Work is not just a way of self-realization and earning money for subsistence. This is the place where a person spends approximately a third of his time from graduation to retirement. Relationships with colleagues, promotion or demotion, satisfaction with the results of one's efforts or professional failures - all this has a huge impact on everyday life. Sometimes work is more likely to cause stress than positive emotions. Therefore, you need to know how not to worry about work and not take work problems beyond the office threshold.
Causes of stress at work
Today, there are many things that can be called a reason for nervousness not only at work, but also at home. Heavy thoughts depress a person.
The first reason is the multitasking mode in which most currently operating companies operate. The fast pace forces people to quickly understand several issues at once and switch from one type of activity to another as soon as the need arises. This mode of work quickly tires and causes psychological discomfort.
Incorrect distribution of energy and time
Such a heavy load is dangerous because stress accumulates very quickly, a person may develop “manager syndrome”, chronic fatigue and depression.
In the modern world, employers also prefer people who are able to quickly and easily perceive large amounts of information. New professionals suffer the most from this. It is very important for them to learn to stop worrying and correctly distribute their strength and attention.
People working in the middle of the chain of command are subject to even more stress. This is partly because they are influenced by a phenomenon known as sandwich mobbing. Its peculiarity is that a middle manager is under pressure from superior management on the one hand and his subordinates on the other. In such a situation, the influence of tension is felt much more strongly, and stress accumulates much faster.
In order not to worry about work and go there with a light heart, it is important to learn how to cope with stress and overcome all difficulties without taking them too seriously. Only in harmony can you perform your work efficiently without affecting your health and balance.
How to improve relationships with management or colleagues
Even in the most friendly and cohesive teams there are disagreements and clashes of interests, because they unite completely different people, many of whom would bypass each other on a long journey in ordinary life. It is impossible to be pleasant to every colleague, but maintaining good working relationships with everyone is quite possible.
- Do not get involved in office intrigues and conspiracies, stay away from gossips. Focus on your job responsibilities.
- Try not to make friends with work colleagues, and God forbid you from office romances. When personal relationships begin to influence work processes, you can lose both.
- Refrain from showing hostility and do not turn work conflicts into personal ones. Stop any manipulation. If the situation has reached a dead end, contact a reputable employee or superiors, the main thing is that this appeal is not a denunciation, but a search for a constructive solution.
- Take criticism calmly. Perhaps you really made a mistake and you have a lot to learn from more experienced colleagues.
- Build relationships with your superiors, but do not overdo it in this matter. Avoid flattery. Don't try to change your manager. If he is a tyrant and an unbalanced person, then either accept it or look for another boss.
- Be friendly and attentive to your colleagues. Don’t go overboard – you will need the support of your colleagues more than once.
How to Avoid Anxiety in the Workplace
Constant tension and multitasking can lead to stress
Every person's work is full of different circumstances and situations that can cause a state of nervousness and anxiety. In order not to worry about work, many psychologists recommend developing a set of rules for yourself that will help get rid of unnecessary stress .
- Learn to forgive your mistakes.
- Plan your work day.
- Be able to focus on the end result.
- Change your attitude towards work to a more positive one.
- Learn to enjoy victories, even the smallest ones.
People tend to make mistakes, and under conditions of high stress and high work intensity, even programs and robots fail.
Mistakes are not a reason for unnecessary worry, but a way to gain experience and strengthen your spirit in order to move forward without stopping.
A to-do list is a good way to avoid stress at work. Experts recommend putting tasks that need to be completed urgently at the top of the list. Don't get distracted by extraneous tasks until what needs to be done is done.
Use To-Do list to plan your work time
Having set a clear and specific goal, you need to create a structure according to which the entire amount of work will be completed gradually. Without unnecessary stress, the case can be submitted on time. The main thing is not to deviate from your plan.
Many people tend to work just to get money. The ability to find positive moments in every working day will not only help you avoid stress and anxiety, but will also have a positive effect on your work productivity and will give you strength and enthusiasm.
Focusing on small achievements will help you gradually regain a state of peace and improve your mood. Self-criticism is permissible and acceptable only if it motivates you to work better. Self-criticism never brings any benefit.
Don't be afraid of relationship damage
Most often, we follow the excessive demands of our superiors for fear of ruining our relationship with them. Of course, it depends on him whether I will work here or not. He can fire me at any moment for any reason. Or start spreading rot on me, turning the team against me, awarding a shortfall, etc.
