Ask the expert: Don't mistake work stress for boredom

Is stress in the workplace as common as it seems?
Dr MARIE WILSON, head of management and employment relations at the University of Auckland Business School, who has 20 years' experience in corporate management and small business, answers this and other questions.

Q: Is stress obligatory in business? My company keeps sending its senior staff on courses in stress management and suggests we have counselling if necessary. Everyone here appears to find the stress levels unbearable, but I'm coping quite well; boredom is the biggest problem for me.

A: Stress isn't a simple matter of overload. Some stress is actually positive; you might feel challenged or excited by having several interesting things to do.

Past a point, however, stress becomes negative, contributing to illness, absenteeism, poor-quality work and turnover. Your company is, justifiably, concerned about negative stress.

Helping employees to identify and reduce negative stress is good management, and an integral part of workplace health and safety. You have identified a key factor, though, as stress includes whether people see themselves as overloaded.

Companies can help employees to manage the stress they are experiencing by training in a variety of techniques, including better use of time and technology, improved nutrition and exercise, and relaxation techniques.

If you are bored, however, you are at the opposite end of the stress continuum. Boredom, like negative stress, isn't effective for you or your organisation.

Perhaps it's time to look for an interesting new project at work, or to develop yourself by taking a course or reading in a new area.

Take your stressed colleagues out for a walk at lunchtime. It will do you all some good.

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Q: My firm is offering its senior staff either a company car of its choice, or a regular cash payment if we use our own cars. How can I work out which is the better deal?

A: As most companies are trying to get out of providing cars because of the fringe benefit tax requirements, I'll assume you must do a lot of travel in a car in your employment.

If the company is only reimbursing your direct car expenses (tolls, parking and petrol), then you would almost certainly be better off taking a company car if one was on offer.

To fully compensate you for the use of your car at work, the company payment needs to cover your work-related expenses plus the work-related portion of payments for other expenses such as warrants of fitness and insurance, plus the loss in value of your car from the extra kilometres required for your work.

If you are driving a significant amount, the value of your car can decline dramatically and the cost of your insurance may rise as well.

The exact amount that is required will depend on your costs and the value of your existing car.

As there are tax issues involved, you might want to enlist the help of your company accountant in working out the exact sums for you.

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Q: E-mail excess is making my life a misery - and that's just the business ones. I spend at least two hours every morning going through my messages from the night before and then they keep bombarding me during the day. When I had a couple of days off, I got back to find over 70 sitting in my mailbox.

A: Sounds like your e-mail is managing you; let's turn that around. First, if early morning is your most productive time, don't waste it on e-mail. Use high-quality time for your most important work.

Second, handle e-mail once or twice a day. Fire off a quick response to those that can be resolved easily.

If something requires a detailed reply, you may want to print it off and work out a response on the margins in spare time, before responding. Practise ruthless deleting. Finally, invest time in learning all the features in your e-mail system. Many will post a message back when you are out of the office letting people know you'll get back to them.

Some will post you reminders and flag urgent items. If you have a preview function, you can see the first few sentences, and forward, delete or file messages without even having to open them. Some systems will screen or block unwanted e-mail.

Want to know how to make hiring easier? Dr Marie Wilson, head of management and employment relations at University of Auckland Business School, answers your questions.

E-mail questions to our Career Editor, Julie Middleton.