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Office stress is a very frequent occurrence. Office stress comes about because of the pressures of the work, which is frequently not so easy to define, particularly in a small firm. In a large office, jobs are quite clearly defined and everybody knows what they are responsible for.

In a small office though, the couple of members of staff often have to cover half-a-dozen or so different jobs and so office stress can build up. Office stress can build up quickly if the boss is insensitive or a member of a small office team goes off pregnant or sick whether a temporary stand-in is employed or not.

Office stress is a very real phenomenon especially in a small business. For example, it is not uncommon for a company with $1 annual turnover to be managed by a staff of two – the office manager and a secretary. This means that the office manager has to be able to do each job and it is hoped that the secretary will be able to do most of them too. This creates office stress.

The secretary-cum-assistant will need to understand filing, typing, word-processing, data entry for book-keeping software, how to read job sheets, time sheets and invoices. The secretary will also have to welcome visitors, but keep sales reps at bay, while staying polite.

The secretary will also need to have decent phone manners and be able to answer enough questions to be able to shield the manager from time wasters and deal with relevant questions if the manager is not in. These jobs are difficult enough on their own, but office stress builds up if you find yourself trying to do three jobs at once and that is not uncommon.

You could be keying in time sheet data the manager has gone to visit site, when the phone rings with an enquirey and a potential client comes in asking for a quote. This is enough to make office stress soar.

The manager will also have to be able to carry out these tasks, but the office supervisor will also be responsible for management accounts, pay, job costing, pricing, writing letters and keeping up with the law as the Company Secretary, which means that he/she will need to know enough about employment law to advise the directors.

This leads to tremendous office stress. Besides all this, the office manager is usually responsible for paying and collecting taxes and keeping up with regulations and employment law. In these days of litigation and government claw backs, mistakes in any legal field are punished with costly fines or compensation claims. This degree of responsibility also just raises the level of office stress.

The difficulty is that office stress, like most types of stress, leads to tension and irritability and irritability can lead to a short fuse and flashes of temper, which just goes to worsen the situation and raise the degree of office stress another peg.

The levels of office stress soar if an vital piece of office equipment breaks down, because it is always just as you need it. Because it can take hours or even days to get it repaired, you are expected to be able to carry out minor repairs yourself. And then if the boss is an unsympathetic or merely unlikeable person then the degree of office stress can get even worse.

Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on numerous topics, but is at present busy with First Aid trainer courses. If you have an interest in RC vehicles, please go over to our website now at First Aid Courses Online.

We are all under stress the majority of the time and a lot of people like to think that they understand stress and can use it to get a piece of work done to the best of their capacity, but do you really know what the symptoms of stress are and what it can do to your body? When we are piling the stress onto ourselves, we merely assume that our bodies will adapt and get on with it, but is that actually the case?

The fact is that we all have our own point at which stress is reasonable. This is because stress can be emotional, physical and mental and if you go beyond your capacity for any duration of time in any of these areas, you can cause short-term or even longer term damage, which could need professional medical help.

If you do not take measures to recover your equilibrium, you will soon find that the apposite role in your life will deteriorate: that is, your relationships will fail, your physical health will crumble or your ability to do your job in the right manner will vanish.

The physical manifestations of stress are aches and pains, including headaches, general fatigue and lethargy. Unchecked, these symptoms can lead to migraine, muscle tension and stiffness.

These major alterations to how your body operates can then result in other complaints such as diarrhea or constipation, nausea and dizziness. These symptoms of stress, in turn, can lead to sleepless nights or insomnia.

When it gets this bad, individuals usually turn to medication, but medication can merely give temporary relief such as sleeping tablets. This can lead to addiction.

If the sufferer already has a weak heart, this combination of indications of stress can lead to chest pains, palpitations and erratic heart beat, which in turn can be precursors of heart disease. Please note that this chain of activities is not guaranteed.

People are different and some doctors are better than others, but stress and heart disease have been shown to be connected.

Symptoms of stress can also reveal themselves in behavioural problems. These indications of stress often begin with insomnia or just difficulty getting to sleep and waking up still tired. However, feeling constantly dog-tired has a knock-on effect on our emotions – we tend to be more emotional, but often in a negative way. Often this means over-reacting, like snapping at someone who has asked a perfectly reasonable question.

This sort of response can lead to the sufferer avoiding society. Self-pity, isolation, loss of job and depression can soon follow.

So, you have to learn how to get off that slippery slope, the downward spiral of everyday stress. The place to begin is the mind. You need to learn how to recognize when ‘things are getting on top of you’ and learn how to unwind.

There are a number of successful techniques including meditation, breathing exercises, aromatherapy and playing soothing music in order to bring about a state of relaxation in your mind.

While you are learning to take the symptoms of stress head-on with your mind, take some time to pamper your body as well. There are also numerous ways of doing this, but well-liked methods are taking a sauna or having a massage or pedicure, facial or manicure. Having your hair done.

Physical exercise is a great reliever of stress as well and it does not have to be arduous. A thirty minute walk, two times a day is sufficient for most people, but you might grow to like it and then it is the more the better.

Finally, you could take a careful look at your diet. You do not have to go overboard, but do you drink too much coke, coffee or tea? Do you consume a lot of junk food? Are you eating enough fruit?

Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on many topics, but is currently busy with First Aid trainer courses. If you have an interest in RC vehicles, please come over to our website now at First Aid Courses Online.