Hello, everyone, welcome to How to Better Manage Stress at Work. This is the final topic in the 2023 Deer Oaks Stress Management Webinar series. I'm glad that you're here with us today. For those of you that missed the three earlier installments of this year's quarterly series, we started out in March with how to more effectively respond to stressful situations. We came back in June with preventing and overcoming burnout. And then most recently in September, we did managing the stress of change.

If you'd be interested in getting a copy of the PowerPoint slide deck or the recording link for any of those three sessions, all you have to do is hit Reply to your GoToWebinar invitation and ask our staff to please send you either the PowerPoint or the recording link. Again, those three sessions are how to more effectively respond to stressful situations in March, preventing and overcoming burnout in June, and managing the stress of change in September. We'd be happy to send you the recording links or the PowerPoints upon request.

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All right, so now we're talking about the levels of stress and change in 2023. I mean, the world has been through so much, don't you agree, folks? Even before the pandemic, the world was-- the world was really, really stressful. I think most of you would agree, and most workplaces had a fair amount of stress.

But interestingly, the pandemic, things got even worse. Because all of a sudden we're in a worldwide pandemic. Everyone's concerned about their health and safety, and the health and safety of their families and their loved ones, in addition to their regular job responsibilities, just taking care of their daily living tasks, raising their families, just getting things done. And so, obviously things got even more stressful during the pandemic.

Gallup, the polling company, and they've been tracking for decades stress levels in the world, said that we are now in the most stressful time in history, and I truly believe that. I do believe that the world is more stressful than it's ever been. And workplaces in response, in part in response to all of the changes, the pandemic, all of the changes in workforce management, so many things have shifted, and changed, and evolved over the last several years.

Just think about some of the things that have complicated life in the workplace lately. Pretty much 10 years ago, 90% of the workforce was on site, right? And, of course, during the pandemic, a lot of people began teleworking. And to this day now, we still have a lot of people either teleworking, or doing just working from home remotely, or working a hybrid schedule, where sometimes they're in the office and sometimes working from home.

Although that does bring a lot of convenience for a lot of people, and I'm a big fan. I work remotely for Deer Oaks. It has made life a little bit more stressful in the workplace. The new research says that keeping track of who's coming into the office when for hybrid work schedules has made people's life more stressful at work. So that's one change.

Now certainly also with all of the shifts and the changes that have happened in workplaces to keep people safe and healthy during the pandemic, that obviously, complicated things with people. And then we had a lot of turnover.

I think most of you have read we've been living through what's been called by the Department of Labor the Great Resignation. Or at least around the statistics provided by the Department of Labor, is that people have been changing jobs more frequently than ever before. Actually, several times more frequently than ever before since the beginning of the pandemic.

And so as a result, we have a lot of turnover in organizations. We've got people who are remaining in those organizations having to shoulder additional responsibilities when people leave. Because we're now in a very, very difficult economy, so that has resulted in some places in hiring freezes, and the inability to bring on new staff, which again, puts more stress and pressure on the shoulders of the remaining employees.

And so that's been really, really tough for people. There's just been a lot going on in the world of work that has changed and has just created more stress for most of us. And so, I mean, some of those things include, obviously, again, the amount of change.

One organizational development expert at the end of the pandemic said that we are living through a period of unprecedented change. Folks, when there's a lot of change going on in the world and in the workplace, stress levels are just naturally higher for everyone. It's hard to adjust to change. Human beings are creatures of habit. We like to have our comfort. We like to have our habit patterns. We like to have our comfort zones.

And when there's a lot of change going on, people have to learn to do new things, take on new responsibilities, learn new systems. And they have to make adjustments to all that change, and that creates more stress in people's lives. I would really say it's accurate to say that because of all of these conditions, the pandemic, the general stress level in the world being higher than it's probably ever been.

These challenging economic times we're living in, all of the turnover in the world. I really do believe that life is more stressful in many workplaces than maybe it's been ever or at least in some time.

