IN THIS ISSUE:Stress in the Workplace ................................ 1

Dealing with Information Overload ....... 3

Managing Holiday Stress ............................ 4

Introducing the brand-new www.lifebalance.net! .................................... 5

More, More, More ........................................... 6

LifeBalance Newsletter

“I’m so stressed out.” We’ve likely all made this statement before. Family demands. Job stress. Aging parents. School work. Whatever phase of life you’re in, you’re likely trying to juggle many competing priorities. And, although some stress is positive – too much stress is not. In fact, high levels of stress or long-term stress can be hazardous to your health – both physical and emotional. In this edition of your LifeBalance newsletter, we talk about the symptoms of stress, and offer practical coping strategies so you can manage it effectively.

For most of us, a job is a source of income and identity, and a place where we spend almost half of our life, and it can be at times rewarding, and at other times, stressful. This article can help you understand stress – both positive and negative – and acquire some simple but effective strategies to manage it.

Stress is difficult for many people to understand because the reality is that not all stress is bad. We need to generate some tension and stress in order to do our best work – researchers call this positive stress. A manageable level of stress has a purpose, providing the energy we need to achieve our goals. A major challenge in today’s stress-filled world is to make your stress work for you, instead of against you.

Unfortunately, the habits, attitudes and signs that can alert you to the fact that you’re experiencing high levels of stress have become so familiar and common that you may not even be able to recognize them. If you’re having a tough time balancing work and family, or expectations at work seem unrealistic, you may be operating in a heightened and chronic state of stress. This level of stress can take its toll on your health, family life

15 tips to help you cope, personally and professionally

and productivity. Negative effects can range from a lack of focus to an inability to sleep, and from anxiety and depression, to heart disease, type 2 diabetes and even some types of cancer.

Stress: The symptoms

More than three-quarters of all medical complaints are stress-related, and half of the country’s population suffers from at least one stress symptom regularly. Physical and emotional symptoms are just a few of the ways that your body may be telling you that you’re under stress. The most common symptoms of excessive stress are:

■ Fatigue

■ Insomnia

■ High-blood pressure

■ Headaches

■ Ulcers

■ Heartburn

■ Inability to concentrate or relax

■ Changes in appetite

■ Waning sexual interest

Stress in the workplace may have become a definite problem for you if you:

■ Feel hopelessly overloaded at work

■ Are unable to leave job problems behind at night or on the weekend

■ Experience a trapped, immobilized feeling

How to reduce your stress

Whether you’re an executive, a mid-level manager, or a front-line employee, it makes sense to care about your mental and emotional well-being, and do what you can to keep your stress levels down. Today, stress experts agree that resilience – your ability to face a challenge and overcome it effectively – and strategies for

STRESS IN THE WORKPLACE

2

managing stress, can dramatically improve your body’s resistance to stress. The following basic stress management tips may help you increase your resilience, lower stress levels and increase job satisfaction:

1. Take charge of your situation. To the extent that this is possible, set and re-set priorities. Take care of important and difficult tasks first. Organize your time to be more effective.

2. Avoid procrastination. Regardless of what you may believe, people don’t do their best work under extreme pressure. Some people convince themselves that they do so they can avoid dealing with their habit of procrastination.

3. Take one task at a time. Divide each large project into smaller manageable tasks. Make a list of everything that needs to be done and the approximate time for finishing each task. Prioritize the tasks. Complete the first task, then go on to the next one. Keep the tasks small until you are feeling a sense of accomplishment and control.

4. Slow down. Learn to set boundaries. Drop activities that aren’t crucial such as volunteer committees, or extra-curricular activities that aren’t adding value to your life. Remember to take your allotted breaks to refuel, recharge and connect with coworkers.

5. Set realistic and attainable goals. Do what’s possible and accept the rest. If your employer uses a performance management system in which you set goals for the year, be reasonable about what you can accomplish. Just because there may be so much more you could do to contribute to your employer’s success, you can’t commit to it all.

6. Be realistic about what you can change. Whether you work in an office or in a manufacturing facility, you will have some job aspects within your control: how you structure your day; how you break down a project; the

attitude with which you approach new tasks; the way you relate to coworkers. There will also be elements that you can’t control: your teammates and boss; shifting organizational priorities that force you to adapt to change; new assignments, and more. Focus on improving upon or influencing the areas over which you have control, and try not to stew about what you can’t control.

