Managing Stress in the Workplace
with Rational Effectiveness Training

Burnout
Getting support at work
Assertiveness at work
Rational Effectiveness Training at Work
Applying the twelve principles
Further reading on workplace effectiveness 

Please note: This article has been taken from the book GoodStress: The life that can be yours by Wayne Froggatt (HarperCollins Publishers, Auckland, 1997). 'Rational Effectiveness Training' refers to the methodology developed by Dr. Dominic DiMattia, which is described in more detail earlier in GoodStress.

We will begin by studying a type of stress that is particularly associated with work. We will then select several of the practical strategies described in Part Three of GoodStress to see how they apply to the workplace (though of course all the strategies apply to that context). After that, we will briefly review some of the many ways in which rational effectiveness training can be used in the workplace. Finally, we will see how the twelve rational principles can help workers and organisations not just to cope, but to become more effective.

Burnout

There is a type of stress which, although it can occur in any situation, has been mainly documented in relation to the workplace. Called burnout, it is the result of continued and unrelieved stress over a long period.

The typical symptoms are exhaustion, decline in job satisfaction, difficulty coping with role demands, absenteeism, impatience and bad temper, resentment toward colleagues and consumers, and alcohol abuse. It usually progresses in three stages.

How to identify burnout

In the early stage, the person may become over-responsible toward consumers, over-involved with the job (staying late, no breaks, avoiding colleagues) and experience minor health problems like colds and headaches.

In the final stage, there can be open conflict with the organisation including tears, rage, hearings, sacking or resignation; an inability to function in the work role leading to total retreat or paralysis; and more serious physical symptoms like nausea, anxiety and stomach problems, such that employment may be terminated for medical reasons. Psychiatric referral may occur. The person may renounce their profession or role and retreat to menial tasks or manual work.

Avoiding burnout

Recognising the early signs of burnout will enable you to take corrective action. Prevention, though, is better than cure - if you practice healthy living and good stress management, as described throughout this book, you will stay well away from even the early stages of burnout.

Getting support at work

Maintaining good relationships with others in the workplace is a key way to avoid burnout. You can get help with problem-solving, avoid feelings of alienation, and operate better as part of a team.

Time. If the workplace is busy, maintaining relationships may seem a low priority. People moving up the promotional ladder are especially prone to become ‘too busy’ to take time out for support.

Make time!

Look for support in many places

Return the favour

Maintain appropriate boundaries

Cultivate feedback

To get started, complete a variation of the form illustrated on page *. List your various task areas at work, and as well as showing potential sources of support for each area, show possible sources of feedback.

Assertiveness at work

Whether manager or employee, you are likely to get more of what you want if you learn how to exercise influence rather than power. Sometimes confrontation is necessary, but is best used after all else has been tried. Old-style managers and union leaders would do well to take note! Many of the examples of assertiveness versus aggressiveness on page apply to the workplace.

• Conflict management becomes more effective when the blocks to assertiveness are confronted.
• Time management is facilitated by dealing with avoidance and low frustration-tolerance.
• Communication skills improve when managers and staff deal with the tension and low frustration-tolerance that arises from beliefs like: ‘I must always look good in front of my colleagues’; ‘I must always receive the approval of my superiors’; ‘My subordinates must never think badly of me’; and ‘I should be able to communicate better’.
• Delivering performance appraisals is facilitated when managers deal with the self-defeating beliefs that block them from giving accurate feedback to employees. They can address their own high needs for approval, overconcern with negative reactions by employees, and self-downing about their management performance.
• Effective leadership becomes a reality when managers develop flexible attitudes and an adaptive, change-oriented approach to new programmes and ideas.
• Creative decision-making becomes possible when internal blocks to change are addressed, especially self-defeating beliefs like: ‘We can’t move ahead unless we are sure of success’; ‘Profits must always go up’; ‘I must always receive positive feedback from my superiors’; or ‘My employees must perceive me as a nice person’.

RET will improve performance - not lower it

We can best sum this up by seeing how the twelve rational principles may be applied to achieving effectiveness in the workplace.

Applying the 12 principles

(The Twelve Rational Principles are contained in GoodStress and are also on this website).

Self-knowledge

• Know what you don’t know. Acknowledging your lacks will keep you on the watch for new knowledge to improve your effectiveness.
• Know what you are suited to. A high-energy, risk and stimulation-loving person will experience distress in a boring, repetitive job; alternatively, a low-energy, safety-conscious person will not cope well in a high-flying job.
• If you know yourself and your desires and weaknesses, you will be better able to maintain appropriate and safe boundaries in the workplace.
• Be clear about your limits. Be able to extend yourself, but know when to ease off so you keep well clear of burnout.

Self-acceptance and confidence

• If you accept yourself without self-rating, you will be able to take and use feedback - including constructive criticism - without defensiveness.
• Confidence in specific abilities will enable you to use them to the maximum to achieve your goals and make yourself marketable to employers.
• Managers who do not need external evidence of their ‘worthwhileness’ will have less difficulty with the new participation model, because they will not worry that it strips them of their power and authority.