All right. So let's talk about some of the specific things that cause us stress at work. Now obviously, we go to work, we expect some stress, right? I mean there's no workplace that's stress-free. I mean, we all have assignments to complete. We all have deadlines to meet.

So stress has always been a part of the world of work. I just believe that the times we're living in now, stress levels are higher than perhaps ever before at least for a lot of organizations, and they're probably pretty high for other organizations as well. And so in a lot of the stress is regarding workload. There's just a lot of articles out there about people that are struggling with the amount of work.

And because of all the circumstances I mentioned at the outset today, many organizations are doing more with less staff. People are seeing their job responsibilities change. They're having to take on other people who are leaving the organization's responsibilities in the interim before new people are hired. And so that, of course, has been a trend that's probably increased significantly over the last three or four years.

Now, of course, the pace of work and the deadline pressure, I think most of you would recognize due to technology, and this is really ramped up over the last decade. Plus, because of so many of us tethered to our smartphones. Many of us getting our work emails on our own personal smartphones. Some of you, of course, have cell phones through work, where you have that responsibility. But for many of us, we're using our own personal cell phones, right? And we're getting our work emails on our personal cell phones to keep track of what's going on and stay on top of things, right?

And then there's the expectation because of technology, and because of the connectivity that people have via their smartphones, via their computer networks, whether they're in the office or working remotely. There's the expectation for faster turnarounds on assignments. Faster responses to messages and communication. And that puts a lot of pressure on people. And even after hours and on weekends, a lot of people say that some of the stress that they experience at work nowadays is just feeling like they're on seven days a week.

I remember, and I'm dating myself, I've been in the workplace now for over 40 years. And so I was in the workforce in the 1980s. I know it's a long time ago, but there were no cell phones and no internet.

And so literally, back in those days you went home on Friday night at the end of the workday. And oftentimes, unless you had an assignment to do over the weekend or a deadline, you didn't have to think about work or anyone contacting you from work until Monday morning. And so you could really unplug and rest and recharge your batteries over the weekend. It's not like that anymore.

For many of us, we have people contacting us on the weekends, and a lot of us, being good stewards of our work and being responsible individuals, we're monitoring our emails over the weekend just in case something comes in from the boss or something comes in that I have to pay attention to.

And that, again, can keep you kind of in a state of stress instead of being able to unplug and relax for the weekend. That's been a challenge. And so interesting how it's just kind of snowballed, right? And technology obviously, is so helpful on so many levels. I love technology. I've gotten very accustomed to it. I can't believe I ever worked without it. But it does create more urgency and sends more information at us, which can be overwhelming at times.

Now, of course, there's also the whole issue of job stability. And what I mean by job stability is human beings-- most of you probably remember Maslow's hierarchy of needs, right? Human beings have a need for stability. We need to have-- we need to have security and stability in our lives, at least in some way, shape, or form.

And because of all the changes that have happened in the workplace over the last four or five years, it's been really hard to relax and just get into a rhythm, right? Because there's been a lot of new things going on. And then as people leave the organization and some of us have to pick up the slack, and pick up other responsibilities, there's been changes, and how, and where we're doing our work.

And so that has obviously made the experience of the average worker a little bit less stable than it once was, where things are a little bit more fluid, things are a little bit more rapidly changing. And that's happening for a lot of reasons. Sometimes it's because, if you're working in a public sector agency, there's a change in administration, or if you're in a private sector organization, there's a change in leadership.

And then every time there's a change in leadership or administration, changes typically occur throughout that organization, right, as the new leadership starts setting the direction for the organization, bringing in their own people, and those kinds of things, making changes to existing ways of doing things, very common.

And there's a lot-- it just feels like those things are changing at the top of organizations more frequently maybe than they once did. And then again, you've got people that have been-- have worked their whole life, have been saving for retirement, and maybe have invested their money. And now because of the challenges in the economy, some of those folks are having to work longer.

