How to Reduce Stress at Work

I find that work stress is one of the most common reasons people come for counselling or therapy, and often the biggest source of stress is difficult bosses and co-workers.

In the article, I talk about a number of way to help reduce stress when faced with challenging interpersonal relationships and relieve the stress once it starts to build.

Here are some excerpts from the article:

Dorter said stress and anxiety at work due to negative coworkers is common and the anxiety and stress it creates for people is occurring in workplaces everywhere.

“That’s often something that comes up with my clients, how stressful their work is and how much they hate their jobs and it’s almost always not the work they do, but the people they have to be around,” he said.

If it’s your boss who’s negative, you have the least amount of control as he has power of you, Dorter said.

Often, Dorter said, bosses don’t have the proper experience or the right people skills, which may mean they are uncomfortable with themselves and it comes out it negative ways.

“Maybe they were good at some technical aspects of the job, but never got the people or communication skills and they don’t know how to interact with people and it can be very frustrating to work under them,” he said.

You can try and speak with them, but Dorter said what’s challenging is you have to communicate with them without putting them on the defensive.

To learn more about how to deal with stress at work and stress in interpersonal relationships, you can find the rest of the article at Inside Toronto.