How do you handle stress on the job?

"I think stress management begins with the individual, so I take steps in my personal life to improve how I handle stress, and these steps apply to the workplace, too. Every morning, I wake up a few hours before work and meditate for twenty minutes. This clears and centers my mind. Next, I do a thirty-minute workout. This wakes up my body. With my body and mind alert, I can quickly assess a new situation, determine why it is stressful, and then intentionally plot steps to address that situation to make it manageable and less overwhelming."

"For me, time management is the best tool to deal with stress. As a nonprofit employee over the past decade, I have learned how fast-paced the work can be, and everyone is expected to perform work functions outside of their typical duties. As such, it is critical to maintain calm during busier times. My team had an influx of service requests for families whose utilities had been turned off by the power company during the coldest month of the year. It was stressful because we were dealing with quadruple the usual number of requests, and we wanted to help everyone we could. At the beginning of the season, I called a team meeting where we planned how many requests we would fulfill per day and assigned staff to cover any planned absences from work. This enabled the team to avoid any surprises, and we were better prepared to handle the influx when it happened."

Remember that nonprofits are frequently fast-paced environments in which employees are expected to multitask and juggle various functions. Provide specific examples of periods of high stress in your previous positions during which you performed well.

Community answers are written by other candidates practicing this set. Reading how others frame the same question is one of the fastest ways to sharpen your own.