I have to admit having been in the workplace now over 40 years, I've had thoughts of that of working longer as a result of some of these conditions in the world. It's a natural thing to consider those kinds of things when there's economic challenges in the world.

And so you just-- there's just a lot of things that we used to count on being more consistent over time that are changing more rapidly nowadays, which again makes the world of work, a little bit more stressful, a little bit more unsettling at times.

Now, of course, there's a lot of stress regarding relationships, and that's always been the case in the workplace. I think the part that's made it a little bit more difficult nowadays, folks, is because of the pandemic and social distancing, I really feel like the world's become a little less civil. People, I don't see as much friendliness out in the community as I used to see. And I think some of it's because we're out of practice, right?

I mean, a lot of us were social distancing for three years. And so I don't think we're as used to seeing each other face to face. And to this day, we still have a lot of remote and hybrid workers that are not seeing their colleagues very often. And so, I don't believe that our interpersonal effectiveness is what it maybe was 5 or 10 years ago. And I think we're getting some of that back.

And then you've got the younger generations. This is not to be critical because every generation has its differences, but some of the younger generations are very tech-dependent. And what I mean by that is they're not as used to face to face communication, are much more used to virtual communication. I'm seeing a lot more of that in the workplace nowadays. And so you've got some of those issues.

And we got a whole new young generation of highly talented, highly educated people, Generation Z coming into the workplace. But I'm finding that some of those folks just don't have as much experience with the interpersonal side which again, can make relationships a little bit more challenging.

Now, of course, on the other side of things, other generations have other challenges, maybe you're not as effective with technology as younger generations. So I'm not meaning to be critical, but these are changes in realities in the workplace that we just have to be sensitive to so that we can get along with everybody.

And then we've got demands of customers. Whether you're working in a public sector entity and you've got citizens to serve, or you're working in a private company or organization, and you've got customers to serve, I just truly, I'm watching what's evolving in the world right now, and it feels like people are more demanding.

And some of it I think is, again, because of there's so much more stress. And when people are stressed, they're less patient with each other. They're not as, they're typically not as able to use their best interpersonal skills. They won't listen as patiently. Their mind is racing thinking of what they have to get to next.

And I just feel like, it's been harder to serve people. It's been harder to patiently be at our best, be the best version of ourselves in customer service interactions. And I've found that customers have become even less patient with organizations, and more demanding, which can make those interactions more difficult and stressful as well.

And, of course, then we've got the same kinds of relationship stress in the workplace that we've always had, getting along with colleagues, which can sometimes be difficult, right? I mean, we're all different. We all have our own personalities, our own ways of doing things. And it can be hard to be a cohesive team and organization sometimes because people are so different.

And then also you've got relationships between supervisors and employees, and this has always been around, right? But when supervisors and employees are getting along well, obviously, everything goes better. It's interesting, Gallup, the polling company says the number one bottom line factor that causes employees to be comfortable, productive, and stay in an organization is having a great relationship with their supervisor.

And so, sometimes those relationships aren't as effective, supervisor-employee relationships, as they could be to make those interactions go more smoothly, and to make those relationships at work to be more cohesive, more effective.

All right. So now I want to remind us, folks, and I'm preaching to the choir about this. Most of us know that when stress levels are higher, our risk for illness increases. And I know again, I'm preaching to the choir about this. But as most of you know, when people's stress level is higher, their risk of illness is higher. Depending on what study you read, anywhere from 70% to 90% of all illnesses either caused by or made worse by stress.

And when people's stress level is higher, they can have emotional or mental health issues like more anxiety or depression. They can experience a lot of frustration. They can become more irritable or moody than they typically would be when they're really stressed. That's typical for people, for all of us.

And from a general health standpoint, people who have higher levels of stress end up seeing the worsening of existing conditions like asthma or migraine headaches. And the onset of new problems, right, new health problems like gastrointestinal problems, skin rashes, and other health conditions.

So we got to remember, folks, that if we're not managing our stress very well, and stress levels are higher, we have a higher risk of getting sick if we don't manage, if we don't figure out a way to keep that stress under control and cope with it effectively.

