Want to Reform Healthcare? Start with the Workplaces

According to the World Health Organization, the U.S. spends by far the most per capita on health care but by most measures ranks not even in the top 30 countries in terms of health-care outcomes. If we want to improve Americans’ health and reduce our health-care expenditures, we need to understand why. There are many causes, of course, but I’m convinced one of the most important — and most overlooked — is our work culture. Working in America is literally hazardous to your health.

Read the rest of this interesting opinion piece by Jeffrey Pfeffer of BNET.

Stress at Work

Who doesn’t have it? I’m happy to say me, at the moment. I’m in a great job with great people. But it’s the first job where I’ve had no great struggles. So like most people, I’m always on the lookout advice about managing the workplace and myself better.

From a recent BNET article, I’ve collected 10 key steps to beating the work blues:

1. First, understand the cause of your stress.

Is it internal? Are you ruminating a lot? Or are you genuinely having a difficult time with a coworker or something external? The answers may take time to clarify, and may surprise you. It is essential to get some answers though, as no progress can be made before the truth is laid bare!

2. Talk to someone.

The experience and perspective of someone you trust can make a massive difference. It may be that you have a hard decision to make, or perhaps you need another viewpoint. Either way, little is lost if you talk in confidence with someone you trust. Sometimes saying the hardest things first can really help too. Most importantly, if you are ‘really struggling’, see a health professional. You’ll be happy you did.

3. Understand your reactions.

The emotions are powerful enough to make you physically ill. Any thought process that brings in negative emotions will wear you down. So it’s important to try and pinpoint the emotions affecting you. Are you upset? What about? Are you afraid of something? Is that fear justified? There’s a lot to be said for growing in emotional intelligence.

4. Change the stories you’ve written for yourself.

We can be particularly bad at tricking ourselves into believing something that simply isn’t true and painting a very negative picture around it. That is why many people turn to others or professional help to rectify these wayward stories that have only elements of the truth in them. Sometimes these are stories about ourselves and our weaknesses. Often they are stories about others that simply aren’t accurate.

5. You can also learn to retrain your reaction to negative thoughts and feelings. From the BNET article:

Rethink your standards: If your failure to achieve perfection causes continual guilt and frustration, redefine what success means. For example, if you always feel inundated with work, ask yourself if you’re spending more time on tasks than they require. Adds Dr. Barbara Gray, a professor of organizational behavior at Penn State, often “we actually shoot ourselves in the foot by making the task harder than it needs to be.”

Reframe your situation: Weather delays your flight to an important business meeting. Instead of stewing about the disruption to your schedule, which you can’t control anyway, take advantage of the extra time to prepare for your presentation or catch up on sleep.

Reassess the significance of the problem: Will it matter tomorrow? Next week? A year from now? Emotion magnifies the difficulty of a problem in the moment; perspective shrinks it. So make sure you give yourself a steady dose of the latter.

6. Be Transparent with coworkers and your Boss.

Here I don’t mean reveal all your feelings on your job or co-workers, but be transparent about the work you are doing. Do your job, let people know about it, and take credit for what you’ve done. The truth cuts through any politics and provides opportunity for feedback.

7. Prioritization and Goal Setting.

This is important at a personal and professional level. At work, list out your projects and actions and set priorities, then communicate them to your boss. No one knows your job better than you, but this gets everything in the open and provides a feedback mechanism on whether you are on the right track. Uncertainty is a major stress factor.

8. Define your Own Goals and Values.

This relatively benign and difficult exercise, but it can change your life. There’s many ways to do it (look them up), but all involve spending time considering what really matters to you, what kind of person you wish to become and what kind of world you want to live in. From there you commit to act according to those values. Setting your personal goals after that is a whole lot easier and more lasting. Perhaps you’ll find your career is not helping you become the person you want to be and decide on a big change!

9. Have a sense of Transcendence.

It’s been said before – everything has to be in perspective. For many people this perspective includes knowledge of a higher being or power that it all knowing and supremely good. What passes here on this earth is worth little in the long run. If you can learn to believe this, your stress levels will probably drop a big notch.

10. Prayer and Meditation.

This is not just for the spiritual. Many people I know do this every day, both before the day begins, and at a certain point of time during their work period. Go for a walk in the morning before anything else. When at work, find a conference room or bathroom stall, lock the door, and quiet your mind – even if it’s just for 10 minutes. Focus on what you have set out to do that day and what you have achieved. Make a commitment to serve others somehow. That shift of focus from self to others is a great one.

This is all easier said than done. But I know it works because every well balanced and successful professional I know understands these points well.