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Notes from Monday
I've still got a cold, still spending most of the day in bed, going between "dressed in leggings, socks, two nightgowns and under two quilts" to "dressed in leggings, socks and only one nightgown", as the fever goes up and down.
So I thought I'd get around to posting my notes from when we were at a stress day this Monday. Too many people have been having stress-related problems, and at my current place of work, the management seem to want to do something about it. Something other than firing the persons involved, that is.
Today we're having a "stress day" at work. We're at a conference center on Djurgården, an island in the center of Stockholm.
Two psychologists are currently holding a lecture on stress. Most people in the department say that the main reason they're stressed is that they lack the resources to meet the demands they experience. And, of course, the resource we most lack is time...
Stress can enhance performance - as long as it's not excessive, and as long as you get a chance to recuperate. That's the main problem for most of us; there's never enough downtime to relax properly.
We just did a relaxation exercise. Maybe I should suggest that we do that regularly at work...
Now we've made pie charts of how we're spending our time and how we would like to spend it. Most of us have halved the time spent at work in our ideal chart. The psychologists say that it's very useful to write things down, to make them more tangible, so we can focus on what we can affect and choose where to focus our energy.
Now we've written down some stressful situations and how we react - what we think, what we feel, hiw we behave and what physical effects (short breathing, racing heart...) we experience. I realise how much less stressful my life is now compared to a few years ago - I actually had to think for a while to find some stressful situations. Back at the old job I'd have a dozen a day to choose from.
Two very important questions - "what's the worst thing that could happen" and "can I survive that".
Then we got to give eachother tasks we'd do to improve our situations. I gave my coworker the task to take half an hour for herself every night after her daughter goes to sleep, and she told me to go to the weaving class every week, because I do feel better after I've been there even if I've been very tired and not haven't done that much.
After lunch (which was quite good) we were split into five groups and told to go off and come up with five things that stress us at work and some things that can be done about them.
After my group had finished the thinking and the writing we played hangman in the conference room. I'm impressed with the guy who thought of the words. True, I was the one who first deciphered "proctologist" and "mitochondrie", but I don't think I'd've thought of them if I'd been the one setting the words.
So I thought I'd get around to posting my notes from when we were at a stress day this Monday. Too many people have been having stress-related problems, and at my current place of work, the management seem to want to do something about it. Something other than firing the persons involved, that is.
Today we're having a "stress day" at work. We're at a conference center on Djurgården, an island in the center of Stockholm.
Two psychologists are currently holding a lecture on stress. Most people in the department say that the main reason they're stressed is that they lack the resources to meet the demands they experience. And, of course, the resource we most lack is time...
Stress can enhance performance - as long as it's not excessive, and as long as you get a chance to recuperate. That's the main problem for most of us; there's never enough downtime to relax properly.
We just did a relaxation exercise. Maybe I should suggest that we do that regularly at work...
Now we've made pie charts of how we're spending our time and how we would like to spend it. Most of us have halved the time spent at work in our ideal chart. The psychologists say that it's very useful to write things down, to make them more tangible, so we can focus on what we can affect and choose where to focus our energy.
Now we've written down some stressful situations and how we react - what we think, what we feel, hiw we behave and what physical effects (short breathing, racing heart...) we experience. I realise how much less stressful my life is now compared to a few years ago - I actually had to think for a while to find some stressful situations. Back at the old job I'd have a dozen a day to choose from.
Two very important questions - "what's the worst thing that could happen" and "can I survive that".
Then we got to give eachother tasks we'd do to improve our situations. I gave my coworker the task to take half an hour for herself every night after her daughter goes to sleep, and she told me to go to the weaving class every week, because I do feel better after I've been there even if I've been very tired and not haven't done that much.
After lunch (which was quite good) we were split into five groups and told to go off and come up with five things that stress us at work and some things that can be done about them.
After my group had finished the thinking and the writing we played hangman in the conference room. I'm impressed with the guy who thought of the words. True, I was the one who first deciphered "proctologist" and "mitochondrie", but I don't think I'd've thought of them if I'd been the one setting the words.