“We are a very busy practice and have high expectations from all our staff. We make sure as often as possible that we acknowledge their efforts. Every holiday, a catered “themed” lunch is brought into each location and the staff can sit and chat with each other in a relaxed atmosphere and talk. We really play these luncheons up. At Easter, we hand out Easter eggs filled with candy, discounts for products, and iBUCK reward coupons.

IBUCKS is an annual program in which managers or doctors give employees who go above-and-beyond the normal call of duty a coupon worth 10 points. At the end of the program they exchange the points for gift cards and even a paid company day off if enough points are accumulated. I have noticed that they do keep calm during stressful moments, all in anticipation for the next iBUCK!

To me, the greatest stress reliever is developing a good relationship with your co-workers. We hold monthly meetings at work to discuss any problems we are having and we’re always coming up with new strategies to help each other. Even though we are of different ages and at different points in our lives, we do a lot of things outside of work together. We go on at least one medical mission trip per year and attend training conferences. Also, we are planning to go to a local baseball game together, as well as kickboxing classes to blow off steam after work. I am confident we would not interact as well and our business would not run as smoothly if it weren’t for the “team” relationship we have developed.

“Beyond door slamming, foot stomping, crying, chocolate, and cocktails – what can you and your staff do to cope with daily work stress? When we polled our staff about how they like to handle stress in the workplace, the following responses were repeated over and over:

■ Take a moment

■ Take a deep breath

■ Mentally put myself in my happy place

■ Vent to my boss

■ Ask a co-worker to jump in and help

It turns out that what these folks are really doing is well described in a fantastic TED Talks video by psychologist, Kelly McGonigal, who points to scientific research that shows stress is less harmful than our attitudes toward it: www.ted.com/talks/kelly_mcgonigal_how_to_make_stress_your_friend.

Ms. McGonigal points out that by changing perceptions about stress, we can transform the negative impact it has on lives and make stress good for us. She might have a point, at the very least she has tapped into a topic that more than 5.2 million of us are interested in learning about.

In the end, it’s simply all about attitude! Change your attitude and change your life – literally!