No one argues that human meanness has no boundaries. Especially greedy managers do not neglect unscrupulous means in order to force a person not only to work, but to work overtime, without days off, vacation, etc. In doing so, they create an environment where you have no hope of being paid for your overtime. But there is a powerful force behind you - labor legislation. At any moment you can throw a thick code on the table and demand respect for your rights. But there is one “But!”
More often than not, we are treated the way we deserve! Yes Yes! Don't argue. Didn't you give your management a reason to understand that you can be exploited? Yes, he asked to be late two or three times and you silently agreed to work overtime, afraid of offending him. Sorry, but working relationships do not include such concepts as resentment and pity. Everything is based on an agreement that both parties - yours and management - must comply with.
And yet, no one appreciates soft-bodied, timid and shy people. Bosses, and these are usually leaders, value rebellion and strength of character. And you behave like a “gutta-percha boy” and agree to everything.
Methods for dealing with stress at work
All psychologists unanimously say that holding on to negative emotions is harmful. And indeed it is. Due to the long-term accumulation of negativity, mental disorders or illnesses may develop. But this does not mean that a person should start shouting every time anxiety or stress arises during work.
Don't take everything personally
In order to get rid of stress, you can use the tips and tricks below.
- Don't take the irritated tone of a colleague or boss to heart. The reason for such speech may not be the work the employee does.
- Learn to overcome difficult moments as they arise.
- Don't exaggerate the scale of the problems.
- Learn to show humility if the situation cannot be changed.
- When a negative situation arises, try to imagine what could happen in the worst case scenario.
- Analyze the stressful situation and determine the source of anxiety (this will make it easier to cope with a similar situation next time).
- Learn not to get hung up on public opinion (most often those around you are too absorbed in their own affairs to be distracted).
- Don't compare yourself to other employees.
Different people may react differently to the same problem. The suggested recommendations will help you stay calm when a tense situation arises and overcome anxiety and negative emotions.
Ask for feedback
Anxiety also arises when we do not understand whether we are coping well with our tasks. This is especially true for those who work remotely or, due to the specific nature of their work, cannot see the results of their own work with their own eyes. In any case, don't be shy about asking for feedback.
According to organizational psychologist Cary Cooper, clear expectations and thoughtful feedback are key to reducing anxiety. Many people feel uncomfortable asking a client or manager for clarification and feedback, but it is necessary. Try to arrange regular face-to-face meetings or video calls so that you can discuss all the details and feel that you are really moving forward.
What else can help?
Each of us would like to remain calm in any situation, both at home and at work. In order to maintain good health and not be a prisoner of stress, you will need to take several steps.
Learn to relax and feel harmony within yourself
In addition to the methods listed above, the following tips are also useful.
- Try to stick to proper nutrition.
- Play sports.
- Take short breaks while working.
- Try to maintain a good mood in any situation.
- Try to get away from stressful situations.
- Drink more fluids.
Despite the harsh and extremely stressful pace of modern life, it is important to take care of yourself and your health.
In pursuit of material gain, a person can put an end to the condition of his body, which is absolutely forbidden to do, because you won’t earn all the money.
How to cope with job loss or dismissal
Psychologists advise taking your mental health seriously during this difficult period, because losing a job is stressful, comparable to worries about the death of a loved one or divorce. There are several stages of grief, and it is important to go through each of them completely, otherwise there is a risk of getting stuck at one of the stages and greatly ruining your future life. Recommendations on how to survive layoffs or dismissal are based on the principles of properly experiencing loss.
Express emotions
If you have a large part of your life connected to your old job, the “we don’t care” attitude is just a mask behind which real suffering is hidden. Give yourself the freedom to worry, throw out your emotions, cry to someone’s chest.
Under the protection of the law
Don't threaten your boss or make intrigues. If you have been fired or laid off unfairly, seek protection from the law, but do it with a cool head. Therefore, before starting hostilities, go through the stage of anger. Express your negative emotions on paper, tell a psychologist about them, break a couple of plates if it makes you feel better.
Don't blame yourself
Moderate your guilt. Even if it is undeniable, life does not end there. The future will certainly provide a chance to use the experience gained in a similar situation.
Awareness of loss
Acknowledge your loss and come to terms with it. Analyze what your old job gave you, what you learned, what you gained, and what unnecessary things you got rid of after losing it.
Future Action Plan
Decide how you will live next and start doing it. Assess your potential and find all available resources to return to normal life. The end of one period in life is always the beginning of another. Who said it would be worse than the old one?
How to get rid of emotional overload
No matter how hard a person tries to maintain equanimity and calm, sooner or later the moment comes when emotions are ready to burst out like an explosion. It is simply impossible to always control yourself and the situation. Therefore, it is important to learn to restrain yourself and regain your balance.
