Lately, I’ve got to thinking about what its like out in the corporate world. Shared office space, mixtures of personalities, those times when you feel like you are doing another persons work for them, those colleagues who seem to be taking numerous fag breaks, and you don’t smoke.

All that stress about external factors can build up, making you mad as hell (and you’re not gonna take any more of it!, I seriously can’t remember what movie that came from).

What can you do about it? You can meet it head on with positivity. Seriously I know that sounds nuts right?

It is possible for you to stand up for yourself in a polite way, its just called speaking your truth.

We spend ALOT of time at work, so how can we make small steps every day, to make your workplace less stressful? First off, make a list. Just make a realistic list of the things that stress you out, and then work it out from there.

Here’s an example: Do you find it stressful that there are no healthy snack options in your workplace? Who could you speak to about that to improve it? Do you find it stressful to think of really great packed lunches that you can make yourself? Could your place of work host a demo day? Instead of all these ice breaker ‘pretend you are a chocolate’ bar games that I remember NOT fondly from being in a blue chip company. Is there someone you could make a suggestion to? I make lunch to bring in to work nearly every day, because it keeps me away from where shops where the cookies live. Man alive.

Here’s another one: Does your commute stress you out? How useful are you after being stuck in traffic for 60 mins or however long your commute is? is there a chance you could work from home 1 day a week, if your job can be done remotely. Who could help make this happen? Imagine being able to get up one day a week, knowing what your work load is, and NOT having to battle traffic or public transport where people are so focused on their phones/headphones that nothing else exists. Is this a possibility?

Is there a culture of overtime in your workplace? Why? Is it useful or needed. If you are an accountant, skip this paragraph. What could help you do your work within your time? Less distractions is usually a popular answer here. I attended a talk recently by a good friend, who pointed out that on average, an office employee will get 120 emails a day, and that every time an employee gets distracted from their task either by a fellow employee, or their phone, it takes 20 minutes to get back in the zone. What could be done to limit distractions and help you get your work done? If you feel that you have too much on your plate and your day is full of ‘can you just take a look at this’ comments, how can you limit that? Try saying ‘not just now’. It is possible.

Are you a team leader? What do you do when people turn up really ill for work? What is possibly the effect on the rest of the team? If you are not a team leader but you have one, ask their opinion. I used to work with someone when I was employed, who always turned up ill for work, and I very nearly always caught what they had and it would just slay me.

Here’s another one: When was the last time you learned something new? Is there a course or a subject matter you have always wanted to know more about? What IS your passion? Personal development isn’t something that is out with your control. A great website that I love is called Udemy, and there is a multitude of courses you can look up and study at home. It feels good to get your teeth stuck into something new.

Other things that you could suggest that could happen in the workplace are:

Fitness challenges - get a group together and sign up to strava (fitness app - free), and set the goal to walk a marathon distance a month.

Healthy cooking cookbook for work colleagues - ask your colleagues to submit their favourites and yes chocolate crispies are TOTALLY allowed. They are only crispies after all.

Wellbeing circle at work - I think that in this day and age, with there being more than a few women in the workplace going through menopause - I think this is a good thing. Make it one of the topics to have a meetup about . Make sure that someone hosts a mens group too though! Put the invite out and see what happens. it could be a lunchtime talk for 20 mins and it would do a great job of getting colleagues away from their desk for while.

I don’t feel it’s enough for employers to counteract the effects of stress with a weekly yoga class if burnout still exists in the workplace. It’s not enough to just sit back and let someone else sort it out.

That someone could be you!