For all of us, a relaxed work environment is important for optimum productivity. Needless to say that when stressed, people have very low productivity. I have talked before in a previous blog about self management skills that I have adopted from the amazing books of David Allen; Getting Things Done and Making It All Work, but a relaxed work environment requires other things also.
When working as teams, it is important to ensure mutual respect between all members of the team. Teams that have personal conflicts cannot have a relaxed atmosphere during work. This requires developing our interpersonal relationship skills and communication skills. When teams are actually personal friends this gives work a different taste. Trying to develop social activities to enforce personal relations among the team members is a useful tool to build up a relaxed work atmosphere.
Physical factors also influence the working environment. For me it is important to have a clean, organized office and desk to feel relaxed and become able to concentrate in work. The same applies to the importance of having an organized filing system for patients' data, slide archives and copies of reports.
An important thing in my opinion also is not to overload yourself with loads and loads of slides to report in one session. Scheduling your reporting or your clinical consultations or biopsy taking sessions is very important not only for your own benefit but for the patients' sake as doing your job while you are tired or stressed might increase the chances of you making a wrong diagnosis.
Finally a soft classic music in the background while working is also another way to achieve a relaxed atmosphere.
I would love to read about your experience with this issue..