Now, of course, relationship issues, as I mentioned a moment ago, occur more frequently. Relationship problems and conflict occur more frequently due to stress at work. In the workplace, folks, when people are stressed, they're just not as patient with each other. I think we've all seen that. We can become short-tempered.

We can become irritable with each other. We can push away from each other that tends to be more conflict in relationships at work when stress levels are higher. And then people will stay away from each other. They'll isolate. They'll withdraw. And that can lead to morale problems and a lot of negativity in the workplace.

And I know we've all worked in workplace environments, or in workplace cultures, where it was pretty negative, and morale wasn't good. That's very uncomfortable environment to come to work in every day. That creates a stressful experience for the average worker when they go to work. Those workplaces where people are getting along and it's a real positive workplace environment, obviously, that creates a less stressful and a more effective environment for people to work in.

Productivity can suffer as we all know when stress levels are higher. As mentioned, when people are more stressed, they get sick more often. And they miss-- they call out more, which can lead to missing work, missing deadlines. And it's interesting, one study from the world of social work says that when people are stressed, they're less creative, that the creative centers in the brain do not work as well when we're under stress.

And so we have a hard time concentrating, a hard time thinking outside of the box and doing our best work, our highest quality work. And naturally, when people are stressed out, they're not as energetic, they're not as enthusiastic, and not as motivated. And at the end of the day, that leads to lower engagement and lower productivity.

All right, folks, let's spend the rest of our time today talking about some things that we can do to better manage stress at work because there are some proven strategies that we can all employ to cope with work, to cope with stress at work more effectively, enjoy our days more, and be more productive. And I think it starts with being consciously aware of how the change and stress that we experience at work affects us.

What I mean by that is, we've all been gifted with an internal alarm system. Our minds and our bodies will try to get our attention when we're under too much stress. So if you're going to work, and you're having more frequent headaches, for example, than you normally have. That can be-- sure, I mean, you definitely want to seek medical attention whenever you're having symptoms, physical or mental health symptoms, absolutely. Get the care that you need, the health care that you need. But also recognize that your body may be trying to tell you something.

So, for example, if you usually don't-- maybe you have an occasional headache at work, but there's been a lot going on at work lately, a lot of change, a lot of stress. And all of a sudden, you're finding yourself getting a headache every other day at work. Or even a migraine more frequently at work. That can be your body's way of telling you that, hey, you need to slow down a little. You need to do a better job of managing the stress when you come to work every day because it's getting to you.

And so, for me, I have sleep problems and anxiety. So when got too much going on at work, I wake up at 2:00 o'clock in the morning, and I can't get back to sleep. That's been happening to me for decades. And so that always tells me, OK, I need to take a step back, and what's going on at work now, and get out my journal and start to do some things to better manage my stress. And then get back to having a good night's sleep again.

But again, I've come to recognize that that's my body's way of getting my attention, that I need to slow down a little bit. I need to do a better job of intentionally managing my stress when I stop sleeping. So become aware, folks, of what your body does to get your attention. We're all a little bit different. So for some people, it'll be a worsening of things like asthma or a migraine headache.

For others of us, it'll be sleep problems. For still others, will just get sick more often when we're under a lot of stress. And certainly, please get whatever health care you need whenever you need it for sure. But also recognize if you're getting sick or seeing changes in your health, it could be your body trying to get your attention to slow down a little bit and do a better job of managing your stress, and handling the stress at work a little bit more effectively.

And also pay attention to how hectic your schedule is. It's almost like, folks-- and I really do admire the human spirit. I admire how much we can handle. Human beings have a certain amount of resilience. All of us do. I'm going to talk a little bit more about resilience here in a minute.

But I think it's interesting that sometimes people go and go and go. You know that commercial with the Eveready bunny, the Eveready battery bunny? I know we're all familiar with that, right? Still going with that tagline? I think we do that. We just keep going and going and going. And we don't slow down and take care of ourselves enough. We don't take our breaks.

