Chapter 2

The Job Itself

1. How to cope when you have too much work to do

There can be no doubt that constantly having too much work to do will cause stress - various studies have shown this. For instance, an investigation into members of a white-collar union employed in drafting, mechanical and technical-clerical jobs in a manufacturing company showed that having too much work resulted in job dissatisfaction, fatigue and tension. A study into nurses and nursing assistants found that among the main source of stress for nurses was having too much work to do. Too much work can also result in interference with personal life. An examination of managers concluded that a large proportion of those in a typical production environment appeared at risk of developing psychological illness because they took on so much work.

A study in the American Sociological Review found that mothers spend ten more hours a week multitasking compared with fathers. These additional hours are mainly related to time spent on housework and childcare, and this can result in an increase in negative emotions, stress, psychological distress and work-family conflict. (By contrast, fathers’ multitasking at home was not a negative experience!) Community and hospital pharmacists in Northern Ireland found an excessive workload to be among the most stressful aspects of their employment.

How does it happen?

• Your boss can’t say ‘no’ to their boss.
• Your organisation is short-staffed.
• Deadlines are shifted.
• You feel you have to work harder and longer to keep your job.
• Your manager has no idea how much work you have to do.

How do you know when you have too much work to do?

• You make more mistakes.
• You become short-tempered with other people at work and at home.
• You become less efficient at work.
• You work late in an effort to keep up with the work.
• You bring work home with you.

What can you do about it?

• Ask your boss what your priorities are and reschedule your work accordingly. The less important elements of your work can wait or be given to someone else. The best way to prioritise your work is to divide your tasks into four categories: first, important and urgent tasks, which MUST be done; second, tasks that are important but not urgent (make sure you allocate enough time to do these because they are often left to one side); third, tasks that are urgent but not important (these are often tasks that are given to you by your boss - you know they are not important but you still have to complete them); fourth, tasks that are not important and not urgent (such as people interrupting you).
• Approach other people, especially if you work in a team, and ask if they can take on some of your work (don’t forget you’ll probably have to pay back the debt in the future).
• Recruit other people and/or outsource (if you can).
• Say no to requests to do additional work. Very often the inability to say no causes stress. The best way to say no is to say something like ‘Sorry, I can’t do it at this moment’. Or you might say you’ll get back to them and, when you do, say you’ve looked at your schedule and you can’t find time to fit in the extra work. Or, if you want, you can tell them you’re able to take on part of the extra work, but not all of it, as you’re so busy.
• Avoid interruptions - lock your door. Return phone calls, emails and text messages at specific times. At other times, let your voicemail take messages for you and set up an email auto- reply letting people know when you will respond.
• Do the difficult jobs first. If you do the easy ones first you may spend more time than you think getting them right.
• Set goals for the day. Schedule your time to include interruptions.
• Delegate (if you can).
• Do not try to achieve perfection. If you do, you’ll find you spend far more time than the work requires, and the task you’re doing becomes much bigger and more important than it deserves. Of course, some jobs DO require perfection - like a surgeon or an accountant.

2. How to cope when you have too little work to do

You might think having too little work to do would be great, but not having enough to do can affect your psychological well-being. Quantitative underload (having too little work to do) leads to what has been called ‘rust out’, and to boredom and apathy. This can lead to inattentiveness, which ultimately can be dangerous. For example, work underload in crane drivers has been found to be a significant source of stress. These drivers can get bored and inattentive, and do not follow the operations manual relating to the crane. They take chances. Qualitative underload (when you’re not given an opportunity to use your skills and abilities or you have a routine, repetitive job that results in lack of mental stimulation) also leads to ‘rust out’, and is very obvious in new graduate recruits, who start their first full-time job and find their high expectations are not met. This leads to job dissatisfaction and lower motivation. In a study of male and female blue-collar workers it has been found that that work underload resulted in men having an increased systolic blood pressure (when the heart is contracting). For women, however, work underload resulted in higher cholesterol.

How does it happen?

• You do not have the skills needed to do the work, so it is not given to you.
• There are peaks and troughs when it comes to work volume - now is a trough.
• Work has been outsourced (and this may result in you having insufficient work to fill your time).
• Your reputation for completing the work is poor, so you are not given any.
• Your boss or colleagues cannot delegate - they do the work themselves.
• There are no new projects or business to be dealt with.
• You are in the wrong job.
• You are underutilised.

What happens to you?

