Workload Stress? Learn to Just Say No!

What the Society for Human Resource Management simply calls "work intensification" is not a simple thing: it is your management trying to get longer hours and more output from your work.

A survey by the global management consulting firm Accenture confirms that nearly two-thirds of employees are reporting an increased workload and exponentially higher levels of stress. With the Internet and cell phones, more employees also are taking their work home with them.

How can today's already overworked employees and managers just say no without losing their jobs? It's simple: just say no.

If you try to force too much achievement in at work, you'll end up with the stress experts at the Mayo Clinic! And if you have too many off site activities in your schedule, your remedy is one word: no: no.

"Saying no is not a selfish act," Mayo Clinic researchers wrote in a recent report. "When you say no, you'll be able to spend quality time on the things you've already said yes to."

Here are four tips on how to say no at work without risking a negative response.

1. Be sensible. Do your internal homework before you respond. Ask yourself: Is it worth risking your physical health to avoid saying no? Overwork and over-stress can jeopardize your overall productivity and your long-term health and happiness. It is not worth putting both your health and the prospects you might have for a long career at risk. Just say no!

2. Add a positive to a negative. You can use some positive thing to reduce any sense of adverse reaction when you just say no. Example: "I must say no, because I want to do the best job I can on the project I already am working on for you."

3. Be ready with a compromise. If your boss pushes a bit more extra work your way just a few minutes before the end of work, explain the work in process you already have and see if you can address it when that project is done. Ask if you can respond the next morning when you can be energized and ready with your best answer. Ask if someone else could do half of the extra work he's assigned. Try to come up with an alternative to his request and you'll head off his negative responses at the pass.

4. Wrap the 'no' you give your boss with the appropriate etiquette. When you say no, use polite language to minimize any ill will. Say I'm sorry. Say I respect you and wish I could say yes. Use the common courtesies when you are speaking to your management. Keep in mind that good manners can be contagious.

It's up to you to minimize your own stress and now you've got the tools to do it.