So we get under these heavy, heavy amounts of work. And sometimes it's temporary, right? You go through a couple of weeks, where you're on a deadline, and you got more work than normal, where you have to maybe stay late a few nights a week or take some work home over the weekend.

But pay attention to that because when our workload gets heavier, we really should adjust. We really should slow down a little bit and take better care of ourselves, and do a better job of managing our stress. Because too obviously, heavy workloads, especially for a long period of time can be unhealthy.

It can lead to burnout. It can lead to people having stress-related problems, stress-related health problems. And so let's stay aware of that. Listen to what your body is telling you, and pay attention to your workload, and how hectic your schedule is.

All right. Let's spend the rest of our time talking about several stress management strategies. I do believe that the first-- to me, one of the most significant stress management strategies is to manage my attitude, manage how I'm thinking about what's going on at work.

Obviously, folks, we're all a little bit different. We're all going to see the world differently. Sometimes, there'll be changes that happen at work. And maybe half the team-- let's say you're working in a department with several people, half the team get real upset about those changes. The other half don't let it bother them. They think, hey, I've worked for this organization for 10 years. The only thing constant is change. I'm not going to lose any sleep over this. And they don't let it bother them.

The other half start complaining about it nonstop. I can't believe they're doing this. Why are they making this change? We were fine in the old way. This is ridiculous. I can't stand this. And they complain about it day in, day out for the next couple of weeks. I just want us to recognize, folks, not that we're going to be happy about every change that happens at work.

But how we respond to it in our attitude and in our thinking will either allow you to cope with that situation effectively, like in the example I just gave. Those people that hear about a change, and they don't let it get to them. They, oh, well, the only thing constant here is change. I'm not going to lose any sleep over it. And they just let it roll off their back and they just keep on keeping on. Where you get other people that get all bent out of shape about it and start complaining about it nonstop.

And so I want us to recognize that allowing yourself to get really upset over everything that you don't like and of course, there's going to be stuff that happens at work that we're uncomfortable with. There are going to be changes that happen we may not agree with. There are going to be times of heavier workloads that makes it more difficult, right? That's going to happen.

There's going to be times that people maybe don't treat us the way that we want to be treated. Unfortunately, that's part of life, and I know we all know that. But how we respond to it mentally and in our thinking is going to determine whether we cope with it effectively or whether we let it get to us and stress us out and keep us stressed out, right? And maybe threaten our health, and threaten our sleep, and everything else.

And so, be thinking about that, folks. And Chuck Swindoll, one of my favorite minister authors. He's written over 80 books. He has an often quoted saying that I want to share, and some of you may have heard it, is that I've come to realize that life is 10% what happens to me, and 90% how I respond to it. Folks, I think that's pretty true, is that we can't prevent a lot that comes at us. It is what it is, right? And we can't control how other people treat us. Sometimes we can't control our workload, right?

Sometimes we get assignments are given to us that we have no say in. We just have to have to do it. Have to take on the work. There are changes that happen that we may not be comfortable with that we just have to kind of roll with. We got to go with it because we don't have any say in it, right? Those changes are coming down from above us in the organization.

But I just want us to recognize that the key to coping effectively or letting it get to you. And coping effectively is what we need to be striving towards, right? Having good coping strategies for stress helps someone weather the storm, helps us get through stressful things and manage it well. If you let it get to you and complain about it for the next two weeks to anyone that will let-- anyone that will listen to you, you're going to allow that situation to really stress you out. And you'll get stuck in it.

And so I really focus on my response to what happens. And a lot of things happen in my life at work that I don't like, right, or that I'm not happy with. But I've gotten better over the years, and having a good attitude about it. Just saying to myself, sure, I don't like this decision that was made. I don't like this change, but you know what, it's not the end of the world. It's part of life. Change happens. It's part of the work world.

