Trying to make a difference in the ongoing drama of elation, disappointment, achievement, loss, bravery and stress that occurs at the intersection of professional and personal life.
The project may be entirely ordinary like cleaning out the garage, or it may be critically significant like preparing a major presentation for work. The goal may be to start… [more]
Our digital devices, the screens connecting us to an infinitely wide world of information, pose a significant challenge because they are so compelling and distracting. They pull our focus away… [more]
Organizations implement rigorous strategic planning processes because they know they can’t pursue every possible goal. They have to make critical choices in order to focus their business on those objectives… [more]
In January 2018, Stress.Health.Business published a post which anthologized ten of our most popular blogs on the effects of stress on employee health, engagement and productivity. That anthology turned out… [more]
Bad bosses are an unwelcome, but all too common, feature of the American workplace. Work environments have an abundance of stressors, but having a bad boss may be the worst…. [more]
The most successful employers are always looking for a fully balanced “win-win” when it comes to achieving both higher productivity and healthier, happier, and more engaged employees. These organizations do… [more]
It’s not a shocker to learn that a blog with a name like stress.health.business. (inaugurated in 2012) has featured more posts about stress than any other topic. However, you may… [more]
One of the more common misconceptions about counseling is that the primary purpose is to rehash troubling events from the past. This is a particularly harmful misconception because, if you… [more]
For the past several years we have seen growing awareness in the business community about the high cost of sleep disorders. There is an abundance of research which validates the… [more]
The United States won 121 medals out of a possible 306 at the 2016 Rio Olympics which just concluded in Brazil. You probably are not aware that Denmark defeated the… [more]
Many companies are beginning to change the way they operate in order to reduce employee stress. In doing so they are recognizing that excessive stress is not only bad for… [more]
I can’t cite a source for the widely circulated statistic that “ten percent of conflicts are caused by a difference of opinion and 90% are caused by tone of voice”… [more]
What happens when you have a winning product and/or business strategy but your managers have poor people skills? Lost opportunity is what happens. Failure to capitalize is what happens. Your… [more]
A new research study from Stanford University and the Harvard Business School has named workplace stress as a contributor to at least 120,000 deaths a year and up to $190… [more]
Meetings are important. For better or worse, most organizational decisions are still made in groups. Meetings are a ubiquitous element of organizational life even as teams are now often geographically… [more]
Work environments have an abundance of stressors, but having a boss who behaves badly may be the worst. The experience of being treated unfairly or rudely is always unpleasant, but… [more]
You know the feeling. A dark cloud of procrastination sweeps in blocking the light of your enthusiasm, inspiration and creativity. Your project stalls. Momentum fizzles. Distraction and guilt follow. According… [more]
Last week the Boston Globe published a chart which details the current costs, in dollars and in time, of providing care for an older family member (It is worth noting… [more]
If you take the pleasure of getting things done at work and multiply that by the pleasure of getting better at what you do, the result is improved job satisfaction,… [more]
Some days it feels that way. You’re a manager with an ever lengthening task list and rapidly approaching deadlines and you worry that your blood pressure and stress level may… [more]
It was about an hour before I was supposed to “run” my first therapy group. The clients, ranging in age from 20 to 60, were in various stages of recovery… [more]
There is nothing better than an impending disaster to clarify the distinction between the essential and the trivial. When total annihilation is on the horizon no one is wasting any… [more]
Are you getting enough sleep? The National Sleep Foundation survey reports that 60% of us struggle with our sleep every night. Sleep problems, which are being linked to an ever… [more]
Joan Venocchi wrote an op-ed piece in the Boston Globe last week about the curious case of Kelly Greenberg, the embattled head coach of the Boston University woman’s basketball team…. [more]
“A skilled [feedback] giver is great, but mostly our lives are populated by everyone else, folks who aren’t so skilled, have their own issues, or are too busy to really… [more]
You know that jittery feeling you get before you have to make a presentation? Most people believe that trying to “calm down” is the best way to handle this kind… [more]
Of all the complicated personal problems that employees bring to the workplace, none is more difficult for organizations to manage than drug and alcohol issues. Employee drug and alcohol problems… [more]
Sleep has become one of the hottest topics in medical and corporate circles. In the past 10 years there has been a mounting volume of studies, surveys and discoveries validating… [more]
Last October, I had an opportunity to ask 25,000 strangers five questions concerning their attitudes and feelings about work. Today’s post reviews some of the responses I received to one… [more]
I am concerned about the escalating lack of civility that surrounds us in our everyday life. Incivility at work has many different forms. We see everything from the gossiping coworker… [more]
“Some people come into our lives, leave footprints on our hearts, and we are never the same.” Franz Peter Schubert Today’s post is the third in a series. Part 1… [more]
Organizations face daunting challenges when it comes to effectively managing employees whose personal problems begin to interfere with their work performance. Just ask the city of Toronto. The headlines concerning… [more]
“If management stopped demotivating their employees then they wouldn’t have to worry so much about motivating them.” W. Edwards Deming If you read my blog post last week you know… [more]
What would you want to say if you had the chance to send an email to 25,000 strangers dispersed across planet earth? That’s the question that faced me last week… [more]
Workplaces with high levels of employee stress and anger are increasing their risk for many negative business outcomes including: Employee fatigue, concentration difficulties and diminished problem-solving abilities Diminished quality, productivity… [more]
Meetings are the place where an organization can access the collective knowledge of its members to make the best possible tactical and strategic decisions. Meetings are the place where organizations… [more]
A recent analysis from an international human resource company revealed that of the top 15 drivers of poor employee productivity the number one culprit is insufficient sleep. The remaining top… [more]
Mindfulness 2.0? In case you haven’t noticed the meditation practice of mindfulness has rapidly been gaining popularity. Once the purview of meditation halls and Eastern religious practice, mindfulness training is… [more]
Did you hear the story about the fellow who was walking through the Broadway theater district in New York and was accosted by a frantic stage manager? The stage manager… [more]
The idea of employee burnout been in circulation since the 1970s and continues to be relevant in contemporary discussions of job stress and the employee experience of work. The original… [more]
You know them. They are the management equivalent of helicopter parents (without the personal commitment and attachment). They hover over the work of their employees and they insist on inspecting… [more]
When it comes to balancing work and personal life managers have a double challenge. They not only have to figure out how to make work and home trade offs for… [more]
1. EAPs improve early identification and intervention for employees with mental health and substance abuse disorders. 30-40% of your employees will experience mental health and/or substance abuse disorders at some point in… [more]
Every morning I wake up and, after having a cup of coffee and reading The Boston Globe, I go to work on the Sudoku puzzle. Like millions of other people… [more]
While we do not have access to the performance appraisals Snow White might have completed for Happy and Grumpy , the business research consistently demonstrates that happy employees produce more,… [more]
“Big shots are only little shots who keep shooting” Christopher Morley Thomas Edison failed to invent the light bulb 6000 times before he finally figured out that he could make… [more]
What if I told you that there was an empirically validated tool which gives managers the capacity to improve employee performance and discretionary effort while simultaneously reducing their stress and… [more]
When it comes to stress, if the soup’s too hot you can strain your heart, increase your risk of chronic disease, weaken your immune system, be distracted by worry, become… [more]