How to Blow off Steam at Work

When you let your stress level build up at work, you risk a lot. You risk saying something unprofessional. You risk doing something that would jeopardize your job. And you risk saying or doing nothing and letting the problem becoming chronic. You may begin to take your work stress home with you and maybe even begin to have stress-related health problems. These include smoking or drinking excessively, weight gain, headaches or heart problems. Follow these steps to manage your stress at work by blowing off steam in fun, safe ways.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

1. Bring treats to the office to share with your coworkers or customers. This is helpful if there are conflicts in the workplace. Food shared in a social group is a natural tension-diffuser.

2. Take all the rest breaks you are allowed. Think of your breaks as "recess" and yourself as a child who has lots of energy that needs to escape.

3. Go somewhere else for each break and take the full break. It may seem like breaks are just a few minutes long and you can't go far. It may be hard to interrupt what you are doing and walk away. But even if you're just stepping outside the office door, you're giving your mind and eyes a new perspective and easing your stress level. That's important when your stress level is high. And chances are, you'll find that there are fun things to do in these 15 or 20 minutes.

4. Do something "escapist" on your break. Call a family member. Chat with a coworker about non-work-related stuff, or play a round of a quick card game. Read an article in a magazine. Walk around the block once or walk up and down a long hallway. If there's a safe, convenient and discreet place—maybe your car—take a snooze and dream of that vacation that's coming up. You'd be surprised how "far" you can escape from the stresses at work without going anywhere at all.

5. Go outside for at least part of your lunch break and, if you can, eat outside. Walk around. Browse in a store. Sit on a bench or under a tree and watch people go by. Look up at the sky and realize how small your work problems are from this perspective. This will help diffuse your stress more than you might think. Make it a habit.

6. Recruit your co-workers on fun, quick, harmless activities. Start a collection of baby photos—of your co-workers or of their babies—to put up on a bulletin board. Start a fantasy football league. Start a weekly guessing contest—"How many beads are in the glass?"—with a silly reward, such as a paperclip or a made-up title. If you are stressed, chances are your co-workers are stressed, too. Silly games and pictures can do a lot toward making everybody relax.

7. Suggest stress-relieving and team-building activities to the boss. If you are the boss, organize such activities. A team-building activity can be anything from having a meeting outdoors to a Frisbee tournament to a weekend retreat. You can take an hour to go to a park and discuss strategy, or you can spend an afternoon of fun physical or mental games that build a team mentality. Paid team-building activities sometimes seem like "wasting time" on the job. In the long term, however, they contribute to the well-being of the team as a whole and save time, because the staff becomes more engaged in their work.

Tips & Warnings

• In planning team-building activities, pick an activity that suits the members of your team and doesn't add to their stress.
• Not every work environment has the flexibility to allow for all these suggestions. Not every employer approves of all these suggestions. Check with your supervisor if in doubt. Even in very rigid work environments, though, chances are that some of these techniques can be applied, if done with care. Remember the distinction between blowing off steam and blowing off work.

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