7. Be honest with colleagues. This includes your boss. Make it clear that you are feeling challenged. Don’t just complain. Be constructive and make practical suggestions for improvements.

8. Recognize danger signs of job stress. Learn the symptoms of stress and take action as soon as they appear to be getting out of hand.

9. Share your stress. You may find it helpful to talk about your stress. A friend, family member, coworker or counsellor can often help you to see your problem in a different light and offer solutions. Knowing when to ask for help may help you avoid more serious problems later.

10. Make use of programs provided by your employer. Take advantage of your Employee Assistance Program (EAP), corporate fitness programs, or special clinics for diet, smoking and alcohol to help you deal with the effects of stress.

11. Carefully evaluate your job and its relationship to your goals. Does your job maintain or enhance your life goals and desires? If not, it may be time to consider other options.

12. Don’t neglect your personal life. Work out a schedule that allows you to do justice to both work and personal life.

13. Learn to laugh. Laughter is your body’s natural stress-release mechanism. Watch a funny movie or television

show, read a humorous book or get together with the funniest person you know.

14. Learn to relax. Find a safety valve, whether it is a sport, hobby, music, reading, or just walking. Accept that it’s okay to just sit for a while and banish guilt. If you have one hour to enjoy a coffee with a friend, or play a board game with the kids, take the opportunity to do so, without thinking about the other tasks you could be doing. Anxiously worrying about the three loads of laundry waiting for you or the overflowing email inbox, is not a valuable use of your energy. You shouldn’t feel guilty about enjoying all aspects of your life because everyone deserves to unwind.

15. Take care of your physical health. Good physical health increases tolerance to stress. Eat and sleep sensibly. Avoid sweets and junk food; too much sugar can cause frequent fluctuations in blood sugar levels, which in turn inhibits your body’s ability to cope with stress. Get plenty of exercise. Cut down or eliminate alcohol, tobacco and drugs which alter regular body rhythms of sleep.

Stress of the proper type and in the proper amounts can lead to higher productivity and creativity. The trick is for you to know when you’re under stress, assess what’s causing it, and then do something to relieve it so that it becomes more manageable. Finally, remember that one of the primary sources of stress comes from within—from your own attitudes. Minds are highly suggestible. If you think something is going to be stressful, chances are it will be.

3

Although technology helps us work better and faster, it also has drawbacks, including causing information overload, also known as ‘technostress’. Information overload is the state of having too much information at our fingertips at once, and it has become a way of life for many people. At work and at home, we’re bombarded with emails, voice mails, pages, texts and cell phone calls, all of which are vying for our attention at the same time.

Access to so much information so quickly has benefits, but it can be counterproductive if it prevents you from accomplishing the things you really need to get done. The workplace is often a major source of information overload, because you may feel pressure from multiple sources to respond immediately to incoming requests while trying to concentrate and complete your work.

Experts recommend the following strategies for taming information overload at work:

■ Know your priorities. At the beginning of your workday, determine what you want to accomplish. Respond to emails and calls related to your daily objective promptly, but give a lower priority to less vital communications. If you’re not sure how to prioritize your workload, talk with your manager.

■ Don’t let email dominate you. It’s easy to get into a habit of obsessively checking and responding to email. But, doing so interrupts your thought process and can make it hard to accomplish anything else. You’ll be better off if you designate specific times of the day to handle email. For example, you may be able to stay on top of email with two 20-minute sessions – one in the morning and one in the afternoon.

■ Use the ‘triage’ system for responding to emails. When scanning your inbox, separate emails into three categories/folders: those that require an immediate response, those that can wait a day, and

OVERLOADDEALING WITH

INFORMATIONthose that don’t require any response at all. This way, you’ll make sure you see the urgent messages and you won’t waste time responding to emails that aren’t important.

■ Separate work and personal communications. Having your friends and family send messages to a personal account instead of your work account reduces on-the-job interruptions.

■ Don’t contribute to email overload. Think twice before you click send. Does everyone you copied really need to see this email? Could you resolve the issue or better communicate your message by picking up the phone or even walking over to a coworker’s desk instead? Also, avoid forwarding chain letters, urban legends, jokes, urgent messages about email viruses, phony get-rich-quick schemes, and other mass emails. These messages only clog everybody’s inbox and are likely prohibited by your organization’s Internet-use policies.