No sense losing any sleep over it. I try to have a good attitude about it. And as a result, those things don't bother me as much as some other people that I work alongside of it that seem to be complaining about it nonstop for weeks on end.

And so let's practice having a good attitude about the things that happen. And again, you may not necessarily be happy about it, but you can choose how to move forward. And if you choose to move forward with some positive self-talk saying, I can handle this. It's not the end of the world. This too shall pass. It's just it is what it is. I'm not going to let this ruin my day or ruin my week or ruin my sleep. When you can get to a place where you manage it mentally like that, you'll start to cope with those situations better. They won't get to you as much.

We also have to watch our coping behaviors, folks. I think we all know there are healthy stress-coping behaviors, and there are unhealthy stress-coping behaviors. Healthy stress-coping behaviors are things like exercise.

When I get really stressed at work, I tend to exercise more. And that helps me a lot. It's like I'm working out the emotion that comes with stress. I'm working out the frustration that can come with stressful times that we all experience at work at times. Unhealthy coping behaviors that I get caught up sometimes is overwork and emotional eating. Those are my two of my go-tos I have to always try to keep under control. I tend to just throw more hours at stuff when my workload is heavier.

And while we have to at times, if you're on a deadline, you may have to, work late one night, or take some work home over the weekend. You might have to once in a while. But I do kind of tend to do that too often.

And then emotional eating. I think I've worn-- that's one of my main go-tos is when I'm stressed-- when I'm stressed, I tend to go to the refrigerator. I think I've actually worn a path on my carpet between my desk and the refrigerator, going back and forth so often. But, folks, I do recognize those are unhealthy coping behaviors, overworking and emotional eating. So I do try to minimize those. When I catch myself, I slow down, and take some time off.

Try to take a whole weekend off without doing any work at all. Try to make sure I take my lunch breaks. And then try to minimize going to the refrigerator when I'm feeling stressed. And maybe go outside and take a walk. Because remember, more healthy coping behaviors would be, spending time with your support system. It would be exercising. And those coping mechanisms are actually very helpful in helping you manage the stress that's going on in your life.

All right. A couple more things, and I'll open it up for questions. Staying in balance. This to me-- for me, after maintaining a good attitude, and managing my thinking during stressful times. Staying in balance is probably the second most important stress manager for me. And I find I have to when times are more stressful, folks, I think we have to be even more intentional about managing our stress.

And a lot of times, people are reactive about stress management. They'll go and go and go, and all of a sudden start to feel like they're burning out, and then take a week off, or take a long weekend. And that's good. It's better than not taking the time at all. But I think it's even more effective to be more proactive, more intentional day to day about managing stress, and keeping our lives in balance. I've come to realize that if I keep my life in balance, which means taking my lunch breaks, having some fun, or leisure time in the evening with my family. Doing some fun things with the family over the weekend.

Getting outside when the weather is nice. But doing it regularly, I'm intentional about-- now I think about what am I going to do? I mean, yesterday, I had to do a little bit of extra work. I was catching up on some things. And I try not to work every weekend, but I was catching up on some things.

But you know what? Part of what got me through the day is my hockey team was on TV yesterday afternoon. They had a day game. And I recorded it. And so my grandson and I met when I was done working in the afternoon. My grandson and I met. We watched the whole game. It was awesome. And just looking forward to that game, and then getting lost in that for a couple hours with my grandson, who's my buddy, I mean, I really enjoyed it, and it really helped.

And so I didn't come into work on Monday tired because I'd put in some extra work on Sunday, because I paced myself yesterday. I stayed in balance. Yeah, I worked a couple hours, but yeah, I also made sure I had a couple hours with my grandson doing something that we love. And that's what I'm talking about, is being intentional about staying in balance.

A lot of people will go days without doing something fun for themselves, or do something that they truly enjoy. And I do admire the work ethic that people have. And I'm a big advocate of being a hard worker. But we also have to rest and recharge our batteries. And I think that should happen every single day.

