Stressed out at work? Here's how you can give yourself some head space
STRESSED out from work? It may not be the actual job you are in — or your bosses or colleagues, who are to blame, but you yourself.
Harsh as that may sound, it is our own inability to switch off that can leave us exhausted, comfort eating, tossing and turning in bed, irritable, depressed and feeling powerless — to name just a few of the symptoms linked to work stress and burnout.
“When I first started studying how occupational stress affects our health 20 years ago it was all about identifying stressful occupations. Now we think though that it’s not the actual job that is the main issue, it is whether and how quickly, people unwind and recover from the effects of work, once their day is over,” says professor of health psychology at the University of Surrey, Mark Cropley.
Those incessant pings on our mobile devices create a Pavlovian ‘stay alert’ response within us, ensuring we’re always on call.
But aside from technology, if we can’t switch off those busy thoughts about work in our heads, then although our bodies may have left the building, our minds — and physical reactions — are still on duty.
“Our research suggests that up to 70% of the workforce at one time or another have difficulty unwinding mentally from work. We show that around 25% of workers (and mainly white collar) become tense, annoyed and frustrated by not being able to switch off from work in their free time,” says Cropley, who has also written a book on the subject predictably called The Switch Off.
A study that the professor and his colleagues published in February, which has drawn a lot of attention, finds people who ruminate — who continue to think about work once they come home — end up comfort eating at night during the week.
They eat foods composed of sugar, fat and salt and as a result put their cardiovascular health at risk.
“We are paying a heavy price for the collective delusion that being plugged in 24/7 is an express elevator to the top. Many people feel they need to ‘show’ they are putting the hours in.
"We live in a very competitive world and those lucky enough to be in work, seem to be working longer and longer hours which is probably related to the culture of where we work— always being present and available — but also in the wider context,” Cropley tells Feelgood.
Irish author Annmarie O’Connor, who recently published a book called The Happy Medium, points out that being competitive isn’t anything new.
“Attention seeking is part of our DNA. It’s what helps us from a revolutionary perspective to get ahead. That said, our predisposal to self-auditing, by measuring ourselves against others, can be more of a hindrance than a help,” she says.
“Often we strive for validation beyond our comfort zone, creating unnecessary stress and anxiety by comparing ourselves with the leaders of the pack.”
Dublin-based psychologist Dr Damian Davey, who has 26 years’ experience of working in the Employment Assistance Programme (EAP) sector in Ireland agrees.
“Years ago it was absenteeism, now it is presenteeism,” he says.
“There’s a group influence in organisations and companies — it’s just there by nature and if everyone else is putting in what we perceive as 150%, or they are staying late, an individual feels the pressure to do that as well; that becomes the way.
“In the big companies, conglomerates, [employees are] always there at the end of a phone, or ipad, or physically in the workplace, putting in extensive amounts of time and energy and it’s actually wearing them out.”
A survey by international human resources consultancy Mercer — which works directly with companies employing more than 250,000 workers in Ireland — found that 82% of employees questioned here in 2015 said they faced increased stress at work, compared to 74% of workers with the same complaint in Britain.
EAPs are employment-sponsored services that offer counselling to staff. There has been a surge in demand over the past decade with 15 big players working here, as well as other smaller units, says Davy.
In his experience in his private practice and through offering EAP services to many organisations, he has seen an increase in people under pressure, presenting with anxiety in particular, many among the 30-50 age group.
“We are constantly busy — we are also seeing more and more men presenting with anxiety, stress, panic attacks and depression — that is low mood, not clinical depression,” says the psychologist.
“Women have always been quicker to seek help but men would brazen it out; now they are coming along too, looking for strategies to manage their stress and pressures they’re under.
“Quite a lot say they are down and can’t sleep and when they come to us they are on some medication for a period of time.
“Notwithstanding that there could be a life event that triggers this — a bereavement or a marital problem or whatever, even when you look behind it, there is always something going on with work impacting their outside life, or life-impacting their work; it’s a two-way street.”
Ultimately though, the solution to burnout quite often lies with achieving a work-life balance, he says.
“Unfortunately employers think the EAP does some sort of magic; you send someone with burnout or panic [attacks] and they do some voodoo and they are brand new and ready to work again. But it doesn’t work like that.
“Typically burnout creeps up and we are not managing to balance outside life with work. We put in long hours and it gradually, gradually, eats into our balance and then we find ourselves falling off the edge and it could be health-wise or, more commonly, emotionally.