■ Be wary of instant messaging. Before setting up instant messaging, make sure that your organization allows it. If you find yourself squandering time with instant messaging or that incoming messages make you anxious because you feel like you need to respond immediately, uninstall it. Or, turn off the function when you don’t want to be interrupted.

■ Communicate your priorities. Nothing is more frustrating than getting into a good work groove, only to have a coworker interrupt you to chat or ask a non-urgent question. Similarly, be considerate of your coworkers’ needs.

■ Minimize distracting technology when you have important work that requires concentration. If you need to write or analyze something and you have a laptop, bring it into a conference room away from incoming emails, coworkers and phones. If that’s not possible, block out some time in your schedule, set your phone to send calls automatically to voicemail; and set a specific time to check your email inbox.

Finally, think carefully about all the technology you currently use. With each new device you add to your life – whether it’s PVR, an iPod, a laptop or a mobile phone – take some time to make sure it’s having a beneficial effect and that you’re using it wisely. This will help you overcome information overload and feel less stressed. Written with the help of Elizabeth Bakken, B.A., M.A.

4

You might find yourself trying to do the impossible in a short amount of time, on a limited budget, with conflicting demands pulling you in different directions. Stress is a big part of the holidays for many people, but it doesn’t have to be overwhelming if you keep a few things in mind.

Avoiding holiday overload

■ Don’t overdo it. Many of us set unrealistic expectations for ourselves during the holidays. We simply try to do too much. Ask yourself what you want the holidays to be or to mean. What is the most important part of the season for you? If sharing time with family is most important, spend a day sledding with your children instead of shopping for presents. If you’re planning to serve a meal to several family members, why not say yes when others ask if they can bring something?

■ Prioritize. Make a list of all the things you need to do and decide which ones are the most important. Do the important things and get to the rest if you have time.

■ Set a budget and stick to it. Plan for an increase in holiday spending for things like meals, gifts and entertainment. Know how much you can spend before you go shopping or before you decide how many people to invite for a holiday meal. This will keep you from spending more than you should.

Finding joy in the holidays

■ Set realistic expectations. Many of us envision the ideal holiday scene – the storybook version – with a loving family

singing together around a warm fire. The reality may be quite different, so while this can be a joyous time of year, it can also remind us of what or who we may be missing in our lives. It’s best to be realistic about the nature of the holiday season, while remembering that family can be created – it’s not just about biology! Surround yourself with people you care about.

■ Start new traditions. Remember the meaning behind your traditions. It’s easy to let a tradition take on a life of its own and to forget what made it important in the first place. Ask yourself which traditions of your holiday season are adding joy and meaning to the season for you and your family, and which have become obligations that take from you but don’t give back. Don’t be afraid to start new traditions if your family has outgrown old ones. Families young and old thrive on traditions that bring them together, even simple ones like baking or taking a walk in the evening.

■ If possible, set minor differences aside. Sometimes the holidays throw family members together who, at other times of the year, are much happier apart. As you gather together with family and friends, try to enjoy the feeling of togetherness and save potentially heated discussions for another time. True “holiday spirit” is about getting along with people to the best of your ability, not about putting yourself in anxious or loaded situations.

■ Be a kid again. Take some time out to play and just enjoy the scenery. Notice

the pretty lights and the yummy smells. Take a nature walk, go skating, try some deep breathing exercises, whatever helps you relax for a while.

■ Get plenty of rest and exercise. It’s easy to forget to do the things that keep you healthy when you have so much to do. Keeping to your regular sleep and exercise routines will give you the energy you need to do everything and keep some normalcy in your life.

■ Empathize. Remember that other people are also dealing with the stress and pressures of the holidays. All those cars in the traffic jam at the mall are full of people just like you, trying to get everything done to make their celebrations run smoothly. Don’t take the lack of parking spaces personally.

Asking for the help you need and giving help to others

■ Get emotional support if you need it. If you’re missing loved ones who have passed away or relatives who can’t be there to celebrate in person, make sure you reach out to friends or family who can give you the emotional support you need. Make use of your Employee Assistance Program.

■ Give help to others. Consider volunteering as a new tradition this holiday season. You’ll find opportunities at shelters, immigrant centres, hospitals and nursing homes. Whether you volunteer on your own or as a family, giving to your community can be the most rewarding of holiday traditions.