• You are bored and apathetic at work.
• The quality of your work is poor.
• You do your work half-heartedly.
• Although you are efficient, you do your work in a manner that is just OK.
• You do your work, but you do not feel you have ownership of the final product - this may result in you feeling dissatisfied.

What can you do about it?

• If you know that the work you are required to do is too demanding for you, or you need more training to complete it, you should consider either going on a training course (if one is available), or opting to self-educate yourself to have the opportunity to realise new possibilities.
• Offer to mentor other employees - especially new ones. This will show your organisation you care about the progress of individuals and that you care about the company’s future. Studies have shown that mentors and those mentored achieve a higher job satisfaction, which in turn leads to increased productivity and reduced staff turnover.
• Talk to your boss/colleagues and tell them you can take on some of their work. This will show you are able to do more than your current workload.
• Do work that has been lying about for some time and no one has tackled.
• Become a union representative. You will learn a great deal about the company you are working for and the people employed there. But remember, a recent survey showed that almost all union representatives think their career prospects have been damaged by their personal involvement with unions.
• Ask for a transfer to another group/department.

Help at home

Don’t be afraid to ask for help at home. If you are overloaded at work, ask your partner to help with your household chores until your workload is under control. If you have work underload, make an effort to keep your home life busy and stimulating; take up a new hobby or tackle a project you have been avoiding.

3. How to keep up with the pace of work

Work pace is concerned with who, or what, decides the pace of work to be done. The European Working Conditions Observatory noted in 2009 that the ‘drivers’ of work pace and stress at work were customers/clients, managers, colleagues, deadlines, routines and machinery, and that in recent years the importance of customers/ clients has increased and is currently a major factor influencing the pace of work. It also suggested that these changes can expose employees to situations where they are attempting to fulfil customers’/clients’ endless demands under circumstances where they get little support. Therefore, the possibility of an increase - sometimes sudden, sometimes regular - in work pace, is typical of the modern workplace.

Also, many workers nowadays spend all their time in front of a computer and, despite knowing they should take a break in order to rest their eyes, wrists and minds, continue to work, driven on by the never-ending demands of the computer. Perhaps you are one of these - this might result in you fainting because you suddenly stand up after sitting in the same position for a long time!

How does it happen?

• There is an increased proportion of employees working with customers/clients.
• Managers now want organisations to be customer oriented, staff numbers reduced, and authority and decision-making decentralised - all of which can add to the pressure on employees.
• Staff demand greater responsibility, freedom at work and personal development, and this has been reflected by support at the policy and legislative level. This in itself can result in more demands being made on the employee.
• The speed of operation and production is determined by a source other than the employee.

How do you know when you cannot cope with the pace of work you are expected to maintain?

• You suffer from repetitive strain injury.
• You have no time to relax and rest at work.
• You have no control over the pace of an assembly line or the demands made on you.
• You are doing a job that has low-decision latitude (you have little ability to decide how you do your job) combined with low social support (you feel you are not cared for by other people).
• You are being monitored and are required to work at a constant, fast pace. For example, call-centre managers require calls to be completed by call-centre workers within a specific time.

What can you do about it?

Arrange for you and your manager to have a discussion about the pace of work - you could tell your manager that if the pace is too fast, quality will suffer. This should only be done if you genuinely feel you and your co-workers are operating at a pace that is too fast. If you are the only person struggling you must question if you fit the job role. There are some rules you must follow if you want to negotiate this (or anything else at work). Make sure you know what you want from the negotiations; don’t get angry with the other person, keep calm and show concern for and understanding of the other person’s point of view; choose the right time to start negotiations (not when your boss is busy or in a bad mood); ensure that both you and the other party get something from the negotiations. To negotiate successfully you may have to improve your communication skills, both verbal and non-verbal.

Have regular rest breaks at work and use some activities that can help you relieve stress, such as stretching, walking about, improving your breathing, or repeating a word to yourself (a mantra), like ‘relax’.

Tell your boss there is evidence that employees who can control the pace of their work suffer from less stress than those who cannot control the pace of their work. Employees who can control this are off work for less time and staff turnover is lower.

You may have to face up to the fact that you are not able to deal with a fast-paced job, and you should consider whether or not it is time to change to a job with low demands or to one that provides you with higher control.

