Minimizing stress and avoiding burnout

1. Chapter 9: Minimizing Stress and Avoiding Burnout

A Guide to Customer Service Skills for
the Service Desk Professional
Fourth Edition

2. Objectives

In this chapter you will learn:
• The causes of stress
• Effective coping skills to reduce the negative
effects of stress in your life
• Proven techniques to manage your time
wisely and achieve personal success
• The connection between time and stress
management
A Guide to Customer Service Skills for the Service Desk Professional, 4e
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3. Minimizing Stress and Avoiding Burnout

• Customer service is a stressful occupation
• Good self-management skills are needed
• Self-management skills – The skills, such as
stress and time management, that people need
to complete work efficiently and effectively, feel
job satisfaction, and avoid frustration or burnout
• Self-management skills also include the ability to
get and stay organized and continuously and
quickly learn new skills
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4. Reducing the Negative Effects of Stress

• Stress is a normal and unavoidable side effect of
living
• Stress - The adaptation of our bodies and minds
to the demands of life
• Properly managed, stress is an excellent source
of motivation and can be a positive part of life
– Eustress
• Conversely, high levels of stress can sap your
motivation and become a negative
– Distress
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5. Reducing the Negative Effects of Stress (continued)

• Too little or too much stress can lead to
health problems
• Health problems related to stress include:
– Alcoholism
– Back and muscle aches
– Depression
– Drug abuse
– Eating disorders
– Serious illness
– Fatigue
– Headaches
– Sleeplessness
– Low energy and
concentration levels
– Premature aging
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6. Determining the Causes of Stress

• A service desk is a particularly stressful place
to work because analysts are exposed to
multiple sources of stress
– Institutional
– Situational
– Personal
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7. Sources of Stress

• Institutional stressors - The stressors that
accompany the type of business you are in or
the state of the organization where you work
• Your challenge is to figure out which
institutional stressors you want to experience
• You have very little ability to influence
institutional stressors
– You can, however, choose where you work
very carefully
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8. Sources of Stress (continued)

• Situational stressors - The stressors that
accompany the type of work you do
• Like institutional stressors, situational stressors
exist anywhere you work
• You have a greater ability to influence situational
stressors by developing a positive attitude and
skills
– You can, for example, strike negative phrases
from your vocabulary or use the techniques
described in this book to become a better listener
or to communicate more effectively
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9. Sources of Stress (continued)

Conflict with coworkers
Difficult customer situations
Heavy workload
Inability to predict or control
workload
• Insufficient training
• Insufficient time for training
• Insufficient tools such as
incident management
systems, knowledge
management systems, and
remote control systems
• Insufficient knowledge
resources such as tools,
procedures, and resident
experts
• Interruptions
• Lack of career opportunity
• Lack of management
commitment and direction
• Poor product quality in terms
of the products supported by
the service desk
• Response time restrictions
• Understaffing
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10. Sources of Stress (continued)

• Personal stressors – The stressors that
accompany your individual life experience
• Even positive life experiences can cause
stress
• You have the greatest ability to influence your
personal stressors
– You can determine ways to either eliminate
the stressor or minimize its effects on your life
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11. Sources of Stress (continued)

• Layers of stressors may cause you to feel
completely overwhelmed
• Take the time to identify the real source or
sources of your stress
• Ask yourself the following questions:
– Do you like the business you are in?
– Do you like the work that you do?
– Are you happy with your personal life?
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12. Developing Effective Coping Mechanisms

• Two key factors that affect how people respond
to stress are:
– How much control a person has over a stressor
– Whether or not a person chooses to be exposed
to the stressor
• How much control a person has over a stressor:
– You cannot always control what happens around
you or what other people do
– There is always something you can do
– You can choose whether or not to expose yourself
to a stressor
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13. Developing Effective Coping Mechanisms (continued)

• When you cannot control a situation, you have
two choices:
– Change the situation
– Control the way you respond to the situation
• Once you accept a stressor, stop complaining
• Complaining simply makes you unhappy and
may even magnify the stressor in your mind
• Determine what you can do to minimize the effect
that the stressor is having on your life
• Be positive and continuously remind yourself that
you are accepting this stressor for a reason
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14. Developing Effective Coping Mechanisms (continued)

