Dealing with toxic people

Toxic people and behaviour is unfortunately alive and well in Australian workplaces. Safe Work Australia presents some uncomfortable statistics about the country's workers: 37 per cent reported being sworn or yelled at in the workplace, 22 per cent said they've been physically assaulted or threatened by patients or clients and 11 per cent experienced unfair treatment due to their gender. What can EAs do to avoid toxic people in the workplace? Roger Sutton, author of "The Asshole Survival Guide: How to Deal with People Who Treat You Like Dirt" gave Insights by Stanford Business a few tips.

Minimise contact

As with toxic substances, minimising your contact with toxic people can be a good way to make sure you avoid most of the negative effects. Sutton says that being 30m away is enough to make them disappear from your radar. Less than 8m away, however, and you'll be more likely to become irritated.

As well as being physically distant, try to minimise contact too. As an EA with an important job to do, this might prove difficult but it's recommended wherever possible.

Reframe them in your mind

If you just can't get away from the person due to the size of the office or some other factor, then reframing their presence in your mind can be a useful trick to make the situation bearable. Sutton describes a person who pretends he's a doctor that studies "a-hole-ism" - when he sees the toxic person in question, he tells himself he's lucky to see such a rare and exemplary specimen. It helps this person detach from the situation.

The key to workplace performance? Hydration

The watercooler has become the literal and metaphorical place in an office to engage in a bit of office chat. That's because they can be found in almost every office - with good reason. Keeping hydrated is key if you want to be on top of your game.

Important for good health

Drinking plenty of water throughout the day is a good way to avoid raisin-brain - the imagined state of what your brain would look like in a dehydrated state. Headaches, lethargy and vomiting are just some of the potential symptoms on your way if you don't keep your fluid intake up. In more severe cases, it can lead to long term effects like kidney damage or seizures.

Vital for concentration and memory

Perhaps more directly relevant to a busy EA is dehydration's effects on concentration and memory performance. A study published in the Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow & Metabolism found mild dehydration, defined as the loss of 5 per cent of the body's water in a short time, reduced blood flow to the brain. This inhibited short term memory, reaction time and attention to detail. This is why you need to keep on top of your water intake - it doesn't take much for the negative effects to begin.

Avoiding burnout

The nature of an EAs job almost guarantees they're going to be stressed from time to time. It's important, however, to not let stress evolve into burnout.

What is burnout?

Stress is not the same thing as burnout. The Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) is the leading measure of burnout and is validated by 25 years of research since it was first published. The most commonly used survey measures three things: emotional exhaustion (measures overextension and exhaustion from work), depersonalisation (measures unfeeling and impersonal response to those you're working for - clients or employers) and personal accomplishment (measures feelings of work competence and achievement).

How can you avoid it?

In a Harvard Business Review article describing their research around burnout, Kandi Wiens and Annie McKee outline some of the ways to keep your stress under control and avoid burnout.

     1) Don't make it worse for yourself: Sometimes we are our own worst enemy, ruminating on things that make us more stressed. Be self-aware and eliminate this habit from your mind.

     2) Be mindful: Taking a deep breath can often be enough to slow down things down and relax yourself.

     3) Put yourself in others' shoes: When a situation is threatening to get out of hand due to the actions of another person, think about their perspective on the situation to try and deescalate things. Maybe it was a simple mistake, or they weren't informed of what they should have been. Whatever the cause may be, listening and understanding will help things cool down.

The importance of body language

For EAs, communication is king. You may have heard the often repeated numbers breaking down how various factors impart meaning: 7 per cent comes from the words, 38 per cent comes from tone of voice and 55 per cent comes from body language. While these numbers are accurate, they actually only apply to a specific situation - when the the words and the tone or posture seem to be saying different things, according to Psychology Today. In that case, the numbers apply. What about in other cases?

So while a solid answer to "how much importance should I place on body language?" can't really be given, there are some things you can look out for that might help your interactions with others.

One is posture - are people standing tall, with their chest out and their head up, or are they slouched, eyes down and their shoulders rolled? The former suggests a person feels confident and powerful, the later suggests insecurity or submissiveness.

Another is limb positioning. Do they have their arms or legs crossed? This can indicate a lack of openness to what you're saying. In effect, the person is subconsciously communicating that they're closed off to the thing they're interacting with.