4. How to deal with shift work

Many organisations need to be available to their clients 24 hours a day, for example, the fire, police and ambulance services, hospitals and public utilities, etc. To achieve this they may well have to use shift workers. There are at least 3.6 million shift workers in the UK and there are many different shift patterns. One researcher in the USA has reported 487 different shift work patterns. Shift work can be ‘continuous’ (working at weekends) or ‘discontinuous’ (working Monday to Friday only). Although some people are always on night shifts, others work different shifts that rotate weekly or monthly. They may also have to work 10- or 12-hour shifts.

The evidence shows that working shifts can cause stress. This is because your circadian rhythms fall out of sync with the norm. You usually expect to sleep when it’s dark, eat in the morning, at midday and at night, and the metabolism, temperature and hormones of your body react to the time of day. When you have to work shifts, these are thrown out of phase.

When a study of 827 employees working in a manufacturing plant was carried out, results suggested that shift workers suffer from more physical and psychological distresses, sleep problems and stress than non-shift workers. In a study of young female nurses in 11 hospitals, results indicated that in shift-work systems, sufficient sleep hours are needed for nurses who work night shifts to ensure good quality of sleep and, consequently, better services for patients.

Overall, night shift workers report poorer health, as well as lower job satisfaction and increased absenteeism, than day workers. Gastrointestinal disorders are the most prevalent health problems associated with shift and night work. Shift work is associated with an increased risk of major disease (heart disease and cancer) and, of particular concern to pregnant women, results by one researcher suggested that fixed night work during pregnancy increases the risk of late foetal loss.

How does it happen?

• Your organisation’s service needs to be available to customers/ clients 24 hours a day.
• Your organisation takes on a large, production order.
• The only way you can get computer time (during a computer implementation, for instance) is to come in to work out of hours.
• Your organisation needs to increase production and shift work is the only way to achieve it.
• Deadlines mean your organisation must introduce shift work.

How do you know when you cannot cope with shift work?

• You face a lot of pressures at home, such as looking after your children, taking them to school or the doctor/dentist; staying in for a delivery/gas engineer.
• You miss out on a lot of social activities.
• You suffer from chronic sleep reduction and sleeplessness.
• You are at your best in the morning and your performance on shifts is poorer.
• You are drinking too much alcohol, taking too many headache tablets or smoking too much.

What can you do about it?

Shift work is normally determined by your manager or boss, so make them aware of the facts - shift work schedules should be designed so that they are based around circadian rhythms; employee shift schedules should be rotated in a forward manner (that is, days, then nights, then evenings, then days, nights, etc.); rapidly rotating shifts are better than slow-rotating shifts; a flexible work pattern (for instance, a day off after a run of night-shift work, or starting at 7 a.m. rather than 6 a.m.) is desirable; and employees should be allowed to opt for shift work if they want to.

If you are on shift work, you should make sure you take all available breaks and try to find ways to relax during breaks using gentle exercise, meditation, breathing exercises, etc. You should also maintain a proper diet and eating pattern, eating regularly at the same time, eating light and healthy foods, being careful about your intake of caffeine, alcohol and salt, and avoiding sleeping pills. Sleeping should be done at the same time each day, and you should make the sleeping environment as dark and quiet as possible.

Don’t forget that shift work has advantages - shops you visit are quieter; you can go to events that are held during the day; there is often a more relaxed atmosphere at work due to less supervision on night shifts; you can dress more casually; and you tend to form a much stronger bond with your fellow shift workers because there are fewer of you.

Take a break

Set reminders for yourself to take a break from your computer. This can help prevent repetitive strain injury and give you an opportunity to rest during your fast-paced day. You can download free software, such as Workrave (www.workrave.org) that will remind you when it is time to take a break, and time you, so that you stay on schedule.

5. How to deal with deadlines

Some deadlines are non-negotiable. For instance, you may have to deliver a piece of work at a certain time to fit in with another colleague or team as the other group is waiting for you to complete a project before they can proceed. On the other hand, some deadlines are negotiable and can be allowed to slip. In general, though, deadlines can cause stress if you do not know how to deal with them. Stress can either be caused by deadlines or it can affect deadlines - or both. The outcomes of the stress that deadlines cause can include anything we’ve mentioned previously.

If you are working for yourself as a consultant you should take note of these words by Amrit Hallan (www.freelancefolder.com/ how-to-meet-deadlines-and-boost-performance): Although some people think that deadlines kill creativity and hamper productivity, they can really help you streamline your energies and focus on the work at hand, especially when you work as a freelancer and have multiple projects to handle. If you don’t set deadlines for your individual projects you will soon lose track of time and will never be able to deliver the projects on time to your clients, creating a bad professional reputation in the process. If you want to be taken seriously by your past, present and future clients, you have to take your deadlines seriously and respect them; when you respect your deadlines it means you respect your client’s time and also your own time.’

