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A Golden Rule To Manage Job/Workplace Stress

A Golden Rule To Manage Job/Workplace Stress: Having gone for a sea bath, don’t be afraid of the oncoming waves. Take your plunge!

* Getting a job, involves lots of stress.
* Getting a job, without the stressful environment, is a blessing.
* Getting a job, with the type work profile that you like, a cheerfully disposed staff, and the administration that maintains the human relations at its best, is a boon!

You put in your best efforts, but everyone around you is dissatisfied. The reasons are beyond your understanding. Your fellow-workers are not happy with you; some of them do not hesitate to taunt you. Your boss frowns at you for nothing. Your wife nags you for your late arrival by 30 minutes from the office. Traveling through public transport, leaving your kid to school, going to the market in between hustle and bustle of office and home-what more is required for you to say, ‘oh, this hellish life!’

These are some of the issues that contribute to your job workplace stress.

If someone else is to be blamed for your stress, blame yourself much more for giving that prominent place for the Satan of stress. Throw him out lock, stock and barrel from your personality. Take a firm stand. Yes, it is possible; it is achievable.
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A ‘Four Square’ Statement

Here’s a quick and simple way to develop a strategic plan for any written document. And while it doesn’t require much actual writing, it will help you focus your attention and get a better response to your message.

Take a sheet of paper and divide it into about four equal parts by drawing a horizontal line across the page and a vertical line down the page.

Starting in the upper-left corner, write down the germ of the idea. Take just a few words and describe the basic idea. Don’t elaborate and don’t use any space beyond that square, which will force a certain amount of conciseness. For example, “Try invoicing occasional customers at mid-month and end-of-month, rather than just at month-end.”

Moving to the upper-right corner, concisely explain the ‘what’ and the ‘why’ of the idea. What will I gain by pursuing this idea? For example, “Could improve cash flow and reduce our line of credit cost by 5%.”
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20 Tips On Presenting Corporate & Office Areas

1. If you operate an office that receives visiting clients you probably have a reception area. Such an area can be used to great advantage. While your client is waiting to see you why not give them the opportunity to learn about you and the company? Large photographs of the factory or the products / services you provide help to make it clear what your company does or stands for. It also gives an insight into areas your visitor may not be able to access under normal circumstances. You may be surprised at how interested people are in you and what you do behind the scenes.

2. Alternatively you could take the opportunity to feature pictures of the key workers in your team. A head and shoulders photo and a name plate will enable first time visitors to recognise the person they are to meet and to determine their position within the management team. This is considerably comforting when you are about to meet someone for the first time. It also helps to make the staff feel valued and a real part of the organisation.

3. If you think that you need to be a little more creative why not feature your staff in poses that display their favourite pastime. If the M.D. is a keen angler, or the Sales Manager takes part in amateur dramatics, feature them in suitable attire. This makes the person appear “human” and not an office automaton thus making them easier to relate to.

4. If customers are to be required to wait a while, or even if waiting to make a complaint, consider carefully how you can entertain them while they are waiting. You need the area to be calming and friendly so avoid aggressive colours such as bright reds or solid blacks and consider featuring pastel colours in abstract designs of a gentle nature. You may even consider some humorous cartoons or caricatures of the senior management as a way to present yourselves as people of a good humour and friendly nature. Try to be general in subject so as to appeal to everyone. For example, avoid pictures of football clubs etc even if the M.D. is a big fan. If customers are entertained and relaxed by your choice of images and you come out to meet them with a big helpful smile on your face, they will find it harder to be angry with you when you first meet.

5. Similar rules apply when decorating the general admin areas of the office. It is likely that the work is constant and repetitive so make the staff comfortable by displaying bright and positive images they can enjoy. But avoid scenes of Far Eastern Beaches and Palm Trees, you might just find them drifting off on a mental holiday.

