How to Serve others Without Losing Yourself - Report Example

HOW TO SERVE OTHERS WITHOUT LOOSING YOURSELF Name : Course : Prof : Date : The Human Service Workers are unique individuals with a strong desire to help others and the community. They have a mission ingrained from the principles of service, social justice, dignity and merit of human being, human involvement, honor, and proficiency. They are committed to alleviate the burdens of others, enduring, sympathetic, compassionate, and with a strong sense of conviction and accountability to the community. Those whose enthusiasm to contribute and work in the most diverse setting of our society is indisputable. They work for the empowerment of people who are defenseless, subjugated, and existing in deprivation. They uphold social justice and social change for the benefit of individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities regardless of social and ethnic diversity. When it seems an honorable and rewarding job, human service workers are push to the limit with extreme caseloads and ever-dwindling budget. The limited and decreasing resources allocated to their work forces them to work under the relentless fear of downsizing and the probable peril of losing their job. Like all human beings with physical limitations, these humanitarian workers are most of the time subjected to compulsory overtime, spending long hours at work, left with only a handful of quality time for themselves. The inexorable demands for their work seem to deprive them of meal breaks and considerable time to rest. The constant exposure to these schedule disproportion tends to distort the difference between the time of work and time off. In addition, human service workers aside from being under constant pressure are frequently dealing with violent clients. The fear and aggravation drives these energetic and efficient workers into an exhausted person looming to throw in the towel. They felt victimized by depressing working conditions that is wearing their health and obliterating their spirit. The saddest and the most heartbreaking of all is the management and clients ungratefulness to their sacrifices. Finally, exhausted, tormented, and demoralized human service workers will find themselves hating their job so much that they do not want to work anymore. They no longer feel useful and lose their aspiration to stand out in their field. They are instantly overwhelmed, irritated by their work, and likely will be doing it just for the sake of obligation and not for the purpose and meaning. No longer enthusiastic and interested, the once good human service worker is now burned-out. Personal Boundaries that should exist between Human Service Workers and their Job Burnout usually attacks those workers in the helping profession excessively. Researchers found the causes to be psychological and sociological stresses. One way to avoid burnout is to put boundaries or limitation between work and private life. Human service workers should not over identify themselves with clients. They should put a limit to the extent of psychological interaction and should avoid too much personal attachment to client. Workers with deep personal attachment with clients tend to inherit their anxiety, uncertainties, negative personality and thereby adding to workers stress. Refrain from sympathizing too much and always bear in mind that the work you are doing for them is enough because you are a different person with own happy life to live. Social stress comes with workers and clients conflicting social values. Workers in the helping profession have humanitarian values that would easily react on sight of human sufferings. Workers should remember that we are living in a real world and much of our society does not share the same values. Do not expect high monetary reward for your work. Communities and government generally do no allocate much on charity works. Low salaries generally lead to dissatisfaction adding up to an already increasing stress at work. Set your mark; be satisfied in a certain point. Do not go beyond the peak where your effort is no longer commensurate to your salary. Most the time, workers are comparing their salary against the torment they felt on the job, which is wrong. Workplace Factors that Contribute to Burnout Burnout results from a combination of factors in the workplace: a) A worker doing the same type of work repeatedly, the same work, in the same desk, in the same time. b) A worker who does not received even a little appreciation from management and co-workers for a job well done. c) A worker, most of the time under management pressures to meet the deadline and unrealistic demands to perform and produce more. d) A worker that deals with clients that is unwilling and hard to please. e) Office politics, staffs are in conflict with one another and creating tension in the office. Workers are receiving abundance of criticism instead of support from colleagues. f) Supervisors and workers do not trust each other or in competition with each other, resulting into an environment to which they are working against each other instead of aiming towards a common goal. Workers tend to see the workplace as a battlefield where the only way to win is to get out. g) A workplace where the boss is always right and do not give opportunities for personal expression or for workers to take their own initiative in trying new method, a state in which testing, development, and improvement are not only unrewarded but also aggressively dishearten. h) The management squeezes workers time and energy to the last drop. i) Strenuous job that offers so little opportunity for workers professional growth. Warning Signs of Burnout Burnout usually associated when a worker feels overworked, underappreciated, baffled about expectations and over concern, anxious about job security, so unswerving with everyday jobs, bitter about job that are not proportionate with pay. Warning signs of job burnout are: a) When the work you usually love to do are no longer enjoyable. b) When