How to Better Manage Workplace Stress
Manufacturing supervision is a very high stress job. There are high levels of accountability because everything is so measurable. Expectations are very high and if everything runs perfectly, you met expectations. If one thing falls short, then you missed expectations. It’s a tough gig. Some types of supervisor stress is good for you but you just don’t want to be overwhelmed by your job stresses.
First thing to know: there are good and bad types of stress. Good stress is called Eustress and it’s the kind of stress that makes life fun and exciting, like going on a roller coaster or meeting someone for the first time on a blind date, I think in a manufacturing supervisor role, accountability is high, but as you achieve goals, you can feel good about the results. So I think accountability stress fits more into the category of good stress. Also, I think change is always stressful, but if the change is in the realm of continuous improvement activity, than I think change management represents the good kind of stress as well. Both accountability and change can have their rewards because personal achievement is ultimately a good feeling.
Chronic stress on the other hand can wear you down over time and is unhealthy. When you're in a stressful situation your body releases adrenaline and cortisol and this allows you be ready with a fight or flight response. But the problem is that when the stressful situation doesn’t go away, our body keeps releasing these hormones and our body chemistry can get out of whack due to chronic stress. This can lead to anxiety, depression, digestive problems, headaches, muscle tension, high blood pressure, sleep problems, weight gain and memory and concentration issues.
I think in a manufacturing leadership role stress can come from a variety of sources and this includes your employees, your boss, your bosses boss, support resources, deadlines, production problems, meetings and presentations. And what can add to the stresses are situations outside of work, like your commute, raising children, paying bills, and health issues.
And unfortunately, there is not a lot you can do about the causes of stress in your life, but what you can do is develop principals, skills and behaviors so you can respond better and be less stressed over common manufacturing situations. Here are three principles I learned over the years that helped to keep me sane and less stressed out.
The three principles are:
- Don’t stress about what you can’t control
- Don’t accept other people’s monkeys (problems)
- Manage your work life
Principle 1
You can’t control the past so why stress about it? However I can investigate issues and make improvements that would prevent the same situation from happening again. So don’t stress about what already happened, but have some urgency about changing the future events and outcomes.
You can’t change other people’s performance. You can train your employees, you can coach your employees and you can monitor your employees, but their performance is theirs and theirs alone. Don’t stress about it. Help them in every way possible and if they fail in some way, do what it takes to get them back on track or give them formal corrective action up to and including termination. This is your job, but it doesn’t need to be a stressful experience. Just always understand that an employee’s performance is their to own.
You can’t control your employer. They can decide to expand the company or lay people off. They can decide to promote you or fire you. You can’t control what they decide. You can certainly influence their decisions, but don’t obsess about it. Instead, obsess about your performance as a manufacturing supervisor. If you do your best every day, that’s really all you can do. If they lay you off or fire you, you’ll recover. Just do your best and do everything in your power to learn and to grow and to deliver manufacturing results.
Principle 2
Don’t take monkeys from other people. What is a monkey? A monkey is someone else’s problem and people are always trying to get their monkey to jump off of their shoulder and onto yours. People do this at work all of the time. Employees have problems and they want to make them your problems. Before accepting a task from someone else, ask yourself, are there any actions that this other person can do first to solve the problem? Only your boss can transfer monkeys to you without your approval and you’ll need to gladly accept all of the little monkeys that are assigned.
Principle 3
Manage your work life, don’t let it manage you. Manufacturing supervision is definitely a stressful job, but don’t make it worse than it needs to be. Stay organized. Keep an active to do list. Stress can come from trying to remember all the things that you need to do. Just writing them down on a to do list, reduces stress. I always keep a handwritten to do list and I rewrite it every Friday for the next week. When I rewrite it, I’m deleting the tasks that I accomplished and I’m reminded of the tasks that I still need to do. It puts me in control of my upcoming week and lowers my stress.
Feeling good about your results also lowers stress. Its tough to look at day-to-day manufacturing metrics, but always examine your longer term trends – like over a 3 month or 12 month period. If you and the team are implementing continuous improvement, you will see favorable trends in the data. Look at your graphs and feel really good about them. A sense of accomplishment helps your breath a sigh of contentment and lowers stress.
Check out our other articles about Stress Management and Forming Good Habits.
Looking for shopfloor leadership training? Checkout Tools for the Trenches!
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