Work stress

Hi AbsFord,

I have one of those jobs that doesn't involve customer interaction. 

I wanted to signpost you to the Access to Work Scheme.

https://www.gov.uk/access-to-work

They provide work coaching via two providers:

https://able-futures.co.uk/individuals

https://atw.maximusuk.co.uk/

I used them last year, to try and help me stay in employment. They are funded by the DWP and have no cost to you. There is a disclaimer here: they are paid to try and keep you in work. But, they helped me get through a mental health crisis and supported me over 9 months. I found my work coach to be fantastic and helped me navigate work and the diffiiculties of being autistic in my workplace.

If you are interested in knowing more about them, let me know. But they helped me immensely.

Best wishes on your career and work.

Mrs Snooks

This blog article describes 31 key Customer Service skills.  Maybe you could turn the 21 headings into a list of ideas and potential things to learn more about and practice that learning in you workplace.

You don't need to tackle lots of things at the same time.  Maybe, at first, pick one from the list  thing which causes you the most worry / stress, plus one other thing that you know your Manager would value you improving.

Have a think to see if there is anyone else working with you who seems to do those two things well and try to notice how they often handle those two things.

Now see if you can adapt their techniques slightly to make them achievable for you.  If you have a friend or relative likely to be helpful and supportive - maybe you could practice  / rehearse some phrases and tactics with their help.

https://www.helpscout.com/blog/customer-service-skills/

If you find learning from books - ask your Library for help finding relevant titles, or find a used copy of a  book to buy at a reasonable price e.g. 

Customer Service Training 101:

Quick and Easy Techniques That Get Great Results

By Renee Evenson

https://www.awesomebooks.com/book/9780814472903/customer-service-training-101-quick-and-easy-techniques/used?gad_source=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI3NTH1ci9jAMVGJhQBh0-TADNEAQYASABEgKALfD_BwE

Some books at the Library, or to buy might be available as eBooks or Audio Books if that would be a more successful format for how you *** to kearn.

If your Team operates an annual appraisal meeting (skills, development, training and performance review sessions), or something similar, do keep a note which you update throughout the year of the various learning and development activities you have done in the months of that year ...and don't be shy about reminding or informing your Manager or Team Leader about your progress and successes (make sure they know that you are keen to learn and have been working on improving your Customer Service skills and how you can feel even better about those interactions with people).

Stress can affect so many areas of our lives - so it is a serious matter - not something to try and ignore or just "hope for the best" about. 

You have made a brilliant first step towards tackling it by mentioning it to us here - now the challenge is to keep on dealing with it a small step at a time:

...what bothers you, how can you try to improve it, what downtime relaxation technique could you try next, what other (outside of work time) interests could you make thr effort to do which you enjoy, can you be extra careful with your self-care routine to be best prepared for dealing with Customers at work (get good sleep, do exercise, eat healthily, drink sufficient water, see people you like to spend time with outside of work, do your hobbies, listen to favourite music etc.).

Most accessible entry level jobs involve customers of some sort so I think you are going to get a lot more benefit of changing yourself rather than running away from it.

That may sound harsh but what I mean is to learn the skills to be able to control your stress levels when speaking with customers and be able to switch off at the end of the day to stop it overflowing into your free time.

Doing this for an autist is quite a challenging process and I think it is best done with the help of an experienced psychotherapist who has a track record of helping autists.

They can teach you techniques of compartmentalising things so you can switch off at the end of day and can help you with a range of techniques to cope better with handling the customer hassles (breathing, mindfulness and meditation spring to mind).

It costs about £50 per session and you will probably need about a dozen so it isn't trivial - and it takes a lot of time to practice the exercises that you will be given. You have to want to learn and make the effort to get your moneys worth.

The one big upside is that the skills you learn here will last you a lifetime and can be applied in all manner of situations to make your life much less stressful. When you think of it this way it is really good value.

Plus you can teach some of the skills to other stressed colleagues if you are up for it - passing on the benefits of your experience to help others.

Just a thought from someone who spent most of 32 years dealing with customers in some way.