How does it happen?

• Your organisation is downsizing, restructuring and outsourcing, etc., and reducing its delivery time to customers and clients. There are fewer staff employed by the organisation. Consequently, deadlines are shrinking.
• You do work where set deadlines are the norm.

How do you know when you cannot cope with deadlines?

• You panic every time you are given a deadline to meet.
• You let things slip so that you are unable to meet the original deadline.

What can you do about it?

• If a piece of work is being discussed and you are given the job to do, make sure you have enough time to do the work. Tell your manager what you can feasibly do. Say that you could do A, B and C in the time available, but if they want you to do D as well you’ll need more time.
• Add extra time to cover all eventualities (they will happen).
• Ask your boss for an extension. If you absolutely cannot make the deadline you should contact them and negotiate a second deadline. It’s much better to do this than to let the deadline go by without any communication. If you do this, you should show your boss a document that maps out how many hours you work in a day and how long you estimate it will take to complete the task in question.
• Get help from your colleagues. You may find that your boss is quite happy with this arrangement - indeed, your boss may suggest this anyway.
• Break the work down into manageable pieces. Every project can be reduced to manageable elements. To do this you should take a piece of paper and list the activities you have to do to complete the work. Then, place the activities in the order they must be done. As American author and motivational speaker Richard Carlson said: ‘Don’t sweat the small stuff’ - in other words, don’t spend your energy doing little things. Give deadlines to each activity. Build into the deadlines time delays caused by changes to the work, illnesses of key personnel, non-delivery of needed items, etc. Construct a timetable for yourself that indicates what you plan to, or must, complete every day. Or you might prepare a to-do list where you can list those jobs that are playing on your mind. Then just do the work! It may be easier than you think. Sometimes, all it takes is to crack on with the job in hand, even when you have been putting it off as you perceive it to be too hard and too time consuming. Perhaps the work is easier than you thought, other people’s expectations were lower than you thought or your worries are greater than you thought. Reward yourself if and when you achieve something - you might take a holiday, have a massage (good for relieving stress) or go out for a meal.
• If you miss a deadline, work out what went wrong so you can learn from your mistakes. Also, you need to work out how to deal with the aftermath of a missed deadline: notify the client (who could be within or external to your organisation), apologise, determine what went wrong, inform your client what you will do now and ensure that it doesn’t happen again.

6. What to do if your computer at work is making you stressed

Does your computer make you angry? Do you sometimes feel you want to strike it? Every modern organisation depends on its computer systems - without them they would not be able to operate at maximum or any reasonable capacity. You know that your computer is important to the company and you may have to sit in front of it every day - but using it can cause you lots of physical and psychological problems. Some of the negative physical effects can be painful wrists and sore shoulders, and a generally distressed body; the psychological problems include anxiety that the computer will break down, worry that you don’t know what’s happening, shouting at the machine, etc.

A survey concluded that continually crashing computers, slow load times and annoying technical support are creating an epidemic of a condition called ‘Computer Stress Syndrome’. Computer users face a continuous state of anxiety and challenge when they are setting up new computer products, keeping up with software upgrades, and migrating to new applications and operating systems, as well as dealing with malware infections, web threats, identity theft and more.

Some older employees find it difficult to use their computer and this itself can be stressful - younger people have grown up with this technology and they know how it works, what it can do and how to do it. In one test, it was suggested that the same mental demands put upon young and elderly women resulted in different outcomes - mentally demanding computer tasks had a more negative effect on the muscles of the older women than on the young. Older women, it was thought, compensated for age-related changes by reducing their work speed markedly.

How does it happen?

• You are given a computer on your (unsuitable) desk, with your ill-fitting chair, facing the window, etc.
• You are given minimal training.
• The computer is very slow.
• Your computer takes a long time to load up.
• The computer you use is continually crashing.
• You constantly worry about the computer catching a virus.

How do you know if your work computer is causing you stress?

• You suffer from dry eyes, red eyes, pain in or around the eyes, migraines, etc.
• The office environment, such as lighting, reflections, glare, etc., is a major problem when using the computer.
• You are stressed out by the number of emails you receive and feel you have to answer them all very quickly.
• You feel you must respond to your tweets and social networking messages immediately.
• Every time you use the computer you are filled with dread that it will not do what you want.

