Stress Management Series: Stress S.O.S.

How to prevent and manage stress in today’s fast paced call center environment.

Are you and your employees afflicted by on-the-job stress?

First, I want you to know, you are not alone! In the August 2011 Gallup poll on 13 aspects of work – including areas such as health benefits, vacation time and chances for promotion – U.S. employees cite on-the-job stress as one of the most troublesome aspects of working today. If you take those stats and combine them with the fact that 75-90% of all visits to primary care physicians are for complaints and conditions that are in some way stress related, it is easy to understand why so many books, classes and employee-sponsored stress management programs exist.

Clearly stress and stress management are important topics for everyone to understand. However, they are even more critical in a call center environment considering the customer-facing nature of our work, the lack of control over the way the work arrives, and the fact that we have to be both efficient (meet our service level goals) and effective (give our customers a great quality experience). That's enough to stress out even the most resilient individual!

So what can we do about it? Well that is what this blog series will focus on. We’ll start by defining what stress is and continue by exploring a variety of potential tips, techniques and tools you can choose from to help you manage stress.

And as always, we'll want to hear from you! Tell us about your experience with any of these techniques, including results and any tips you have to add!