Handling Stress: Use these sample phrases to craft meaningful performance evaluations, drive change and motivate your workforce.

Handling Stress is the skill to balance the requirements of the job and your abilities or available resources in performing it.

Handling Stress: Exceeds Expectations Phrases

  • Sets aside time for the things one enjoys doing such as listening to music, meditating, exercising or reading in order to relax one's mind
  • Postpones major work changes such as new projects or changing departments when feeling stressed or anxious
  • Restricts one's overtime hours and speaks to the manager if the demands are unreasonable
  • Avoids taking on projects, checking emails and answering work calls out of working hours
  • Tracks one's stressors by keeping a journal to identify which situations create the most stress and how to respond to them
  • Does not over commit or offer to take on projects when one does not realistically have enough time
  • Maintains a positive attitude and rewards oneself for little or major accomplishments
  • Sets realistic goals in order to avoid getting frustrated when they are not achieved and takes time to celebrate those that have been achieved
  • Avoids toxic co-workers; stays as away as possible from colleagues who gossip or those that bring negative energy
  • Spends time with people who are supportive, relaxed, fun to be with and who improve one's level of satisfaction

Handling Stress: Meets Expectations Phrases

  • Accepts help from trusted friends and family members in order to improve one's ability to manage stress
  • Gets out of the workplace during lunch hour in order to feel refreshed and more productive in the afternoon
  • Takes one's annual leave each year and makes sure that one has a proper break from work
  • Gets started on major projects as early as possible, anticipates situations that may affect these projects and works to prevent them
  • Speaks up diplomatically and calmly if one has too much to handle
  • Takes time to organize one's desk in order to ease the sense of losing control that comes from too much clutter
  • Makes sure to have one or two colleagues who are willing to assist in the time of stress in order to reduce one's stress level
  • Meditates regularly in order to control the thoughts that can trigger stress at work
  • Tries to do something right for the first time in order to save oneself a headache later when one has to redo the work
  • Makes to-do lists, prioritizes one's tasks and schedules enough time to complete each task in order to avoid stress from piled-up tasks

Handling Stress: Needs Improvement Phrases

  • Spends too much time on one task by going back several times to polish and rearrange in order to get the result one wants thus, misses deadlines for other tasks
  • Makes long to-do lists thus gets overwhelmed and too overloaded with work
  • Creates extra drama, overthinks and creates problems out of things that do not matter
  • Uses guesswork instead of asking for clarification on a project thus, ends up making serious mistakes and getting stressed up
  • Is always worrying about work when at home, taking a day off or when taking a vacation
  • Does everything that is on one's schedule and gets frustrated when some tasks are not accomplished
  • Does not take time to freshen up even when one starts to feel drained and mentally overworked
  • Disassociates oneself from colleagues when faced with a difficult situation
  • Is negative minded; focuses on the problem or challenge one is facing rather than adjusting one's mindset to look for solutions
  • Easily gets distracted by situations that one cannot change or influence

Handling Stress: Self Evaluation Questions

  • Can you describe a situation at work that really stressed you out to the maximum? How did you handle it?
  • Give an example of a time when you have worked with a team that was facing a very stressful situation. How did you help the team members handle the situation?
  • Can you give examples of some of the things you have done to prevent a situation from becoming too stressful for you to handle?
  • How do you know a colleague is stressed up? What skills do you use to help colleagues manage stress?
  • Describe a time when you have had a heavy workload. How did you handle it?
  • Is there a time when your work has been criticized? How did you receive the criticism?
  • Which specific areas in your current department do you find to be the most stressful?
  • Describe a time when your project was faced with a situation that was not anticipated. How did you handle it?
  • What steps have you followed in the past to avoid distractions at work and remain positive-minded?
  • What ways do you use to identify your stress triggers? What do you do to make sure that the same stressful situation does not reappear?

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