What can you do about it?

• Make sure that your equipment - your desk and chair, etc.- is as comfortable as possible. Your employer may have a legal requirement to meet your needs and help you to use your computer efficiently. If your supervisor won’t help you should approach your human resources department and ask for a suitable chair, footrest, handrest, etc.
• You can place certain plants at your workstation. These will help with computer stress relief. NASA has recommended English ivy, spider plants and fig trees.
• Take regular breaks. Every hour or so, get up from your chair and stretch, or go out into the fresh air if you can.
• Ask for help if there is something you cannot do or an error occurs.
• Blink your eyes frequently and use eye drops if necessary.
• Learn the basic skills you need to deal with stress, such as improving your breathing, relaxing your muscles and laughing.
• Prioritise your work (see point 5 How to deal with deadlines).
• Backup your work OFTEN. If you’re worried about losing all the work you’ve done, backup your work on an external USB device and you’ll still have your data. It makes sense and you’ll suffer less stress.

De-clutter your desk

Make sure your workspace surroundings aren’t adding to your computer stress. Assess the items you have on your desk and remove any that are unnecessary. Keep stationery and other necessities in a pot or desk tidy. Sort through your paperwork, filing or binning anything that is complete or out-of-date. This will avoid the illusion that you have tasks to be completed and create a spacious environment.

7. How to remain calm when your computer malfunctions

Most of what we do at work, especially in an office, is based on the computer. Many people now do their work at home on a computer, and others work at home as well as in the workplace. Where, when and how we work is being revolutionised - with email, voicemail, mobile phones, laptops, video conferencing, etc. The distinction between work and personal life has become blurred, and we can now find ourselves available round the clock. If you work at home you can lose contact with other humans.

Remember that computers are simply machines: they don’t have feelings and they do not respond to your shouting or cajoling. They will do exactly what you have asked them to do but, since computers are machines, they will break down sometimes.

In the modern workplace you have to deal with emails, the phone ringing, your colleagues interrupting your work, etc. You can’t do everything well, so prioritise your work. Don’t spend all your time on Facebook or Twitter!

Does your computer make you stressed? Take a test to find out. The Computer Hassles Scale was developed by Professor Richard A. Hudiburg of the University of North Alabama and is a 37- item scale. You’ll find a copy of it at www.blog.johnjosephbachir.org/2007/06/26/computer-hassles-scale-a-measure-of-computer-stress.

Look at your results. This will give you an idea of what is causing you hassle. The minor irritations we suffer every day are called hassles, such as misplacing our car keys, getting stuck in traffic jams, having minor arguments with our family or colleagues, etc. It is daily hassles, rather than a death in the family, changing jobs, getting married or divorced, that affect us the most. These major events don’t occur every day, but hassles do. They happen every day and negatively affect our health.

What can you do about it?

• Backup your work frequently.
• Get answers to your technological problems from the computer itself, via Microsoft, Google, etc.
• Take a deep breath or a long walk.
• Take a break; don’t sit in front of the computer for hours at a time. If you’re working at home stretch your legs and your eyes.

8. How to make attending meetings less stressful

Meetings are a fact of life and not just in organisations. They occur everywhere: in social clubs, voluntary organisations, groups of friends, families, etc. - all have meetings. At work there are lots of meetings of groups, departments, teams working on a project, and so on. For some people going to a meeting is a stressful, anxious, boring, time- wasting experience; they’d rather get on with their work.

Why hold meetings in the first place? An effective meeting can serve lots of purposes. But if you spend a lot of your time attending meetings that are a waste of time, you delay achieving your objectives, and consequently may be regarded by others as a poor employee. Some people get fed up in meetings - often the agenda seems to be too long, there are too many people there, you don’t make any decisions on important points and it’s the same people who contribute at every meeting.

If you dislike meetings, it may be that you are on a different ‘schedule’ from your boss. It has been speculated that there are two types of schedule: the manager’s schedule and the maker’s schedule - and most powerful people are on the manager’s schedule. However, if you are on the maker’s schedule, a meeting can disrupt what you are trying to achieve. Those on the manager’s schedule think about what they are doing after the meeting - they think in one-hour chunks. Those on the maker’s schedule, who have to spend a morning or afternoon at a meeting, must change the way they think and behave, and that doesn’t help when they have to return to work.

