Stress In The Workplace :: Workplace Health and Safety

1. In today’s fast paced Air Force, it is very common to hear someone in an office saying "I’m so stressed out". With the big drawdown of personnel in all the armed forces, the Air Force was no exception. We were forced to do more with less. So for this one reason, it is likely that you will find stress is prevalent in the workplace. Because different people respond differently to the same type of stress, some people seem to cope better than others (1:4). When dealing with computers, the trick is finding a healthy balance between positive, motivating stress and stress overload, which can affect the body in different ways. Understanding stress an help you change that feeling into a positive challenge. Therefore, stress with computers can become a thing of the past. 2. You will find computers in just about every office, regardless of the type of business it is. In today’s world, computers have become the way to do business, communicate with the world, or just having one for personal recreation. Office work in general is full of potential stress, from not enough light and noisey offices, to deadlines and demanding bosses. Additional sources of stress come directly from using the computer: monotonous keyboarding, hours of staring at the screen, and lack of physical movement (2:85). For these reasons, we need to bear in mind that stress management should be a combination of reducing the stress, relaxing, and rethinking our expectations and self-demands, i.e., breaking the everyday routine, planning ahead, making wise use of breaks or lunches, eating right, and exercising every day to keep healthy (2:86) 3. Stress is an instantaneous physical reaction to a danger or demand: "muscles tighten, blood pressure rises, the heart speeds up, and extra adrinaline rushes through your system" (3:2). No matter what you occupation, everyone feels stress at one time or another. Stress is a fact of life (3:2). That is why control stress is to your advantage, versus it controlling you. Learning to control stress is to your benefit so that you feel, 1) calm, instead of nervous, 2) in control, instead of hassled, 3) alive, instead of burned out, 4) at peace, instead of angry, 5) refreshed/renewed, instead of frazzled (3:3). Physical and Psychological affects of stress may be prominent if stress exists in your life. Some ways for you to reduce stress include but are not limited to: exercise, deep breathing, hobbies (3:11-12). Personal stress relievers are getting enough sleep, talk worries and anger, and not substituting alcohol, tobacco and other drugs for relief of stress