6. In your Marketing or Sales Area try and avoid the cliché pictures of Lions stating “The Customer is King” etc. While true, such messages are tired and lack impact these days. Instead, why not feature nicely framed letters from happy customers, certificates of achievement, employee of the month awards, pictures of staff outings that were earned as rewards against results. These will make it quite clear why everyone is there and reminders of the rewards they get for effort will spur them on to win future acknowledgements.

7. Make sure your art is modern, popular and right up to date. Framed calendar prints of Monet’s Water Lillie’s in tired frames against decrepit wall paper or wood wall panelling just will not do. They give out signals of being slow, old fashioned and behind the times. If you happen to like the classics it okay to hang them, just make sure you do so in a celebratory way. Big positive prints and good frames will make much more of a statement than something old and tired.

8. As with flowers and fish tanks it may be possible to hire art for your workplace. This has the advantage of regular refreshment as the supplier visits at allocated times to change the displays. It may also just give you the chance to see what you want to keep on a more permanent basis once you have a had a chance to live with them for a while.
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15 Tips To Streamline Your Business And Become Profitable In 2006

Here are some tips to help you ‘cut the fat’ and improve the productivity of your business. If you apply a few of these, you’re well on your way to achieving greater profit and creating less stress!

1. Cut the Slackers!
“Carrying dead-weight employees? Lose them now!” Ever tried to run a marathon whilst towing an old tire? This is what it’s like trying to grow a productive business with unproductive (or unmotivated) employees. Not only will they not add value to your bottom line, they’ll drag other ‘productive’ workmates to their level. Cutting a slack worker (legally of course) will actually increase the productiveness of other workmates.

2. Cut the Paper!
“Start a war against paper!” Do you need to print that email to read it? Or that brief? Reduce office clutter on desks and encourage better use of digital filing. Ask clients to email files rather than send faxes, and printed media. Use a web based project management or time tracking solution rather than paper based timesheets. Get the drift – saves trees too!

3. Cut the Time!
“A task can take both 10 minutes and an hour!” Have you noticed that if you give a task (i.e.: write a proposal) to an employee and they have a day to do it, they will, but if you give them 3 days to do the same task, guess what, they’ll take 3 days! Put tight and exact deadlines (i.e.: Wed 3:30pm) on important tasks, and your staff will become more productive.

4. Cut the Expenses!
“Plug all the holes in your cash flow!” Make a list of all general expenses in your business. Next to each one, write one of the following: Need it, Review it, Cut it. Take this list to either a receptionist or employee with some free time. Have them work down the list firstly on the expenses to ‘Cut’. This will create immediate savings. Then have them ‘Review’ the expenses you need, but perhaps could get a better deal on. ‘Trimming the fat’ every 6 months can help you create profit.

5. Target Different Work!
“One project for $20,000 or ten projects for $2,000 each”. Look at the type of work you’re targeting. Is it worth targeting a different type or value of work? Most businesses just ‘do what they’ve always done’ rather than looking for more profitable types of revenue. Think hard about other more profitable work your business can do with its available resource.

6. Don’t Work Late, Come in Early!
“A clear mind is a productive mind!” Outside of work, this time should be used to recharge. Don’t take extra work home, rather just go home, relax, play golf, go for a run, enjoy the family & come in early to do that extra work. Not only will you work better after relaxing, but your family life will improve!

7. Motivate Staff, Offer Incentives!
“Staff priorities are not the same as manager priorities!” Managers, Owners & Directors have different motives and priorities than staff. Just because you are excited about your business doesn’t mean the staff are. Your mind is on the bottom line, whereas staff think of their pay, and they’ll get paid whether they perform or not. Motivate staff with performance related bonuses such as money, time off & job flexibility.

8. Hire multi-skilled workers!
“Enlarge your skill base without the cost!” It’s better to have two designer/developers, than a designer and a developer. Multi-skilled workers, by nature are generally better problem solvers, more flexible and more productive than single skilled workers. You’ll also have more options for work delegation and due to an increased skill base will be able to take on a wider range of projects.
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