STRESSHOLIDAY

MANAGING

For many, the holidays offer an opportunity to celebrate who you are, the people you love and the values you cherish. As the holiday season approaches, many people experience conflicting emotions. During what is traditionally a joyous time of year, many of us take on additional tasks and try to squeeze an ambitious number of events into already tight schedules.

5

Get ready for an exciting change! On December 19, 2012, log on to www.lifebalance.net and take a tour of your brand-new program website! It’s colourful, friendly and very easy to use. Here are just some of the features you’ll experience:

■ increased search capabilities to help you find what you’re looking for quickly – and maybe even discover great resources you didn’t even know existed;

■ better navigation with content divided into five categories that mirror the way visitors typically search the site: health, family, work, life and money.

■ clear and visible descriptions of the services available to you including your EAPs contact info front and centre;

■ more frequent changes to homepage content to help you find materials related to timely events;

■ simple shopping cart functionality so you can order materials and resources in a familiar way;

■ English and French language toggling instead of having to log in and out;

■ exciting new materials and resources, particularly online assessments, toolkits and podcasts – that’s what you’ve been asking for; and,

■ coming in early 2013 – You asked for it, and we’re excited to deliver! Watch for details about a mobile app for www.lifebalance.net, so you can access your EAP website any time via mobile device, in a mobile-optimized format!

Any time after launch date, December 19, 2012, take some time to explore your new EAP website and see how we can help you face life’s challenges.

IMPORTANT NOTICE: Your log-in credentials for the all-new www.lifebalance.net

As an important part of a confidential service, your EAP website needs to be safe and secure. This new version of the site has increased security measures, requiring a change to customers’ log-in credentials. We have notified your employer of any applicable changes to your user ID and/or password, and requested that they communicate this information to employees directly.

But, don’t fear! If you haven’t received information from your employer about your user ID and/or password, you can still tour the new www.lifebalance.net as of December 19, 2012! Here’s how:

1. Simply go to www.lifebalance.net and attempt log-in with the user ID and password you used to access the former version of the website. If you gain access immediately, that means your user ID and/or password haven’t changed.

2. If your organization’s user ID and/or password have changed, the website will automatically generate a pop-up box sharing your new user ID and/or password.

3. Attempt log-in again by entering the information provided to you in the pop-up box. Voila – you’ll have access to the all-new www.lifebalance.net!

www.lifebalance.net!THE BRAND-NEW

INTRODUCING

SAMPLE

6©2012 Ceridian Corporation. All rights reserved.

MORE, MORE, MORE

Go online to access other valuable resources, assessments and information: www.lifebalance.net

Looking for more information? Go online to www.lifebalance.net to read, download or order articles, booklets, audio recordings and other resources on wellness, relationships, workplace issues and more. Some of these include:

BlogsFeeling Good: We all like to feel our best! If you’re not already following this fantastic blog, check out Feeling Good, authored by health psychology writer Linda Wasmer Andrews. It’s helpful, insightful and totally practical.

Work-life Blog - coming soon! Watch for our all-new work-life blog, available January 2013, penned by Molly Brennan, mother of three young children, full-time non-profit sector employee, and former journalist. This blog will feature strategies to help you balance/juggle both your home and

work responsibilities effectively, while still carving out time for fun and relaxation.

PodcastsWorry Not: Check out this new podcast, featuring Dr. Martin Rossman, a pioneer of mind/body medicine and author of The Worry Solution. Dr. Rossman offers strategies to change your bad worry habits to good ones and let go of stress.

Booklets10 Ways to Overcome Overload: Studies show that more and more people are feeling the effects of overload. Many of us are experiencing feelings of stress, anxiety, depression and burnout. But, life doesn’t have to feel that way. In this booklet, you’ll find strategies and advice to help you overcome overload and feel more in control of your life.

CDs/RecordingsAchieving Balance: Many of us face feelings of overload as we struggle to balance the demands of work with the requirements of our personal and family lives. This CD, recorded by clinical psychologist and well-known stress-management speaker, Dr. Bob Brooks, includes practical tips that even the most harried of us will find helpful.

Get Moving: Physical well-being helps to prevent stress build-up, but activity is often the first thing to go in a time-crunch. In 30 minutes, Dr. Michelle Segar, a motivation psychologist and behavioural researcher with a specialty in physical activity and self-care, shares the secrets to staying motivated to move for good, based on years of research and coaching individuals.