“When I start looking at what’s going on for those who present to me, they are completely out of balance. They say they want to do things outside of work with their families or their friends, but they’re not doing it; they are spending a lot of time in work and carrying around mobile phones and iPads ,” he says.
Work is often linked to our self-esteem, our desire to be liked — this is just human nature, he adds. But we need to make choices to slow down and step back.
The high-speed individualised society we live in and the demand to “keep up” and be the best version of ourselves we can, is inextricably linked with the growth in depression, fatigue and anxiety, says Svend Brinkmann, professor of general psychology at the University of Aalborg in Demark.
Brinkmann’s book Stand Firm offers an intriguing counterpoint against the self-help, self-development movement which pushes all responsibility for success — and also failure — on the individual.
“We have to improve and perform and optimise ourselves to be good enough, which is in a way a struggle we can never win, because no matter how well we perform this year, or this month, we have to be better next year or next month,” he tells Feelgood.
So is this a question of not being good enough ever?
“Yes. The problem is if you look at depression one of the key characteristics of depression is that the individual keeps telling himself or herself that ‘oh I’m not good enough — I will never be good enough’. And ‘it’s my own fault that I’m not good enough’.
That is the archetypical depression and how it manifests itself. And this is exactly what society is now telling people: “You are not good enough and you will never be good enough”.
“How do you keep up with an accelerating culture?” he asks.
“Keeping up implies a constant willingness to adapt. It implies ongoing development on both a personal and professional level.”
In a culture where the boundaries between work and private life are practically non-existent, he says, it’s our “personal, social, emotional and learning competencies that are deemed the most important — and therefore under scrutiny”.
While the pressure to do “more and more” on a professional and private basis may leave people reeling, Damian Davy sees having that holy grail of work-life balance is achievable — even if that does put the responsibility back on the individual and the choices we make to pull back, slow down.
“When I do an inventory about work-life balance with people and they talk about the fun things they would like to find time to do, I offer them what I call GAG therapy, that is Get A Grip — do what you claim you want to do. I then look with them at what’s possible to do, time-wise.
“We all need to ask ourselves: ‘Do you want to be chiselled on your stone when they eventually bury you: ‘Damian was a grand lad — he was very committed and a great worker’? Is that what you want to be put on your gravestone, or do you want to be remembered in some other way?”
Svend Brinkmann might argue that if we continue to follow the zeitgeist of “self-development mania” and incessant pursuit of future goals, we are leaving ourselves with little choice.
In almost every aspect of life, the pace has quickened.
“We now talk about fast food, speed-dating, power naps and short-term therapy,” he says.
Arguably, we could be fast-tracking ourselves to that gravestone inscription if we don’t learn to slow and down and switch off.
Withdrawing from your colleagues, being callous and cynical about work, feeling useless, suffering from low mood, sleeplessness and fatigue are just some of the signals that your life is out of balance and you could be on your way to burnout — if not already there.
Identifying stress in yourself can be a helpful starting point.
Stress is often associated with change. This event or demand requires us to adapt, to alter our position, to try harder, move faster, behave differently.
Our environment has made a demand of us and to meet that demand; we must shift from a previously comfortable position to a new and perhaps uncomfortable or threatening one.
The first signs are usually a combination of mental and physical symptoms, such as difficulty getting to sleep and easily awoken at night, decrease in appetite, racing thoughts, sense of hurry generally, increased pulse rate, quick to anger/get upset and difficulty concentrating.
At this stage, we have options.
Negative options include:
Denial — pretend it’s not happening, so don’t consider the new demands or allow yourself think of options or choices.
Avoidance — engage in short-term soothing behaviours; excessive eating, drinking, smoking, or seek out a range of entertainments to help us remain unfocused on the demands.
Hostile behaviour — mainly towards people associated with the new situation.
Positive options are those which help us process the new demands. These include:
Sitting down with someone else involved and making things clearer through talking.
Agreeing or mapping a way forward which you think you can manage.
Identifying what you need to keep you stress-free and expressing this assertively.
Ensuring you help yourself by having a healthy lifestyle — sleeping and eating and exercising regularly and in line with your mental and physical needs.
Relaxing and enjoying leisure time when not at work — work-life balance is crucial so that stresses and strains are more easily met, regardless of their source.
This information is from the Work Related Stress information sheet provided by the Health and Safety Authority (HSA).
If your stress levels progress beyond these early stages then it is important to seek help.
Further guidance and information around this is available at www.hsa.ie
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