Back in the day, I used to work through lunch 4, 5 days a week. And nowadays, I'm pretty consistent to take my lunch breaks. And that's made a big difference. Like today, I took a half an hour, right. And I worked remotely for Deer Oaks. I went up to my kitchen, and I sat and I read my sports page, and I just enjoyed it. And no one's here today, just me. And I had a really nice hour lunch. And I came back to work ready to go again because I had my half hour of downshifting and recharging my batteries.

Make sure you do that every single day, folks. Something during the day, could be lunch, could be taking a break during the day. And in the evenings, don't do all work in the evenings. I know a lot of us are busy at home with tasks and raising our kids, but make sure you're also getting some time for yourself as well. It makes a huge difference day in, day out, and how we manage our stress.

And then last but not least, I want to talk about resilience. Resilience, folks, as you all know is our inner ability. It's our strength and ability to weather the storm to get through things. So we are living in very stormy days, right? We got an economic storm in the world right now that's really challenging a lot of us. We've got higher workloads for a lot of people. We got a lot of change going on. We got a lot of challenges happening right now.

We need our strength to be able to weather that storm and get through those things. So build up your resilience. It's almost like an athlete has to work out to get ready for the season, right? They got to build up their physical endurance. We have to build up our endurance to get through what confronts us every day in our busy lives, which means get enough sleep, exercise regularly.

The American Heart Association says we ought to be doing 150. The average adult ought to do at least 150 minutes of moderate exercise a week. That's five half hours a week, folks. We can all find five half hours a week. I'm doing a lot more than that. I'm a hockey coach, and so I'm on the ice on Wednesday nights and Saturdays. I'm on the ice about 8 or 9 hours a week.

And so I really believe in exercise. It's made a huge difference in my ability to cope and get through things. And it's made me a much more resilient person. And also, folks, stay really close to your support system. I've talked to dozens and dozens of people recently who have said, I got a good support system, but I'm so busy I don't reach out to them very often. And I wish I had more time. Make the time, folks.

We need the people that care about us, that strengthen us, we can take energy from that. That's how we get through the difficulties in life, is the people that care about us. And so make sure you're staying around your support system. People who regularly get nurtured by the support system have more resilience.

All right, folks. I know we covered a lot in a very short period of time today. Let me open it up for questions. If you have any questions, please type them into the question box in the GoToWebinar software in the upper right-hand corner of your screen.

Again, if you have any questions, please use the question box in the GoToWebinar software in the upper right-hand corner of your screen. We'll get to as many questions as time allows today.

Did have a great turnout today, over 150 people on the session today. So thank you all for taking time out of your busy day. Whenever one of our colleagues said no questions, but it's just real hard to let it go. I agree, it is. It's hard to let it go, it is. But we have to. We've got to discipline ourselves to take care of ourselves. We really do.

15 years ago, folks, I talked to-- I was struggling with my health a little bit, and I started studying European workers who work fewer hours than Americans and take more breaks. And it's interesting. And European workers tend to live longer. They tend to have lower rates of heart disease. And they score higher on life satisfaction surveys.

And at that point, I made a commitment to myself. I'm going to slow down. I'm going to start taking my lunch break. Back then, I was working through lunch like 3 or 4 days a week, thinking I just didn't have enough time in the day to take a full lunch break. And I changed at that point. I thought, wait a second, I got to slow down. I got to take better care of myself and it's interesting.

I realized, once I took-- once I started taking my lunch breaks, that I had more energy in the afternoon. I was actually more productive by taking that lunch break. And where before I was taking that lunch break when I was working through lunch, I would be dragging in the afternoon, right? And so it's interesting, right?

We tend to think that activity equals productivity. If we just throw more hours at it, we'll get everything done. But the truth is, staying in balance allows you to work smarter and not harder. Works you to do more quality work instead of quantity work.

Here's one of our colleagues said, that I came up with a method I referred to as CAP, C-A-P. One is calm down. Two is accept the situation I can't control. Three is be patient. I put a CAP on it. I love that. Thank you, sir. I love that. Thank you so much. Anybody else, folks, we got lots of time this afternoon. Anybody else have any questions?

