It’s safe to say that everyone has at some point felt pressured due to a work-related stress. This may be from pressure to meet a deadline, fulfilling challenging tasks or even managing employees, but it’s not important where the stress comes from, it’s how you cope with the stress that is most important. When work becomes stressful and overwhelming, it can become harmful to both physical and emotional health.
Stress is the body’s reaction to harmful situations. When we feel threatened, a chemical reaction occurs in our body that allows respond in a way to prevent injury or avoid danger. This reaction is known as ‘fight or flight’ or ‘the stress response’.
During this stress response, your heart rate increases, breathing quickens, muscles tighten and your blood pressure rises. At this level, your body can react to the necessary danger and keep you safe, which is a good thing – but only if you’re actually in danger.
There are many different types of stress. The most common ones are:
The stress workers tend to suffer from most often is acute stress, which is the most short-term and usually lines up most with the ‘fight or flight’ response. A little stress can beneficial and just the thing to help you get the job done at work.
Think about a deadline. It’s staring you in the face and it’s going to stimulate your behaviour to manage the situation effectively, rapidly and more productively. The key is viewing stressful situations as a challenge that you can meet rather than an overwhelming roadblock. That’s when it can turn into uncontrollable or even episodic acute stress. Work-related stress doesn’t just disappear when you go home for the day. A stressful work environment can contribute to problems such as headaches, stomach aches, sleep disturbances and many more, all caused due to uncontrolled stress.
Stress symptoms may affect your health, even if you don’t realise it. You may think illness is to blame for your irritating headache, your frequent insomnia or your decreased productivity at work. But stress might actually be the cause of all of that.
Stress can affect all aspects of your life including your emotions, behaviour, thinking ability and physical health. No part of the body is immune from stress, but because people handle stress differently, symptoms of stress vary and make them harder to detect.
In terms of your physical health, you may experience headaches, muscle tension or pain, chest pain, stomach upset or an inability to sleep.
When it comes to your emotions, you will often feel overwhelmed, lacking control, angry, sad or even depressed. You may also be demotivated, restless, have difficulty relaxing and be unable to focus at work.
Stress can affect your behaviour too. You may find yourself avoiding your colleagues and your friends or reducing your exercise, you may start overeating or undereating, you could be prone to angry outbursts or find yourself on the verge of tears. In more extreme cases, stress can lead to drug or alcohol misuse.
There are several simple tips that you can adopt in your working day and at home to both reduce your stress levels when you’re in the height of it and keep it in check to avoid getting too stressed in the future.
Getting regular exercise and regular sleep, spending time with loved ones (but also taking some time for yourself when you need it) and going for walks are all important practices. It’s also important to ensure you maintain a good nutritious diet as bad eating can make you feel run down and more susceptible to the negative impacts of stress.
Finally, good mindfulness and meditation practices such as yoga and deep breathing exercises are an excellent way of helping your body calm down when you’re feeling particularly stressed.
It’s all well and good to talk about stress management tips, but do people actually use them? And do they work in real life? I asked a few people around the RECRUITERS office: “How do you deal with stress in work?”
Louise O’Reilly said that she takes her lunch every day and tries to get out of the office, maybe go for a walk or just take a step back. She also likes to stay positive, listen to music and talk to people and tell them when she feels stressed.
Laura Murphy like to listen to music to take their mind off things, while Clare Grogan uses reading to distract her when she’s feeling stressed.
Eoin Fallon takes a minute at his desk to sit back and breathe, as does Andrew Sheehan who does breathing exercises and mindful activities.
Abi Woods finds going for walks, stepping away from her desk and going out of the office for breaks as the best way to deal with stress. She also takes makes sure she enjoys time with friends and family at the weekends, as does Robert Fagan, who likes to have a laugh with colleagues and friends to help him deal with work-related stress.
Sometimes, the stress doesn’t go away and it could become chronic and directly tied to your job. In fact, that would be one of the signs it’s time to find a new job. If you’re considering making a move, let RECRUITERS help you with that move. Simply register your CV with us and/or create job alerts tailored to your specific career preferences.
Feeling confused about your career? We’ve got everything you need to know about progression, new jobs and happiness in your career right here.
By Fiona Walsh
Stressed man photo by Nik Shuliahin on Unsplash
