2015- The Year of Stress?

This has been an extremely weird start to the year.  First, I am trying to wrap up my time as a full-time employee and in general, my goal is to get through that time with as few problems as possible. But... some folks seem to have other things in mind.  It is well-documented that stress causes some pretty dramatic effects in the body and in the mind, for example:

• Stress costs the American workplace almost $300 billion in lost productivity yearly. (WebMD)
• The lifetime prevalence of an emotional disorder is more than 50%, often due to chronic, untreated stress reactions. (WebMD)
• If that isn't enough, you are more likely to get diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, headaches, insomnia, stomachaches, back problems, and a whole host of other really unpleasant things.  (Healthline)

So here is the deal- there have been a couple of extremely stressful situations for me in the last few days.  Here are my thoughts on how they could have been avoided:

Stay in Your Lane:  This is something a woman in my group frequently says, and bottom line, there is wisdom there.  My first day back at work I had a very tense conversation with someone who had significantly overstepped boundaries between making sure a job got done and micromanaging a peer.  Create clear boundaries in your work projects, and then trust the people around you to take care of business.  Another piece of wisdom- boundaries are loving.

Avoid Crazy, Over-the-Top Reactions.  You could be wrong.:   Last week, I had a situation where an executive thought that I had called a senior manager something inappropriate in a meeting.  (I didn't, by the way)  He stormed out of the room and started telling HR I should be escorted from the building.  He had misheard.  It was stressful for me, stressful for him, and in general could have been avoided by just having a professional follow up later.  This is totally the same advice as wait an hour to send an angry e-mail.  Chill out people.

Don't just hit forward on your e-mail:  I am up to three times in the last month that unnecessary drama ensued at work because people forwarded e-mails that had some "interesting" commentary further down in the e-mail chain. Communication is an important part of interpersonal relationships, don't screw up important business relationships because you are too busy or too lazy to either erase or read down an e-mail chain.

I could go on... but bottom line, a lot of stress could be eliminated with some simple, common courtesy, and a little bit of the Kindergarten Rules of Conduct (Treat others the way you want to be treated.)

Let's make it a goal for this week- Let's make week three of the year low stress!