• Accepting responsibility for the stress you are
experiencing is the most important step you
can take in terms of coping with stress and
avoiding burnout
• Burnout - The physical and emotional
exhaustion caused by long-term stress
• People often experience burnout when they
are not managing their stress day-in and dayout
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15. Developing Effective Coping Mechanisms (continued)

• To manage stress effectively, remember that
there is always something that you can do
• Determine the best course of action to take by
staying calm and in control
• If you feel yourself losing control and becoming
incapable of making a good decision, use
calming techniques:
– Take a deep breath
– Take a sip of water
– Use positive self-talk
– Use positive imagery
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16. Developing Effective Coping Mechanisms (continued)

• Stress is a normal part of life
• You cannot eliminate it altogether
• You can learn to identify the causes of stress
in your life and develop effective coping
mechanisms
• You can also learn to use stress as a positive,
motivating force
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17. Learning to Master Change

• Advances in technology have dramatically changed when,
where, and how people work and live
• Today’s business economy is shifting more and more
toward technology-related services and knowledge work
• Success in today’s business world belongs to people who:
– Embrace change
– Are ready and willing to reinvent themselves as needed to
contribute to the company’s goals
• Companies want people that can quickly abandon
outdated tools and methods
• Career opportunities go to people that look to the future,
anticipate coming changes, and quickly adapt
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18. Learning to Master Change (continued)

• Tips for mastering change include:
– Recognize learning as the labor of the
Information Age
– Develop flexibility
– Speed up
– Develop project management skills
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19. Learning to Master Change (continued)

• Recognize learning as the labor of the Information Age:
– Technology changes quickly and it doesn’t take long for
technical skills to become obsolete
– Take the time to continuously update and improve your
technical skills as well as your business, soft, and selfmanagement skills
• Develop flexibility:
– Expect on any given day to be asked to do something new,
something you’ve never done before, perhaps even
something you will never do again
– Develop the ability to quickly figure out what needs to be
done and do it
– If you need help, ask for it
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20. Learning to Master Change (continued)

• Speed up:
– Approach all of your work with a sense of urgency
– The goal is to get it done, get it done right, and get it
done quickly
– Strive for excellence and do it fast
• Develop project-management skills:
– Anyone who has to juggle more than one task at a
given time can use project management skills
– Good project management skills take time to develop
and can improve only through experience
– Project management skills are highly transferable and
will serve you well now and in the future
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21. Getting and Staying Mentally and Physically Fit

• Coping with stress and mastering change takes
physical and emotional energy
• Stressful situations, left unchecked, can lead to
illness
• Fight-or-flight reaction - A set of physiological
changes that occur when the mind, upon perceiving a
stressful event, triggers an alarm that mobilizes the
body for action
• Today, people are not aware of their bodies’ minuteto-minute responses to stressful situations
• In time, this tension can accumulate and lead to
serious health problems
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22. Getting and Staying Mentally and Physically Fit (continued)

Techniques for staying fit include:
Exercise
Drink plenty of water
Practice good nutrition
Avoid the use of stimulants
Get a good night’s sleep
Align your workspace ergonomically
Take breaks
Let your sense of humor shine through
Commit yourself to relaxation
Set realistic goals
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23. Getting and Staying Mentally and Physically Fit (continued)

• Exercise – Provides a way of releasing the muscle
tension that can accumulate from stress
• Drink plenty of water – It increases your energy level
and mental capacities – there are many sources of
water
• Practice good nutrition – Eating the right amount of
food at the right time helps you sustain energy level
and maintain an even temperament
• Avoid the use of stimulants – Stimulants exaggerate
all of the body’s stress responses by causing a surge
of adrenaline and other hormones
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24. Getting and Staying Mentally and Physically Fit (continued)

