Workers are feeling frazzled in the office, according to a nationwide survey by CareerBuilder.com. More than half of workers said they work under a great deal of stress, and 77 percent said they feel burnout on the job. More than 2,500 workers participated in the study.

Workers most often blame colleagues for their office anxiety, with 16 percent citing difficult co-workers as their primary cause of stress at work. Other top workplace stressors included:

  -- Unrealistic workload (15 percent)
  -- Tight deadlines (11 percent)
  -- Last-minute projects (10 percent)
  -- Overbearing or interfering boss (9 percent)

"High-pressure work environments are taking their toll on workers' morale," said Rosemary Haefner, Vice President of Human Resources for CareerBuilder.com. "Twenty-three percent of workers say they frequently or constantly feel burnout at work. This can be detrimental to both workers, whose health and career progress may suffer, and employers, who pick up the tab in higher insurance costs and lost productivity."

  Haefner offers these tips to help limit workplace stress:

  -- Organize and prioritize.  Tackle the more difficult and important tasks
     first each day to ensure you have time to complete them.  Before you
     leave work, take a few minutes to clean up your workspace and create
     the next day's to-do list.

  -- Manage expectations.  Set reasonable short-term and long-term goals for
     yourself.  When promising work to others, underpromise and overdeliver
     to prevent deadline crunches.

  -- Put down the "Crackberry."  Set aside a certain period each day devoted
     to returning e-mails and voicemail messages.  That way, you won't be
     constantly interrupted.

  -- Don't neglect your health.  Getting plenty of sleep, drinking water,
     eating nutritiously and getting exercise will help you feel in control
     and do wonders for your mood.


  Survey Methodology

The new CareerBuilder.com survey, "Office Stress," was conducted from February 21 to March 6, 2006. Methodology used to collect survey responses totaling more than 2,500 workers for this study involved selecting a random sample of comScore Networks panel members. These Web Panel members were approached via an e-mail invitation, which asked them to participate in a short online survey. The results of this survey are statistically accurate to within +/- 1.96 percentage points (19 times out of 20).

About CareerBuilder.com

CareerBuilder.com is the nation's largest online job site with more than 20 million unique visitors and over 1 million jobs. Owned by Gannett Co., Inc. , Tribune Company , and Knight Ridder, Inc. , the company offers a vast online and print network to help job seekers connect with employers. CareerBuilder.com powers the career centers for more than 800 partners that reach national, local, industry and niche audiences. These include more than 170 newspapers and leading portals such as America Online and MSN. The nation's top employers take advantage of CareerBuilder.com's easy job postings, 15 million-plus resumes, Diversity Channel and more. Millions of job seekers visit the site every month to search for opportunities by industry, location, company and job type, sign up for automatic email job alerts, and get advice on job hunting and career management. For more information about CareerBuilder.com products and services, visit http://www.careerbuilder.com/ .

  Media Contact:
  Jennifer Sullivan
  (773) 527-1164
  Jennifer.Sullivan@careerbuilder.com

SOURCE: CareerBuilder.com