Stress at Work 2

[jike]

What produces stress in your job and what do you do to handle or reduce this stress?

Some things that produce stress in my job are: impossible schedules, overly demanding managers and/or clients, scope creep with no additional time, changes, etc.

 

[ee2002]

Once in a while you have to say no. Sounds crazy, but it works quite well.

 

[jike]

Sorry, I didn't realize that this had been discussed in a previous post.

 

[Heckler]

Scope creep is one that just boils my blood. Those days I just want to tell people off. I reduce stress by riding my bike to work, and do yoga in my cubicle. I've been caught in some interesting positions

Best Regards,

Heckler
Sr. Mechanical Engineer
SW2006 SP 5.0 & Pro/E 2001
Dell Precision 370
P4 3.6 GHz, 1GB RAM
XP Pro SP2.0
NVIDIA Quadro FX 1400
o
_`\(,_
(_)/ (_)

Never argue with an idiot. They'll bring you down to their level and beat you with experience every time.

 

[COEngineeer]

We have beer friday starting at 3:30 pm.

 

[cabUK]

My biggest stress is one very big customer. Been told two weeks ago we are not longer allowed to reject anything that they ask us to quote on.

If we cannot do it then we have to put an estimated lead time and cost on as a quote. Research into how to do it only happens if they place the order. Oh these have to be quoted in 2 days so no time for any reaerch at this point just a quick discussion on them.

I handle the stress by martial arts, weight lifting basically anything I can let my aggression out on

 

[dcroasmu]

I play on a dodgeball team. What caused me stress in grade school removes stress now.

 

[FOETS]

HR - Hopeless Resources Dept
IS - Insufficient Support Dept

 

[Tropx]

My stresses include: vague overlapping job responsibilities with other people because we're a relatively small company; release schedules that change mid-release; boss who will not make decisions; project planning that is months behind the R&D work; burn rate too high and vague promises of more funding by founders.

I have learned that the only way to cope is
1) down time (reading, relaxing)
2) exercise at least 5 times a week
3) saying no

Tropx

 

[ctopher]

What stresses me out is working with coworkers that immature and loud!

Chris
SolidWorks 06 5.1/PDMWorks 06
AutoCAD 06
ctopher's home (updated 10-27-06)

 

[MedicineEng]

What stress me out is colleagues calling for meaningless issues, or calling me just to tell that they just sent me an email regarding some issue and then repeat what they say in the email.
As a stress reliever I play with my 1 year old daughter and play squash (not with my daughter, of course).

Medeng

"Better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool than open it and remove all doubt."

 

[rcooper]

My biggest cause of stress is a colleague who always says what she thinks you want to hear, not how it really is. Asking on Wednesday whether drawings will be produced by the end of the week, I get told yes. On Thursday, having promised our client we will deliver them on Friday, I find out they are 2 weeks behind.

I now walk to work. The half hour exersize inthe mornings and evenings seems to help.

 

[AggieYank]

Unrealistic deadlines requiring effort above and beyond what should be required.

Architects who make too many changes during design, make changes at the last minute.

Contractors who don't know what they're doing, contractors that "have been doing it this way forever".

I use to get stressed out by my boss's poor communication regarding projects, but I've learned to manage him for the most part in that respect.

 

[kchayfie]

Going to someone with more experience for advice on how to go about doing something, and then having another equally more experienced person telling you that you are doing it wrong. Especially when their justification for doing it their way is "well, you learn that with experience"

 

[epoisses]

This is why a young engineer should work like a news reporter... one source is no source, two sources is a rumour, three sources starts to be reliable information.

 

[KENAT]

Vice president coming over yesterday and saying the rumors of layoffs aren't true.

Especially stressful given that in late November the senior VP for the division said similar in an all hands meeting. Second week of December 10 people were let go.

 

[FACS]

Sometimes it helps just to say "The hell with it" and go home.

Charlie

http://www.facsco.com

 

[KENAT]

Being told Wednesday afternoon that another engineer is behind schedule with a design that is holding up the companies most significant new product and that the Director of Engineering wants you to take the job and have it finished by Monday morning. To have had any chance of completing it would require working the weekend.

To fully understand this I work away from home during the week and usually get to go home Thursday night and spend 3 days with wife and kids before I go back to work. My wife has a long weekend due to Martin Luther King Jr day and we'd planned for me to take Monday too giving us a long weekend together.

The task is by no means low risk and is an area I've never worked on before. The current responsible engineer is unlikely to be much help as he is facing disciplinary action for his poor performance and has made it clear he doesn't want to work extra hours.

Failure would not be good for me or my department, especially given we've just had lay offs and may have more.

To reduce the stress/handle this I said no.

Rant over, sorry

 

[ubrben]

Well done!!!

Ben

 

[michfan]

Way to have a life, KENAT!

I just hope you have a job come Tuesday...I'll keep my fingers crossed for you.