• Get a good night’s sleep – Healthy habits, a bedtime
schedule, and a bedtime routine help overcome the
physical and mental effects of inadequate sleep
• Ergonomically align your workspace - A poorly designed
workspace can cause physical symptoms
– Ergonomics - The applied science of equipment design
intended to maximize productivity by reducing operator
fatigue and discomfort
– Repetitive stress injuries (RSIs) - Physical symptoms caused
by excessive and repeated use of the hands, wrists, arms,
and thumbs or from performing tasks using force, strenuous
actions, awkward postures, and poorly designed equipment
– Carpal tunnel syndrome – A RSI that affects hands and
wrists and is linked to repetitious hand movements
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25. Getting and Staying Mentally and Physically Fit (continued)

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26. Getting and Staying Mentally and Physically Fit (continued)

• Take breaks - Working nonstop often leads to fatigue
and burnout
– Take time throughout the day to rejuvenate yourself
• Let your sense of humor shine through – Laughter
helps you relax when you are feeling tense and can
restore your sense of optimism and self-confidence
• Commit yourself to relaxation – A relaxing activity is
one that leaves you free of tension and refreshed
both physically and mentally
– A relaxing activity should consume you to the extent
that you temporarily forget about your stressors and
focus on your personal well-being
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27. Getting and Staying Mentally and Physically Fit (continued)

• Set realistic goals - Realistic goals are attainable.
• The most successful people have written short- and longterm goals as well as professional and personal goals
• At work, ask your supervisor or team leader to help you
establish reasonable goals along with a timetable for
reviewing your accomplishments
• Make sure you understand your team’s goals and how
your personal goals fit in with them
• Not having goals can also lead to stress
• Goals give you a purpose in life
• Knowing where you want to go and what you want to do in
life allows you to focus your energies and avoid, or more
easily tolerate, distractions along the way
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28. Getting and Staying Mentally and Physically Fit (continued)

• Case Study: Ergonomically aligning your
workspace
• The placement and use of your chair, monitor,
keyboard, and mouse are related and must be
aligned properly with each other and with you
• Chair – Adjust until your back is erect, slightly
back, and firm against the backrest
• Thighs and legs should be relaxed and feet
should be flat on the floor
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29. Getting and Staying Mentally and Physically Fit (continued)

• Monitor - Directly in front of you at, or just below, eye level
– When sitting straight with your head erect, the monitor
should be no more than 24 inches away from your eyes
• Keyboard and mouse - Keep your wrists straight and
avoid resting them on hard surfaces
– Press keys gently
– Grip the mouse (when used) loosely
– Consider an ergonomic keyboard or wrist wrest
• Telephone - Either directly in front of you or at less than a
25 degree angle and no more than 10 inches away
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30. Getting and Staying Mentally and Physically Fit (continued)

• Headset - Should keep your head and neck in a neutral
position and free your hands for activities such as
keyboarding
– Do not use a headset that encourages you to tilt or hang
your head
• Lighting – The brightness of your workspace can greatly
affect your well-being
– Too much lighting: Reduce glare by spraying an antiglare
coating on the glass surface or by installing an antiglare filter
– Too little lighting: Use adjustable task lighting on the desk
that provides directed lighting to supplement the overhead
lighting
• Make a conscious effort to look out a window and
experience natural light periodically throughout the day
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31. Managing Your Time

• Service desks are high-activity places to work
and some days can be very hectic
• Analysts who manage time wisely are able to feel
in control during exceptionally busy times and
stay motivated during slow times
• Good work habits, such as getting and staying
organized, enable you to:
– View work as a challenge to be enjoyed
– Maintain physical and mental fitness on the job
– Achieve personal success
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32. Getting and Staying Organized

Techniques for getting and staying organized
• Create a beginning of day checklist
• Create a “What I Need to Know” list
• Create a “What Coworkers Need to Know” list
• Keep up with administrative tasks
• Log all incidents and service requests in real
time
• Check the status of your open tickets
regularly
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33. Getting and Staying Organized (continued)

