Reference no: EM131242299

This action plan requires you to focus on how you can better manage your personal work environment and your lifestyle, as discussed in pages 156-163 of the textbook.

The paper is requires to be 400-600 words

Use 3 of the following headings to identify and discuss areas you want to improve on in terms of your stress:

Planning; Time management; Overload avoidance; Social support; and Balance between work and leisure

For each area:

o Describe what the problem or weakness is. Provide more detail than "I am a workaholic" or "I am weak in my time management" - use specifics and give examples.

How/why it contributes to your stress.

Practical, realistic steps that you will take to reach your goal.

OVERLOAD AVOIDANCE

Time management may reduce some of the stress from a demanding job, but there is a limit to what it can achieve if the demands on an individual are excessive. If preventive efforts at the organizational level have been effective, then overload should be minimized. Nevertheless, several avenues are open to the individual who is faced with exces¬sive work obligations. Research has found that total workload varies by gender, age, occupational level, and number of children (Lundberg, Mardberg, & Frankenhaeuser, 1994). Specifically, women were found to have heavier total workloads than men, work stress peaked at ages 35 to 39, upper level managers had more control over their total work¬load, and total workload increased with an increase in number of children.

Because work overload triggers neuroendocrine and cardiovascular reactions that may have adverse health effects, managing one's total workload to avoid overload is desirable. This may be accomplished in a variety of specific ways, such as identifying and eliminating busy work to reduce total workload and learning to delegate when possible. Eliot (1995) proposed the following checklist for reducing or eliminating frustrating tasks:

1. Is it necessary to do this at all?

2. Is it necessary to do this task so frequently?

3. What would happen if this task was simply not done?

4. Is there an alternative?

5. Could someone else do it?

The checklist could also be applied to household chores. Balancing work and home demands can be a challenge, and using the checklist both at work and at home can help in avoiding overload.

Equally important is learning how to avoid excessive obligations in the first place. All too often employees are unwilling to negotiate a rea¬sonable deadline or to redefine the scope of a task assigned to them by the boss. Management frequently has only a vague idea of the resources required to complete a specific project and a limited knowledge of the employee's actual workload. If the individual to whom the job is assigned does not negotiate a reasonable timetable at the outset or rene¬gotiate the timetable when it appears unrealistic, then the individual falls victim to his or her own obligations.

Thus, overload avoidance involves learning to decline, whenever possible, those requests that are unreasonable or overwhelming and renegotiating those obligations that are no longer feasible.

Although these sound like easy steps to take, experience has demonstrated that considerable skill may be required to control one's obligations in a demanding or insensitive environment.

Attachment:- action-plan.pdf