I was wondering what a good tool is to block out the activites of co-workers when working in a cubical enviroment? For example not becoming part of their phone calls, or if they feel right outside your cubical is a good place to chat with others.

I am the director of a program on my career school campus. I also share an office with another program director. Our programs are unrelated, but we both have large class sizes, thus many student issues. We also share one phone line, because of the location of our office. Our company has an open door policy, basically stating we are "never to busy". One of our company's major values is helping our student achieve their goals, and treating our students as "customers". This has particularly become very challenging given the shared office, phone line, and lack of extra space due to a recent campus merger. At any rate, I have lots of student questions and concerns, throughout the day, that I am willing to address...whenever my students need me....but sometimes its a hassle in the moments I need the door closed to accomplish tasks, and the other director needs it open to be available to is students, yet my students are passing by, seeing me and needed something......how do I not address their concerns/issues without seeming rude, or uninterested in their needs, and not disrespecting/disrupting my office mate?

Workplace stress is one of the main reasons behind a stressful lifestyle. Workload, deadlines and difficult colleagues are some of the reasons behind the stressful environment.One of the main reasons i think that workplace stress gets escalated is because staff does not have a back up plan, especially a fiscal plan. Majority of times a stressful situation gets tied to the employee losing his job & that distracts the employee from focusing on the issue and thereby addressing the issue. The employees should have a back up plan to fall back on irrespective to how long they have been on the job. Adequate fiscal planning should be commenced as soon as theperson starts the job. Having financial security will prevent anxiety turning into toxic stress therefore the mind is not clouded and the situation could be easily addressed.

What is the best way to approach your supervisor about having your workload too high?

I will often get emails requesting my attention throughout each day, which isn't a problem when I'm not teaching. However, when I am teaching a class I find that setting my OOF (Out of Office) attendant helps with avoiding these interruptions. I set my OOF to respond with a message stating I'm training all week and will respond to emails during lunch and between 4-5pm. Doing this has practically eliminated any problems I've had with people saying I wasn't responding to their emails within a reasonable amount of time. This allows me to focus on outside problems outside of the classroom.

I have 19 faculty members in my team and additional 15 administrators on campus that I support. How do I manage my time effectively if I have random people running to my office because "the sky is falling" on a daily basis?

Training..... I live by the standard, "One is never too old to learn" and "Practice makes perfect".... which applies to everything in life, being it learning to bake a cake, an academical course or technical skill,....The more you do it, the better you become at it, as you will learn from your mistakes or successes, and do it better and better... Would you agree that any method of learning, being it through lecturing, CEU'S (continuing education, on-line, etc adds to a person's formal learning. If so, can you share those?

A great opportunity arised but you feel that you don't have the right skill set for it, how would you handle this?

Hi, I'm finding it very difficult to compete with my student's busy lives. They are taking three classes, working full time and trying to do 12 hours of homework a week. All this while being active young people who seem like they've never learned how to sit still or prioritize things. I tried to give them some of the strategies from this training. They seemed to listen, but time will tell. Any ideas out there?

One of the things I like to do when I'm feeling stressed it to take my thoughts elsewhere to focus on something positive or something I can look forward to. Learning something new on how to handle people or different scenarios gives me hope that things that otherwise often feel out of our control, are actually within our control. If there is a person that you are having difficulty getting along with, there are tons of resources that teach you how to communicate with people like that. In the end, I feel much more knowledgeable and ready to take control. It's all about taking initiative to be better and learn more about how to overcome your own obstacles.

If you cannot find a healthy mix with your work/life balance, should you begin looking for another job....is it worth it?

Do the mini breathing techniques work as well as the full relaxation technique because obviouly they would be easier to achieve during the workday

Consistent training helps the mind stay alert! It also keeps things interesting as employees are able to continually learn and evolve their skillsets.

I use social media daily. At times it is frustrating that I have so many channels to monitor and respond to. I have interactions daily on my blogs, my website contact form, Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Google+, texting, and several email accounts. I try to be as connected as possible with students, faculty, and the community. At the same time, Other instructors do not. Am I crazy for trying to stay current with technology trends or just overextending myself? Anyone else feel this way?

As we all know, there are good and bad stressors. In life, we must learn that we need stress as a catalyst to improve. Stress isn't always negative. If I achieve the goals set forth for me at work, then idea of not achieving the goals are considered a stressor; a stressor that keeps my bills paid none the less. Just as many of our students would like to earn an A, it takes work to do so. Therefore receiving a bad grade is a stressor to achieve the A which they want.

A lot of it was a review but it's nice to see an organization willing to remind people about the importance contained within the subject.

I thought it was a good idea to share with co workers and close friends to relieve some pressure that is built up inside,this way we can see from a different point of view.

This is a valuable topic--the most important aspect here is to establish that the content of the training has been comprehended by the trainees. To address this, and assessment is necessary, and the assessment needs to be effective. A Q&A over basic content is useful, but questions in which the knowledge is applied will provide a better tool to assess the effectiveness of the training. Questions containing scenario-based case studies will be the most useful here. I welcome all input! Thanks! Richard--

I find that I have to remind myself that a job, is just a job. When my home life suffers, everything else suffers along with it. Sometimes it is hard to remember to balance the two.

I start the day with all the topics that I want to cover for the class. Then I assign time limit for each topic. When we reach that time I would move on to the next topic. I would allocate some time at the end for further discussion on certain topics that we could not complete at the time limit zone. Is that appropriate for me to do?