most businesses these days, it is a common flaw that this work is assigned with no real structure in place as to who has the authority to carry it out - kind of a "just do it and don't ask too many questions" approach. People in this position are often under self-imposed stress and end up working longer hours than many others in the organization, including the people who do the delegating.

We will continue with the final four stressors in my next column.

Dan Strakal is president of Capable-Performance-Solutions, a consulting firm in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He is the co-author of and contributor to two books, Better Job Search in 3 Easy Steps and Better Job Skills in 3 Easy Steps. He earned the Doctor of Education in Adult Learning at Montana State University; Master of Education in Training and Human Resource Management at Idaho State University; the Master of Science in Technical/Project Management at the University of Idaho; and the Bachelor of Science in Pre-Physical Therapy at the University of Montana. Contact him as follows:
Dan Strakal, 8201 Golf Course Road NW, Suite D3306, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87120 USA; Tel: 505-899-9145; Mobile: 505-975-5243; Toll Free: 800-546-2745
e-mail: dan@gotocps.com; Web Site: www.capable-consulting.com