Symptoms of stress from your boss include fatigue, muscular tension, headaches and poor sleep.
Once you enter the workforce, you are faced with all types of bosses. You could go through your whole career with bosses who create a harmonious working atmosphere where you and your colleagues feel comfortable, respected, listened to and generally happy. Unfortunately, the greater likelihood is that you occasionally will have a boss who is discourteous, unyielding, lacking compassion and a poor communicator. Once you determine the reason that your boss causes you stress, you can find ways to deal with her.
Instructions
1. Investigate the reason that your boss causes you stress and whether his behavior could be temporary or his stress-inducing behavior has been an ongoing issue. Understanding that his poor disposition and practices might be temporary issues helps you know proceed.
2. Control your emotions. If you have held onto your feelings about your boss' behavior for a long time, you might find yourself on the brink of an emotional eruption. An outburst from you will only cause more problems. Maintain self-control and emotional composure when dealing with your boss. For example, if your boss becomes loud or yells at you, maintain your ground, let her know know that her behavior makes you uncomfortable and ask if she thinks a third-party mediator would help the situation.
3. Provide backup of your work schedule and tasks. When you have discussions with your boss about your workload and projects, bring a list of your responsibilities, a calendar and an updated report of your progress. Let her know that you want to keep her posted on your progress and all that you do to ensure that you complete your work dutifully, efficiently and well. Bring a copy for yourself and your boss. Physical evidence presented in a light and well-meaning way shows your boss your commitment to the project.
4. Break the ice. An uncommunicative boss wreaks havoc on your peace of mind and loads you down with stress because you can't be sure whether he is unhappy with your work or merely quiet in general. Ask him for a meeting to discuss your mutual communications. Tell him that you can do your job more confidently if you know how he feels about your work progress and productivity, and that you want to do the best job possible for the company. Offer suggestions on how you can communicate more effectively with him.
5. Keep a log of interactions with your boss and how you feel about those interactions, whether they were positive or negative. Consider how you would respond or interact if you could. Monitor her tone, body language and responses for future reference.