• Strong organizational skills are the hallmark of an
excellent service provider
• How you manage your workload will influence:
– Customer satisfaction
– Your relationship with other service providers
– Your personal stress level
• Create a BOD – A beginning of day (BOD) checklist is a
list of tasks an analyst performs at the start of each
workday
• Create a “What I need to know” list - A list, placed in clear
view, of important telephone numbers, file names, dates,
etc. that analysts need on a fairly regular basis
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34. Getting and Staying Organized (continued)

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35. Getting and Staying Organized (continued)

• Create a “What co-workers need to know” list – A
list of important information co-workers may need
to know if an analyst is out of the office for a
period of days or weeks
• Keep up with your administrative tasks –
Completing tasks in a timely fashion takes less
time because information is fresh in your mind
– Your coworkers and your supervisor or team
leader appreciate your keeping items up-to-date
because then they have the information they need
to do their work if you are not available
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36. Getting and Staying Organized (continued)

• Log all contacts real time - Writing customer and
incident or service request data on a piece of paper
during the contact and then logging the information
later is an unproductive practice
– Logging contacts real time ensures that other analysts
know an incident or service request exists and enables
service desk managers to know and show when the
service desk is short-handed
• Check the status of your open tickets daily - Learn to
create online reports or run queries that list all of the
tickets you own so that you can stay organized
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37. Coping with Deadlines

• Deadlines are a normal part of life and can be
a positive, motivating force
• The best way to cope with deadlines is to:
– Clearly define the work to be done
– Be realistic about what you can accomplish
each day, week, and year
• Overcommitting is a major cause of stress
and can diminish your ability to do highquality work
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38. Coping with Deadlines (continued)

• Avoid procrastination - Putting off a task until the
last minute can cause you to miss a critical
deadline or produce a low-quality product
– Break large tasks into smaller ones and try to
complete the task a little bit at a time
– Set a time limit and work on a task for at least that
period of time
– By breaking large tasks into smaller ones, you will
know a lot sooner whether you can meet your
deadline and can then inform your supervisor or
team leader
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39. Coping with Deadlines (continued)

• Manage your priorities - Create a “To Do” list that
shows all of the tasks you are required to
complete
– Assign a priority to each task
– Check for a balance of priorities
– When faced with too many “A” tasks, consider the
following:
• Who asked me to complete this task?
• What is the risk if I don’t complete this task? What
is the value if I do complete this task?
• When am I expected to have this task done? What
is my deadline?
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40. Coping with Deadlines (continued)

Simple priority scale
• A – Urgent: Must do today
• B – Important: Should do this week
• C – Do when time permits
• D - Delegate
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41. Coping with Deadlines (continued)

Simple priority scale
• A – Urgent: Must do today
• B – Important: Should do this week
• C – Do when time permits
• D - Delegate
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42. Coping with Deadlines (continued)

• Electronic organizers can be used in lieu of
assigning priorities to tasks on to-do lists (e.g.,
Evernote, LeanKit Kanban, OneNote, Todoist)
• Regardless of system, collect all to-do tasks,
ideas, and project-related data in one place
or system
• Develop the habit of regularly maintaining
that system
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43. Coping with Deadlines (continued)

• Use your peak productivity times – Determine
if you are an early bird or a night owl
– If possible, schedule your work to take
advantage of the time during which you
function best
• Eliminate time robbers – Avoid activities that
take up time and do not add value to the work
you perform
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44. Coping with Deadlines (continued)

Use the following techniques to avoid time robbers:
• Log contacts as they come in
• Avoid distractions
• Avoid gossip and excessive socializing
• Ask for help when you really need it
• Keep your desk and files organized
• Suggest constructive ways to make
improvements
• Automate recurring tasks
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45. Coping with Deadlines (continued)

• Companies are increasingly asking
employees to do more work, often with fewer
resources
• People who manage their time well can meet
this challenge because they prioritize their
work and stay focused on producing the
desired results
• People who manage their time well also tend
to experience lower levels of stress and
burnout
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46. Understanding the Time/Stress Connection