Don’t forget your bosses. A recent study of how chief executives manage their time found that they spent about a third of their working week in meetings - about 18 hours a week on average. According to The Wall Street Journal, American managers spend about a third of their working week in meetings and could save 80 per cent of their wasted time if they started and finished meetings on time, and followed an agenda.

How does it happen?

• You are called to a scheduled meeting.
• You are called to an unscheduled meeting.
• An event occurs that necessitates a meeting to decide what action the department or organisation should take.
• Your boss likes to have meetings for everything.
• You must talk to colleagues who are working on the same project as you.

How do you know if meetings are causing you stress?

• You become bored, anxious and depressed at meetings.
• You feel as though meetings are wasting your time and you would rather be getting on with your work.
• When attending a meeting, you wish that it would soon end.
• You believe that whatever you say will make no difference - bosses are paid to make decisions.
• You know your colleagues at the meeting only speak to make themselves look good.

What can you do about it?

If you are chairing a meeting:

• Have an agenda and stick to it.
• Tell those who regularly arrive late (or don’t attend) and do not have an acceptable excuse, that their behaviour has been noted.
• Keep to a strict timescale - meetings expand to fill the time available.
• Ban mobile phones.
• If people have to stand at a meeting this can cut the meeting time.
• Make sure everyone knows what actions they will have to follow up.

If you are attending a meeting:

• Read the agenda.
• Ensure that you know the purpose of the meeting.
• Ask yourself if you have to attend the meeting. Maybe you can skip the meeting and read the minutes.
• Do any work you have to in advance of the meeting to make certain that you understand the topic under discussion.

9. How to get more pay

A recent survey found that poor pay and benefits are the main causes of stress at work for 12 per cent of UK employees. Do you get stressed when you think of how much you earn? Are you angry because your benefits are so low? Employees who are stressed by their finances often bring their concerns to the workplace. So it will ‘pay’ the employer to give their staff an adequate wage. In fact, it has been found that those employees who had higher levels of financial stress had lower levels of pay satisfaction. They were also more likely to waste their time at work and were absent from work more often. Whether employers are able to pay more or not, they can educate their employees to avoid running into financial difficulties - this can reduce absenteeism and increase productivity.

What can you do to get more pay?

Assuming you are not on a fixed pay scale - and therefore can’t get a pay rise without a promotion - here are some actions you might take to try and secure a pay rise:

• Arrange to speak to your boss and indicate what the subject of the discussion will be. It will work to your advantage if you have just successfully finished a particular project that you can talk about.
• Make sure you know in advance what you want from the meeting and the arguments you will use to get what you want. State what you’ve achieved in the previous year; mention clients and other organisational managers that think you’re doing a good job.
• Outline what you hope to achieve in the next year or so (but don’t make promises you will be unable to keep).
• Remember your boss will know what your salary would be in other organisations and they may use this to argue that your pay is adequate - of course, you might use it to justify a pay rise.
• You have to consider what your boss will think of your request. They will ask why you deserve a pay rise - give them a good reason. They will want to know how you have contributed to the bottom line of the organisation, how the department you are in runs better because of you, the new ideas you have brought to the company, and so on.
• Your boss may be unable, for many reasons, to give you a pay rise. On the other hand, you might be able to obtain improved benefits, such as private medical cover or life insurance. So be ready to consider these alternatives.

There are also certain things you shouldn’t do:

• If your organisation already offers an annual pay rise or review, then you will need a very good reason for requesting an interim pay rise.
• If your boss is in a bad mood, asking for a pay rise will not be helpful, so judge your timing as best you can.
• Do not say that you will leave the organisation if you don’t get a pay rise - you might just get your wish. If your boss turns down your request, find out from them what you need to do in future to be successful.

One psychological study suggests ten strategies that will help you to achieve a higher salary:

• You should start the negotiations - don’t leave it to your boss.
• State the figure that you want before the other side does - they’ll make it as low as possible.
• Make your figure high - but not unreasonable.
• Use humour - make a joke to relieve the tension.
• Try to persuade and assert yourself.
• Threaten to leave for a rival company, taking all your knowledge with you (although this is a high risk strategy).
• Collaborate with your boss.
• Opt for a win-lose solution (where you win), not a win-win situation. Research has shown that the former gets more money and the latter feels better. What do you want?
• Do not attempt to compromise and accommodate the other side - you’ll get less money.
• Believe that you are worth the money.

