Respond to 2 colleagues 1 paragraph each for business

Respond to at least two of your colleagues’ postings in one or more of the following ways:

· Compare your approaches to stress management with those shared by your colleagues.

· Offer examples of how your manager or organization helps employees balance life and work.

· Offer other strategies that your colleagues could consider to help them  ensure that they are happy.

· Share how some of the strategies your colleagues use to balance life and reduce stress can be used to help you find balance and manage your school work.

Note what you have learned and/or any insights that you have gained as a result of the comments your colleagues made.

1st Colleague to respond to:

One event in my life that caused me happiness was graduating from college two years ago. Walking across that stage was probably the most amazing feeling I ever experienced and the look on my parents face made it even better. I believe this situation brought me happiness because I was the first in my immediate family to finish college and with two degrees. I learned that “Pursuing goals is probably the most energizing and exciting thing in the world” (Weigand, 2017). I have been trying to pursue my degree since I graduated high school but I must say it wasn’t an easy task to accomplish and I was glad by the outside help I received as well. For example, if it wasn’t for my girlfriend I honestly don’t believe I would have been able to receive my degree and graduate with her at the same time. Even though the journey was stressful I am glad I was able to finish it and still able to continue my education hopefully finishing with my doctoral degree.

Going to work every morning and going to school later that night could really create stress especially if they are both full time. I really had to learn to balance my time and school work because there were many situations where I wanted to give up on both. “With work, school, activities, and friends all demanding attention, many students struggle with balancing and prioritizing the different areas of their lives” (Mental Health America, 2020). That was something I had to fully understand and find a way to make it all work out for me, so with my girlfriends help I started writing down what was more important in my life and focus on that first. Another thing I had to learn was how to better manage my time because I was the type of person that always wanted to have fun but never focused on taking care of business first. After a couple of weeks of doing things her way, I realized that I was able to  work and go to school full time because she was also doing it and she made it look so easy. Just a month before graduation, I saw the happiness on her face which made me happy because we were so close to finishing together.

When I become a manager I want to create an environment where it is stress free because I have learned that if my employees are stress at work then their performance would be inadequate. I learned a couple techniques to help prevent stress in the workplace when I become a manager. First, I believe that a manager needs to be clear on the requirements expected from their employees because if they don’t know what is expected or it keeps changing then it could become extremely stressful. Next is to prevent conflict in your workplace because I have learned that interpersonal conflicts take a big toll on everyone physical and emotional health, so it would be a great idea to avoid conflict at work if you can. Another way to prevent stress is to make sure as a manager I am organized because I have learned that planning ahead can help decrease stress at work. “A great way to make a major reduction in your stress is to learn how to handle stress at your work by prioritizing and organizing” (Murphy, 2020). I believe that a managers duty to create an organized environment because employees wouldn’t want to work in an unorganized place or under someone that isn’t organized. Finally, I believe that it is the manager’s job to create a sense of loyalty to his employees because by showing you trust and value your employee will create a sense of loyalty and safety with them which can reduce stress in the long run.

References

Mental Health America. (2020). Balancing work and school. https://www.mhanational.org/balancing-work-and-school

Murphy, J. (2020, August 12). How to reduce stress at work: 6 simple strategies anyone can follow [Infographic]. SnackNation. https://snacknation.com/blog/how-to-reduce-stress-at-work/

Weigand, M. (2017, November 15). The science of happiness: What actually makes us happy. Medium. https://medium.com/@MaxWeigand/the-science-of-happiness-what-actually-makes-us-happy-78edcc9bdd58

2nd Colleague to respond to:

A main event in my life that causes me happiness is meeting my wife.  I think it was love at first sight and she felt the same way.  I proposed a month later, and we just had our 13th anniversary.  When my wife started having my daughter’s quickening moments, I had just come out of a major surgical procedure where I was put under general anesthesia.  I remember my surgeon coming in to tell me I could go home, and that the rest of my organs would start waking up gradually.  I do not know how true that was, but it made sense.

That evening, I slept with my back pressed against my wife’s womb, and I started feeling punching and kicking in my back that woke me up.  I remember thinking that finally, my kidneys were waking up as predicted by my surgeon.  I woke up my wife to tell her, and she lovingly replied: “Oh, baby, you’re so cute.  That’s your baby kicking.”  It caused me great happiness, even if my wife meant something else when she said ‘cute’.

Another moment came when my daughter was born a few months after that episode.  She went poop for the first time in my arms right after delivery.  For some reason, I thought it was chocolate, but then I started wondering why there would be chocolate in a delivery room.  It was meconium.  It was a gamechanger for me because I understood in a split second that it was all different now.  Up until that moment, I was on get-it-done mode.  Before that moment, I did not think much about the distant future; I was just focused on the birth and to have a healthy baby.  When she pooped in my arms, I said: Yep, she is healthy, which made me happy.  Now, it was time to build something.

The main events that have caused me stress are when I put too much on my plate.  I cope with it by putting myself on get-it-done mode and muscle through it.  I do it a lot.  I fell seriously ill at 22, I was diagnosed with cancer at 25, and I spent endless nights in hospitals going in for Chemo rounds thinking that I had wasted 25 years of my life because I had nothing to show for them.  It has been non-stop since that moment of awakening, so I frequently put a lot on my plate, but I finish it and move on to the next challenge.

Perhaps, I’ll stick to coming home at night after work to relax, but I do not think that will make me happy, so I will keep building, and with the MBA skills that I am learning, I will build it better and faster; that will make me happy.

I will achieve work/life balance by planning.  This will make me happy, and happiness looks like going to work to do something that fulfills me.  Medical interpreting and training medical interpreters fill me, and after my MBA, I know that managing medical interpreting will satisfy me.

One way I will help ensure that my employees experience low work stress is by distributing the workload equally.  A second way is by ensuring my workforce is rested and finds fulfillment in its work.  Additionally, studies show that if workers are allowed to determine their own workloads, companies benefit from better outcomes (Reid & Ramarajan, 2016).

I would add to this that unless the task has a hard deadline or a specific way it has to be done, I will give my employees the liberty to decide how to do the job and manage them so that they do not overwork themselves.  This will help ensure that they remain productive and maintain a work/life balance.

Some employees, myself included, do not like to take time off.  The key to ensuring the employees are productive is to work with a rested, well-balanced workforce.  Koch & Binnewies (2015) tell us that the manager can be a role model for this.

Their research shows that if the manager has a well-balanced life, employees will aspire to have one, too, and be more productive.

References.

Koch, A.R. & Binnewies, (2015). Setting a good example: Supervisors as work-life-friendly role models within the context of boundary management. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 20(1), 82–92. https://doi-org.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/10.1037/a0037890

Reid, E., & Ramarajan, L. (2016). Managing the high-intensity workplace. Harvard Business Review.