In honour of Mental Health Week (13 – 19 May), Vaillant’s, Advance Magazine interviewed leading Psychologist Lauretta Wilson.
The Topic: 5 top tips on how to cope with workplace stress
We’ve all had days when things start to get on top of us. And often, in this business, we don’t have colleagues; leaving us with no one to turn to when things do start to pile up. What’s an installer to do? We spoke to Lauretta Wilson, an HCPP-registered psychologist who specialises in mental health.
Advance: How do you deal with stress when you can’t escape its source (work)?
Lauretta: The first thing to do, is ask yourself where that stress is coming from. Is the source of the stress external or is it coming from you yourself? If the source of the stress is external, work out what practical steps you can take to remove the source of the stress. If it’s internal, you need to manage yourself and your own thought processes.
Sometimes, simple techniques, for instance breathing exercises, can help you quickly get into a better frame of mind. Other times, the problem may run deeper. People often over-think things: dwelling on imagined outcomes that are unlikely ever to happen. The sufferer then has to ask themselves, how likely the bad outcome is and to try and adjust their frame of mind accordingly.
Advance: For independent tradespeople, who work in the day and do their admin in the evenings, there’s often a feeling of never being able to catch up. What’s a good way to deal with this?
Lauretta: Again, the first thing to do is establish if the stress is warranted. Could someone reasonably expect you to do this work faster? If the answer is yes, take positive steps such as looking at time management.
But if you’re anticipating problems and that’s creating stress for you — you’ve had a day of long-running jobs and you’re stressed that all your subsequent customers will be unhappy — stop and ask yourself how this thought is helping you. If it isn’t, try to let it go.
Advance: When you have lots of jobs on, all equally important, even knowing where to start can be stressful. Can you give our readers any tips on how to de-stress enough to prioritise?
Lauretta: Don’t start trying to find a solution when you’re gripped by the fight and flight feeling. Take some deep breaths. Then take some positive steps to put yourself back in control.
You might want to make a list of tasks in order of priority and then do them in that order, remembering that you can only do one thing at a time. Just the act of ticking off a job can have a tremendous positive benefit for your state of mind.
Advance: How about stress caused by other people, for instance colleagues or perhaps angry or unreasonable customers?
Lauretta: The first thing to do if someone is being aggressive or unreasonable is to recognise that the issue is with them. No matter what you’ve done, they’re the ones behaving badly. Often, their behaviour may have more to do with stresses in their life, than it does with you. So, try not to take it personally.
Next, ask yourself what you want from the interaction. If the answer is, to get the job done and get out of there, often a good tactic is to stay calm, empathise with the person, without admitting fault: “I can understand why you’re frustrated. I’m going to help.”
Advance: If it’s the reader who is the kind of person who invites conflict, what can he or she do to escape that dynamic?
Lauretta: The first thing is to recognise that you’re inviting conflict, maybe because you have to have the last word or you have to be right. Try and recognise what you’re doing that evokes a reaction from others. Is it a tone or an attitude? Usually with people who’re high conflict, it’s a sign of feeling overwhelmed, so a lot of what we’ve been talking about will still be relevant.
Lauretta Wilson is a psychologist who specialises in mental health. She is registered with the Health & Care Professions Council (HCPC). Her website is www.londonpsychologist-centre.co.uk.