OK, here's a question. How do you deal with coworkers who keep being negative about their workload and you get stuck with their work due to being more receptive to the change? That's a really, really good point. I really appreciate you bringing that up.

For one thing, if you're surrounded by people at work that are really, really negative. I think we all know it can pull us down. Negativity can bring-- coworker negativity can bring down-- it can make the environment more negative, right? It can bring down people around them. So you to be careful not to get sucked into that.

So I try to keep my distance a little bit. And I'm not saying just totally avoid negative coworkers, but I'm saying, I don't go out of my way to go to lunch with someone that I know is going to complain throughout the whole lunch hour. So I try to keep my distance. Because I need to keep my spirits up. I need to stay motivated. And so I don't like being stuck around people who are complaining all the time.

And so, now in terms of getting stuck with their work, I just would be honest with my boss about that. If you feel like you're getting stuck with work that's above and beyond what your responsibility is, I hope that all of us have the kind of relationship with our boss that we can just be honest about-- I'm doing this, this, and this, and I'm finding, I'm having to pick up the slack for some others. And I need your advice about that.

I wouldn't go to the boss and complain. I'd go and say I need your advice about this. Chances are, the boss may not even know that some of the others on the team are slacking off a little bit and that you're getting stuck. And so I do think it's important to have a good line of communication with your boss.

One of our colleagues today asked, will you be sharing this presentation on a PDF? Yes, as a matter of fact, all you have to do is request the copy of the presentation by hitting Reply to your GoToWebinar invitation for today. And we'll be happy to let our staff you'd love a copy of the PowerPoint. We'd be happy to send it to you.

Here's another question. What about when things are just continually thrown at you for months and the workload just never decreases, but just keeps increasing. They know we are overloaded, but not understanding. Again, and I appreciate your-- I mean I have heard more people talking about an increasing workload over the last couple of years than maybe ever in my career. And so I know it's a real thing. I know it's happening in a lot of places.

For some of the reasons we talked about at the outset today. I again, believe it's really, really important we have honest conversations with our boss about it. And so, I mean, I can talk to-- I've gotten to the point, I've reported to my boss now for about 9 or 10 years. And I can talk to her about anything. And it takes time to build that kind of relationship.

But to have an honest conversation to say that, hey, I'm getting a little overloaded, and I could use your advice. Maybe you could help me handle it better. And I find that when I go to my boss and just say, hey, I'm a little overloaded. Can I get your advice? She's always very supportive, and helps me brainstorm some things we can do, and how we can restructure some things. And so that's what my hope would be.

And I think most bosses would be open to providing some support if an employee comes with a good attitude and says, I want to be productive for you. But I'm getting to the place where I'm feeling overloaded and I really need your support. I really need your advice. And hopefully, they would be open to helping you brainstorm some solutions.

Here's another piece of advice from one of our colleagues, is that I know managing time is hard. Absolutely. The new time change will also affect time management. You're right. So good time management is important. You're right, sir. Absolutely. Good time management is very important. People that manage their days well.

They go into every day with a good plan. They don't overcommit. They don't try to get too much done. They don't overbook themselves with appointments. Tend to have a better pace throughout the day. Can take lunch during that day without feeling guilty. But a lot of times-- and I got to be honest because I did this to myself for years. A lot of times, my overload was coming by-- was coming in part because I wasn't managing my day very well. I would go into a day trying to get too much done.

I went to a good time management seminar that talked about, set a realistic goal for the day. If you have 20 things on your to-do list, don't think you can get them all done in a day, it's impossible. It's basically suggested, this time management expert said, take a half a dozen things. Five or six things a day, and focus on that smaller, more achievable list.

I've been doing that for years now, and it helps me to not feel so overwhelmed. It helps me to not feel in so much of a hurry because I'm planning better and managing my time better during the day. So that's one thing I did to get a handle around that.