10. How to cope with working in an open-plan office

If you’ve had to work in an open-plan office or ‘hot-desked’, or have been involved in ‘hotelling’, then you’ll know what the company thinks the benefits are. They can reduce the expenses of their office overheads, occupancy costs, the space required by staff and the furniture needed. Open-plan offices can lead to bosses becoming more controlling because now they can see everyone and everything. Management use open-plan offices to improve communications - but this doesn’t work. It’s been shown that communications go on in designated meeting, conference or side rooms, and thus many groups in the office who would have been involved in the past are now excluded.

A recent report from researchers in Australia suggested that open- plan offices are more likely to create illness among the workforce. This is caused by the spreading of infections and the stress levels of staff are also increased. In this report, no less than 90 per cent of employees who worked in open-plan offices reported detrimental health and psychological effects. This was caused by poorer security, greater insecurity because of the lack of privacy, catching colds and low productivity. The spreading of viruses is particularly true where staff have to ‘hot-desk’ and use a keyboard that has been used by someone else. Staff also felt that in open-plan offices their colleagues could hear them on the phone and see what they were doing on their computer. The noise in the open-plan office was also a concern.

There is a lot of evidence showing that clerical workers are more satisfied with the traditional partitioned office. With these offices they can concentrate better on their job and talk to their colleagues in private. Older employees want more privacy. However, the organisation can alter an open-plan office to suit any changes that occur and this set-up costs less per head.

So your stress about working in an open-plan office may not be mistaken.

What can you do about it?

If your organisation has gone down the open-plan office route, then it will be difficult to change their strategy (although a drop in performance may persuade them otherwise). However, you can do some things to improve the situation you find yourself in.

• Personalise your space by putting up photographs, plant pots and objects that mean something to you.
• When colleagues interrupt you or make a noise, don’t lose your temper. Wear earphones to show that you are working and don’t want to be interrupted. In advance of this, you can have a chat with your co-workers to explain that you prefer to work quietly, so you’ll be wearing earphones to help you concentrate.
• It’s been found that employees in open-plan offices work longer hours. So make sure that you leave on time unless you really have to stay.

11. How to cope with a dull, boring, repetitive job

Is your job one that doesn’t allow you to show your skills, knowledge and experience? Or that demands too little of your abilities and talents? It’s not surprising that you get stressed. Lots of studies have shown employees with a job that doesn’t challenge them are just as stressed as those with challenging work. Repetitive jobs result in an increase in boredom and monotony, lack of attention and many psychological problems. Assembly-line jobs tend to be repetitive, doing the same task over and over again, operating at a fixed speed, requiring minimal skills from the employee, and demanding little mental application. Much the same outcomes come from using a keyboard and computer for your work - these jobs are just as repetitive and restrictive. And with the use of computers comes electronic monitoring of staff -in itself a stressor - which, for example, affects those who work at the checkout of a supermarket or are employed by a call centre. Blue-collar roles have now seen a reduction in the negative effects of repetitive jobs, because many of them have now been automated - and now it is the white-collar tasks that are repetitive. These are tasks with a high work pace and low-decision latitude, and these very often result in a high risk of stress.

Repetitive jobs, such as working as a keyboard operator or an assembly-line worker, can result in psychological problems for the operative. These people can also suffer from repetitive strain injury (RSI). RSI can be caused by other repetitious situations at work, such as carrying heavy items, constantly holding your phone or sitting in the same position for long periods. The UK NHS claims that one worker in every 50 has reported an RSI condition.

What can you do about it?

In order to prevent RSI, the NHS suggests that if you work at a computer all day you should:

• Make sure your seat, keyboard, mouse and screen are positioned so they cause the least amount of strain to your fingers, hands, wrists, neck and back.
• Sit at your desk with a good posture. Adjust your chair so that your forearms are horizontal with the desk and your eyes are at the same height as the top of your computer screen.
• Take short breaks from the work rather than a longer break at lunch.

If you’re working at the checkout in a shop then you should:

• Ask your boss to give you other tasks to do (such as stacking shelves or sweeping the floor) during the day.
• Talk and be helpful to customers (of course, this assumes you have the time to do this).
• Remember to get up and stretch from time to time. You might also try to stand up to do your work, have an ergonomically designed chair (supplied by your company) and ensure any equipment you have to use is positioned at the right height.
• Remind yourself that you’re only doing the job for the money and to get you out of the house.