When is work stress harmful?
Though stress at work is not necessarily always harmful it can lead to physical and mental illness if the pressure we experience at our workplace becomes too excessive and prolonged.
75% of employees believe that workers have more work stress than a generation ago. 40% see their job as extremely stressful.
Not surprisingly many workers have experienced negative physical and psychological consequences. This is where work stress does get harmful and where your work environment may be toxic for you.
Work stress symptoms – test yourself
Are your experiencing one or several of the following symptoms?
- You have been experiencing one or several body symptoms for a while without your physician finding a reason: back aches, headaches, stomach aches, high blood pressure, dizziness, breathing problems, unusual pains and tensions
- You have problems relaxing after work because you find your thoughts keep mulling over emotionally difficult issues again and again
- You cannot sleep at night and are tired and exhausted, unable to focus at work
- You are more nervous and aggressive than normal and tend to overreact at work but also with friends and family
- You are unhappy with the results you produce and angry and disappointed with yourself
- There are days when you feel it extremely difficult to get up in the morning to go to work
- You feel depressed and anxious when you think about your job/your colleagues/your boss.
If so, it is a good time for some work stress management and here are some ideas to help you deal with work stress so here is your first aid work stress kit:
Step 1: Reasons for work stress
Analyse what causes your stress at work.
I’ve listed a few typical culprits for you but of course there are more:
- Your workload has been too high for a while and you work long hours with no time or energy left for a private life
- One or several colleagues are unnerving and impossible to work with in a good way and dealing with resulting conflicts is stressful and difficult.
- Your boss is unprofessional, unappreciative or overdemanding
- You are a perfectionist and never happy with your results
- You don’t enjoy what you’re doing (anymore) and have to force yourself to stay motivated and do a good job
- Your job is at stake and you don’t really have alternatives
Step 2: Stress management – dealing with work stress
Look at the culprit you have identified in more detail and be aware that there may be more than one affecting you. Try to take a step back and see what the issue is exactly by asking yourself the following questions:
Who was involved? How long has the situation been going on? How serious is it – are you experiencing physical or mental stress symptoms? Is there anything you can do to change the situation?
Sometimes the solution can be resolved by improving your skill set e.g. learning new techniques to work more effectively. Another solution may be to change your communication with and behaviour towards colleagues or your boss. Possibly it is simply time to look at a new employer or even a new job.
Often it will take a while to find out what is going on exactly and you may want to gain clarity by talking to and getting help from others – let me give you some examples:
Some stories from my daily practice
Work stress due to inner conflict: To quit or not to quit?
An experienced manager came to me wanting to find out why he felt it so difficult to leave his present company even though he knew it was time to go after having worked there for many years. He was not motivated anymore and felt guilty as a result which was creating stress. It turned out he didn’t want to desert his team who he valued the way he had felt deserted by his father as a child of 8 when his parents divorced. Once he understood why he
Work stress due to career problems: The struggle for promotion
Another client came to me wondering why he never got promoted when he was actually the most skilled and also one of the most hardworking employees at his company. He found this to be unfair, demotivating and stressful. We took a good look at the people in his company and the dynamics. Although he had always taken great care to be the best in terms of know how it turned out he had never really considered taking into account the personalities and goals of his co-workers and his boss which were of course different from his. As we unraveled the details it turned out that the dynamics at his workplace were so toxic that his company was also encountering major financial difficulties. Therefore, he decided to find a new and better employer with my help. From the start he got entrusted with his first team lead role where he applied his new interpersonal skills so successfully that his new boss gave him the highest bonus possible after just a couple of months.
Work stress: Getting the credit you deserve
A junior employee with a little over two years’ experience approached me very much stressed over the fact that she did not receive any credit for a new script she had initiated to be programmed at her company. She had put in hours of her free time programming and creating the script she knew would be highly beneficial for the company. However, a senior colleague claimed all of the success without mentioning her name and as a result everybody else at the company seemed to underestimate her role. In this case it was important for her to understand that part of her stress stemmed from her childhood. She had never learned to stand up for herself and put a stake to her achievements which is something we worked on successfully. She also realized that it was not that her superiors thought her too stupid to give her the projects she wanted but that instead it required action on her part and that her superiors were happy to give her the credit she deserved.
Step 3: Additional Tools to cope with work stress
Regardless of whether it is work stress or other stress you are dealing with it does help to know that recent research has shown that mind and body are a lot more connected than we used to think. Difficult thoughts can leave our bodies strained and cramped. The good news is that relaxing our body will also help us relax our mind. This is why relaxation techniques have become so popular. I’ve listed a few common ones here for you to check out. Don’t worry if some of them don’t work for you – not every technique is for everyone. Take your time to try out different techniques until you have found the right one for you.
- Breathing techniques
- Meditation
- Mindfulness
- Progressive Muscle Relaxation
- Yoga
Last but not least a lot of people find relaxation in doing sports – again there is no right or wrong here so take your time to try out what puts your mind to rest best.
Summary
Stress management is something we can all learn – in my opinion it would be great to learn the basics at school already but it is never too late to get started. I hope the above has given you some useful ideas to cope with your personal work stress but if you would like to talk to someone and get individual support why not contact me for a first free consultation: renate.broeckel@lebensschau.com