Chronic Stress on the Job
According to the American Institute of Stress, job stress continues to be the primary source of stress for many of us in the workplace, from founders down to the office junior.
What you may not know is that people who don’t handle it well may be putting themselves at risk for any number of diseases or conditions. This also is a concern for employers too. Not looking after employees and not supporting them is morally wrong and could even have grounds for ending up in the courtroom.
Dr Mladen Golubic MD, helps people deal with stress at Cleveland Clinic, in Ohio, USA and he says “that anxiety and stress at work is something that we don’t have much freedom to change, but we may have to“, and by that, he means we all have the option to change job.
Another option would be that we learn how to respond to stress. Chronic stress is often medically caused by the perception of having little control over your workplace or unable to change a situation that you may have a better answer to — this elevates the level of stress in the body. Sometimes a lot of demands on you as an individual means the pressure is relentless and continues daily.
It’s considered medically to be chronic work stress. Chronic work stress has been tied to increased rates of heart attack, hypertension and other disorders. Dr Golubic, recommend you must first recognize what’s causing it then find a way to fight it off. He goes on to say “With this practice, we developed that inner reservoir of energy, that enables us to not to sweat about less important things and we are more able to focus on the big things and be more productive, in a more effective way, whatever we do“.
Dr Golubic, MD says just deep breathing meditation or simply smiling as quick and regular as possible can be an easy way to combat stress at work. However, ultimately the company must be of assistance or you must simply move on because your health will fail eventually, it may take 6 months, 2 years or 7 years but at some stage, you will hit the wall. The first step is identifying that you have stress from work, then you are on the correct pathway.
