5 keys to tackle holiday workplace stress from the inside out

Workplace stress has a way of escalating during the holidays. Case in point, over the Thanksgiving holiday, a normally exuberant co-worker seemed uncharacteristically disengaged from the typical office banter, and seemed on edge. My intuition was nudging me over a few days, but I just couldn’t figure out what was wrong. An e-mail signaled his sudden absence; a close family member had passed.

As a certified hospice volunteer I usually have a sixth sense for this kind of thing. Occupational hazard. But I had so much other junk going on that week, that I had forgotten my colleague’s mother-in-law was in the final stages of cancer.

Here’s the point, you never know what’s going on in another person’s life, especially during the holidays. Aside from financial concerns, family issues pique and the reactions to those issues can manifest in ways that cause people to lash out at others. You may not even know what hit you if you are on the receiving end of a co-workers upset.

Based on years of working in a newsroom and my hospice work, here’s my philosophical take on tackling workplace stress, followed by a little taste of my meditation CD, Judy Martin’s  Practical Chaos: Reflections on Resilience.

1. Don’t take anything personally: As in the story above, you just don’t know what’s going on in the mind or soul of your colleague in any given moment. You don’t know their pain. We also have a tendency to compare our situation or hurt with that of another. It’s unrealistic to try to figure out the other person’s stuff, more productive to focus on yourself and your own work.

2. Breathe: That’s it folks, but with a twist. We need reminders. I put a post-it with the word “Breathe” right on my computer screen. Here’s another suggestion, set an alarm for the top of the hour, when it strikes, three deep breathes, then hold out the last breath for a few seconds. Then a deep breath into the pit of your stomach. You’ll be surprised how energizing it can be.

3. Determine what can wait: We tend to overextend ourselves during the holiday. Often there’s a desire to do that last minute report, answer those last few e-mails or squeeze one more meeting into the afternoon. Ask yourself, “can it wait?” Now sometimes it can’t, especially if you want to hold onto your job. That’s not a light sumatter. But in some cases, if no ones going to die – ditch it.

4. Respond with kindness and compassion: It’s so easy to write those words, a heck of a lot more difficult to practice them. Rule of thumb is to give people the benefit of the doubt. At least during the holidays! It’s really about you and how you choose to respond to conflict in the workplace. We shouldn’t allow ourselves to be stepped on, but sometimes walking away speaks volumes.

5. Recharge your battery: There’s a lot of excess running around and stress related tension in the simple daily activity in the office. The holidays can send you right over the top. Whether it’s meditation or exercise – figure out a way to wind down. Take a walk away from the cubicle. When you build a warehouse of stillness within, you can call upon that calm in the midst of chaos.

Practical Chaos: Reflections on Resilience
After 20 years in news and much of the last decade volunteering with the dying in transition, I released my first album of breathing exercises in 2006. The theme: to consume the daily chaos that comes our way through the breath. The album was scored masterfully by musican/composer Mark Marshall of Maximum Interactive. There are three guided meditative sessions on this CD which are designed for three specific purposes.

1. To build awareness in every moment
2. To practice compassionate detachment
3. To burn chaos and use it as fuel for transformation.

Here’s a sample below. You can read more about the Cd here at JudyMartinSpeaks.com. Enjoy and Happy Holidays at work! You can download it at BandCamp or buy the CD by clicking here.