Quite simple actions can help you stay calm.
- One or more deep breaths in and out.
- Massage of hands and neck.
- Fresh air.
Deep breathing helps bring order to the state not only in case of anger, but also in many others. Having cooled your ardor slightly, you can focus on analyzing the situation and finding solutions to existing problems.
Massage movements in the areas of the neck and hands help a person relieve excess tension and regain the ability to think clearly and see the situation clearly. When performing such a light soothing massage, you need to massage two points on the neck, which are located on opposite sides of the spine. On the hands, massage the entire palm and each finger separately from the rest.
Fresh air is equally effective in helping to calm down. If it is not possible to go outside at your workplace, it will be enough to stay near an open window for some time. Psychologists also recommend leaving the room where the irritating factor is located for a short period of time.
Monitor productivity changes
According to R. Katikalapudi, S. Chellappan et al. Associating Internet usage with depressive behavior among college students / IEEE Technology and Society Magazine scientists, fluctuations in the ability to concentrate are a warning sign that signals an impending anxiety attack. For example, you switch between several things, look for something to distract yourself with, procrastinate.
Keep an eye out for these symptoms and you'll have your own alarm system on hand.
When you perform a task, write down how it makes you feel. Create a separate document for this, make notes in your diary or in Trello, if you keep track of tasks there. Record fluctuations in mood and concentration.
And after a while you will notice what exactly causes anxiety attacks. Maybe it's a certain type of task, a specific client, or too strict deadlines. Knowing the reason, it will be easier to build the work process.
Where does the voltage come from?
Sometimes it's all about losing meaning: the daily challenges are overwhelming, and I can't get the big picture in my head. Sometimes I don’t understand where to start, and the task seems big and super complicated. In the first chapter we looked at how to deal with this:
- describe the problem as it is;
- re-read the sign, which will remind you why all this was started;
- think about how you can simplify the project.
But all this won’t work if you don’t have the strength. The wheels are spinning, but the car does not move - it has stalled. This is tension. Now is the time to remember again about the brain and the amygdala.
This same tension is born in the amygdala, a paired structure of the brain that is the center of pain and helps KJ Ressler. Amygdala activity, fear, and anxiety: Modulation by stress / Biological Psychiatry remember behavior during negative experiences in order to avoid them in the future. The amygdala is like a panic button that goes off in any situation associated with pain and suffering. This is good because we learn not to repeat mistakes, but sometimes the mechanism breaks down.
Sometimes this happens when we are tired: there are enemies all around, and negative thoughts in our thoughts, because they are influenced by context and state. Unpleasant thoughts repeated Q. AbuHasan, V. Reddy, W. Siddiqui. Neuroanatomy, Amygdala/StatPearls. Treasure Island stimulates the amygdala, is recorded in long-term memory and returns as new unpleasant thoughts. The circle is closed, there is no way out, there is no one to look from the outside.
In this state, the algorithm from the first chapter will not work, because everything is annoying and you don’t want to deal with the signs and the benefits - even that is difficult. If you force yourself to wade through things and plans, then, most likely, everything will become worse and more complicated: the freedom-loving brain does not like coercion.
Therefore, I follow the precepts of Bruce Lee and do not train in bad shape, so as not to develop bad habits. Instead, I reboot.
Sometimes depression occurs on cloudy days. Previously, this was explained by high levels of the hormone melatonin, which is released when there is little light, and therefore you want to sleep. But in December 2018, Scientists find a brain circuit that could explain seasonal depression / NPR two new studies that say it's more likely a special brain circuit that connects light-sensitive cells in the retina to areas of the brain that affect mood. Be that as it may, the conclusion is still the same: there is not enough light - turn on the lamps.
It's time to figure out what might work after all.
Tips for men and women
Representatives of the stronger sex should:
- Remember that career is very important for men. Therefore, it is necessary to develop and learn throughout your life. Only a professional in his field will be able to approach his work more simply. Since he is sure that in case of reduction or dismissal he has nothing to fear.
- Office romances often interfere with careers and also destroy family relationships. And men who fall into such networks are rarely able to take their work easier.
A woman must remember that:
- Her main task is to succeed as a mother and wife. And you can always change your job.
- There is no need to equate yourself with men. By acting exclusively as a woman, you have a greater chance of success.
- Girls should avoid conflict situations at work, as they are more emotional and impressionable. And in order to approach work more simply, harmony in relationships with colleagues and superiors is important for the fair sex.
