Do you sometimes work through lunch or stay late to fit all your work in? If you do that regularly, we want to help you address it.
Your health and wellbeing is important. We know you’re busy and you care about the outcomes of your work. But if you’re working long hours or feeling stressed, there is support available.
Supporting yourself
Here are some starting points for ideas and information on making things easier for yourself:
- Staff wellbeing collection: books and articles you can read to help you recognise and manage stress.
- Staff wellbeing blog: tips and stories for wellbeing at work. Read it and post to it!
- University advice on managing stress with details of support networks and development opportunities.
Support each other
Can we celebrate each other’s successes and say thanks more often? Let’s all try and remember to thank colleagues and let others know we appreciate them.
Support from your manager
If you have too much to do, or want help prioritising your work, speak to your manager. There may be a simple solution if you work together and talk it through.
Advice for managers
The University has advice about spotting the signs for when your staff might be feeling stressed, with advice on how you can support them:
- Occupational Health advice for managers about workplace stress
- Managing the wellbeing of your staff (pdf)
Share your stories
Do you have any tips for dealing with a large workload? Have you had a moment of success with a customer? Read something that’s changed how you work?
Please share your story with colleagues on the IS Staff Wellbeing blog: http://blogs.kent.ac.uk/staff-wellbeing/
Email is-publishing@kent.ac.uk and we can give you access to add an article.
Look after yourself
Thanks for all your hard work and commitment to providing a fantastic service to the University community.
You work hard to give our customers the best service possible. We hope that by reading this and making use of any of the advice and resources on offer, we’re helping to make sure that you’re looking after yourself too.
Sorry for delay in replying Jim – there are some ebooks on the list – if you look to the right of the item in the list it says ‘online resource’ and links through. Sadly they’re not Kindle format, but you can view them online or download them as PDF (PDF downloads are only ‘on loan’ to you for 3 days, I don’t know how they are revoked when that expires, I might have to try it and see!).
Best,
Sarah
A tip. Say well done to colleagues more – “Well done”, “Great job”, “Wish I’d thought of that”, “Well played”, etc. What has this got to do with stress? Well as well as making others feel good, you’ll find it makes you feel good too, and the world becomes a less stressful happier place. Your colleagues will feel happier too, and they in turn will spread that happiness – you get the drift?
The man judged to be the ‘Happiest man in Britain’ was asked by a researcher researching happiness, what his secret was. His answer?
“I choose to be happy”.
Great reading list. Are any available as e-books? I only read on Kindle now, or at a pinch, iPad mini.
Thanks
Jim