you start to hate your work and everything in between. c) When your family and friends are affected by your frustration about your work. d) When you are hesitating to get up in bed in the morning and go to work. e) When co-workers easily aggravate you. f) When you envy those workers that are comfortable and happily doing their work. g) When you do not care anymore about the quality of your work. h) When you always encounter exhaustion and weakness while doing your job. i) When you hate Mondays and depress thinking about the working days ahead. Some physical signs of burnout or stress overloads are: a) Digestion problems, stomach cramps etc. b) frequent headaches c) high blood pressure d) heart attack e) strokes f) grinding teeth while you are sleeping g) fatigue Personal Factors that Provide Resiliency to Work Stress To prevent burnout, a worker should identify the possible causes and begin to improve their physical, mental and social well-being. a) Consult a doctor and undergo physical check-up. b) Rest and give your body enough sleep. c) Improve you eating habits; eat healthy foods to sustain your energy throughout the day. d) Release your tension, do some exercise and find new activity that you will enjoy. Burnout often occurs when you feel you are spending too much of yourself to your work and there is not time for you to relax. To fight the psychological effects of burnout you can: Reinforce your coping skills by developing relaxation techniques. You must learn better ways to deal with yourself. Learn to say no to extra jobs being handed you, learn to set a limit of things you can do with ease. Take more time off. Schedule regular breaks while at work and never let your work overcome your home life again. Be realistic and establish a meaningful goal for your life. Plan and strive to accomplish your goals in a way reasonable to you. Love yourself, always set some time alone and enjoy. Improving your social life and maintaining a good relationship with others can prevent or reduce burnout. Cultivate your relationship with your love one, your parents, partner, children, and friends. A good relationship can restore energy and being appreciated alleviates some psychological effects of burnout. Join social or religious group and befriend others coping with same workplace demands. Learn from their techniques and experience in dealing with daily stress. Let your supervisors know what you feel about your work and help them explore other options that would suit your needs. If the above approach is not possible, then find a new job or a new career. Learn to express your feelings so that others may know and understand you situation. Do not let your feelings worsen to burn you out. In summing up the ways to prevent burnout, a worker should learn to develop a sense of personal renewal, learn more about oneself, and establish a better relationship with others. Learn to recognize your needs and get them. Let your mind, body and spirit constantly rejuvenate, renewed, and always fresh. Strategies to get your Boss and Co-workers Working for your Success Becoming a good leader is the measure of success at work, but before anything else, a good leader must be a good follower. In order to achieve success, always bear in mind that your boss is the most important person to work with because he or she can provide you with tools and opportunity to advance in the organization. Your boss can grant you the advantage of training and give you better assignments that can greatly boost your opportunity to succeed. They key is to work around the unconventional behavior of your boss to get his or her favorable attention. a) Meet your boss standards Bosses standards of quality may vary from time to time depending on the situation. Some of them expect everything to be perfect and sometimes they just want a quick and dirty job but complaining afterwards. The solution is just to do your work exactly as the assignment requires. Nothing more and nothing less. b) Ask your boss for a feedback Some bosses do not want to give their employees feedback about their work, particularly those depressing comments. Do not wait for it. Ask your boss for his opinion and ask them how you can improve your work. This way, you will develop a working pattern pleasingly meeting your boss expectations. c) Learn the politics at the management level Generally, all large organizations function based on politics. Playing politics in the management level is not an option but a way to survive. Some bosses will cover their mistakes by blaming you. The solution is just to shrug it off and forget about it, as a rule of an organization, we all know who is truly responsible when mistakes are made. Do not humiliate your boss in public by contradicting his decision, if it is very important talk to him in private and politely express your opinion. Have a good rapport with your boss and always make your boss look good. Always remember that your boss is the person that could make things possible and favorable for you. Befriending your boss and making him always look good will certainly make your boss work for your promotion and make good things available for you. Getting along with your co-workers is crucial to survive the rudeness, malcontents, and obnoxious personalities of the workplace. In other words, work with someone you cannot take and always keep your cool. You will minimized tension and problem by focusing on your job and the task at hand. Always control your emotions and respect each other’s differences so you can maintain a good working relationship. Troublemaking will crush your chances of getting to the top and it is much better to get along and let your co-workers work for your success. A good relation with your co-workers will give you enough time to concentrate and be recognized in your field. Co-workers who regard you as a good person and an ally will surely give good feedbacks of you and probably recommend for a better position to the management. 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