Enlightened self-interest

• Make time to be supportive to others - then you will be supported in turn.
• Are you a two-career couple? Facilitating your partner’s career will make it more likely they will facilitate yours.
• If you are a manager, consultation and power-sharing will be in your interests in the long-run. Help staff feel valued and in control of their work situation by being positive in your dealings with them. Emphasise what you want rather than what you don’t. Use control only when there is no valid alternative. Avoid angry reactions and handle complaints in a constructive way. Give - and receive - positive feedback. Acknowledge and reward special efforts. Helping your staff feel in control will keep you in control.

Tolerance for frustration and discomfort

• Receiving critical feedback on your performance is how you will learn and improve and increase your work satisfaction. See the discomfort as unpleasant but tolerable - and worth the gain.
• If you are a manager, accept the realities involved with the role. You will receive criticism from others. You will sometimes end up with responsibility for other peoples’ mistakes. The smooth functioning of your operation will be disrupted from time to time. If you see these things as inevitable and uncomfortable, rather than intolerable and unbearable, you will be better able to take them in your stride.

Long-range enjoyment

• Rapid changes in the marketplace require a focus on the long-term, and confident leadership able to resist pressure for short-term gains.
• Participatory decision-making may sometimes take longer - but it will save time in the long run when people make an ongoing commitment to what is decided.
• In the short-run, you may prefer to be up-to-date with your paperwork - but taking time to support your co-workers will benefit you more in the long-term.
• Confrontation may seem like the quickest way to get what you want - and sometimes this will be the case - but winning people over with reasoning and friendliness will get you more in the long run.

Risk-taking

• Sometimes businesses do go to the wall - but few would get off the ground if someone with a vision was not prepared to take a step of faith to make it a reality.
• Decisions will not always be black and white. Sometimes you may have to go with the most likely option, without certainty of success. If you have trouble with this, remind yourself of the consequences of not making a decision.

Moderation

• To avoid burnout, watch for obsessiveness or over-involvement with your work. Take regular breaks, especially when you feel a compulsion to keep on working. Go home when your colleagues do. Keep your work in balance with the rest of your life.
• Adopt a moderate approach to your dealings with co-workers and subordinates. Reasonableness and negotiation will get you a less stressful environment.
• Maintain appropriate boundaries. Be friendly, socialise and have mutual support with coworkers or subordinates, but keep within limits that protect you and them.

Emotional and behavioural responsibility

• Take responsibility for how you feel about your work and your responses to how you are treated. There may be dysfunctional elements to your workplace, but blaming will just keep you a victim - and set you up for burnout.
• Emotional responsibility can reduce the time and energy workers and managers spend on self-defeating reactions to frustrating circumstances, and help them get looking for solutions.

Self-direction and commitment

• Workers are more likely to feel distress when there is a lack of power, too much or too little work, under- or over-promotion, authority that does not match responsibilities, objectives or requirements that are unclear, conflict between multiple job demands, or inadequate training.
  Are you unsure what is expected of you in your job? If so, get clarification of what you are supposed to be achieving. If you lack the necessary training, ask for it or seek it out yourself. Decide what changes to your role you would like, and negotiate on these.
• Self-directed people don’t wait for things to happen or other people to do things to them. They see problems and initiate action and change. If they want support, they go and get it. In turn, they watch out for colleagues who may be under extra stress and offer to lend a hand.
• Self-directed people do not feel a need to compete with their peers - they know what they want and work toward getting it, without envying what others are getting. Non-competitiveness means freedom to have mutually-supportive relationships with colleagues.

Flexibility

• The modern workplace is characterised by significant changes in the composition of the work force. There are, for example, increasing numbers of women and minorities who bring to organisations new and different values, desires, and goals. This requires organisations to be flexible and adaptive, and free of rigid, absolutistic attitudes that interfere with cooperation and problem-solving.
• There is a new level of major international competition. Businesses must be alert to changes in the marketplace and able to respond quickly or even anticipate them.
• New technology means old ways of doing things are no longer relevant. Resistance to change can be costly. It can trigger distress for many people in an organisation, and sometimes even lead to organisational failure. Anticipating change rather than simply waiting for it to happen, as Bartol and Martin have pointed out, can significantly reduce any negative impact.
• Research has found that managers who do not cope well with stress fear change and tend to be inflexible and lower in problem-solving skills. Those who cope better see organisational changes as challenges rather than threats, are highly flexible and adaptable, and are willing to try new ways of dealing with problems. Effective supervisors, rather than dictating procedures and allowing no flexibility, explain the aims of a job and guidelines for achieving these in a general fashion, leaving staff to accomplish the goals in their own way.

Objective thinking

• The modern business setting is not a place for magical thinking. Feet on the ground is necessary for commercial survival. Make sure you are in touch with reality.
• Especially get rid of any myths about how human beings work. Study psychology. Know how to get the best out of people by appealing to their enlightened self-interest rather than moralising about what they ‘should’ do.

Acceptance of reality

Finally, be able to roll with the punches, as they say. No matter how well you do as an employee, an executive, or as the boss, you are unlikely to succeed at everything to which you set your hand. Acceptance of reality will help you avoid overreacting when things don’t work out, and instead of railing against fate, to pick yourself up and start over.

Further reading on workplace effectiveness

Ingham, Christine. Life Without Work: A time for change, growth and personal transformation. HarperCollins Publishers, London, 1994.