• Time management involves making an endless series of
small and large decisions about what you will accomplish
each day
• Inappropriate decisions, such as those that result in
wasted time, can lower self-esteem and increase stress
levels
• People who maintain a positive attitude, manage their
priorities, and use time wisely, feel good at the end of
each day because they know they have done their best
• Time and stress management skills are tightly linked
• People who are highly stressed may be contributing to
that stress by making poor decisions in terms of how they
use their time
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47. Understanding the Time/Stress Connection (continued)

• Teach and help others so that they can in turn help you
• Let your boss or coworkers know when you are feeling
overwhelmed or don’t know which of your tasks take
priority
• Let people know that your plate is full rather than miss a
deadline or let them down because you run out of time
• Calmly ask for clarification about what you should
consider your priorities or state what you can do
– “I was planning on finishing the month-end report this
morning. Does this task take priority over that?”
– “I’m working on a deadline today. Can I get that information
to your tomorrow?”
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48. Understanding the Time/Stress Connection (continued)

• Failing to plan ahead is another common contributor to
people’s stress
• Minutes of planning prior to an event can often mean the
difference between feeling stressed and confused when
the event arrives, or enjoying the event to its fullest; or at
least feeling in control of the event
• Highly stressed people often feel they don’t have time for
time management or for training in stress management
• Remember… you choose the stress you experience each
and every day
• Practicing good time and stress management will help you
take control of your life and achieve your full potential
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49. Understanding the Time/Stress Connection (continued)

• If you choose a career in the service desk
industry, an exciting and rewarding profession
awaits
• It is a rapidly growing and ever-changing field
that offers tremendous opportunities to people
who like working with technology and enjoy
helping customers
• To seize these opportunities, you must hone your
soft- and self-management skills, along with your
business and technical skills
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50. Understanding the Time/Stress Connection (continued)

• In developing these skills, you lay the foundation
for a successful career, regardless of your
chosen profession
• You also develop the “life” skills needed to
handle even the most challenging situations—
whether in your professional life or in your
personal life—with confidence and enthusiasm
• Be optimistic
• With your skills, the future is bright!
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51. Chapter Summary

• Customer service is a stressful occupation
and analysts need to develop good selfmanagement skills, such as stress and time
management
– To deal effectively with the stress in your life,
take the time to identify the real source or
sources of your stress
– Develop a plan of action and a stress
management program that will work for you
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52. Chapter Summary (continued)

• Two key factors that affect how people respond to stress
are:
– How much control they have over the stressor
– Whether or not they choose to be exposed to the stressor
• Even when you feel a situation is out of your control, there
is always something you can do
– You can change the situation or you can control the way you
respond to the situation
• Accepting responsibility for the stress you are
experiencing is the most important step you can take in
terms of coping with the stress and avoiding burnout
A Guide to Customer Service Skills for the Service Desk Professional, 4e
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53. Chapter Summary (continued)

• The rate of change in today’s business world keeps
accelerating, and it is not likely to slow down any time
soon
– Learn to embrace change and be willing to reinvent
yourself as needed to contribute to your company’s
goals
• Take personal responsibility for your career
– Keep learning, develop flexibility, speed up, and
develop project management skills
– By accepting responsibility for your future, you can
minimize much of the stress and fear that comes from
putting your well-being in the hands of someone else,
such as an employer
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54. Chapter Summary (continued)

• Coping with stress and mastering change takes
physical and emotional energy
– Take time, every day, to think about your physical
and emotional needs, and devote time to fulfilling
those needs
• Companies are increasingly asking employees to
do more work, often with fewer resources
– People who manage their time well are able to
meet this challenge because they prioritize their
work and stay focused on producing the desired
results
A Guide to Customer Service Skills for the Service Desk Professional, 4e
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55. Chapter Summary (continued)

• Good work habits, such as getting and staying
organized, enable you to:
– Feel in control
– Make good time management decisions
• When you manage your time well, you will
experience lower levels of stress and burnout
• Time and stress management are tightly linked
• Practicing both will help you take control of your
life and achieve your full potential
A Guide to Customer Service Skills for the Service Desk Professional, 4e
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