Do You Know What Makes Us Vulnerable To Stress At Work?
Monday morning. You arrive at the office and already have a mountain of paperwork to do. And on the day when it’s calmer, your boss is in a bad mood “go find out why” and charges you for it. Or, it’s your colleagues who take it upon themselves to abandon you and you end up with a huge amount of extra work.
You start to get nervous and worry about this situation, where you feel like you’re never going to be able to do everything. Where you think you already have enough that others won’t get started. You crash. You feel that all of this is overwhelming you and that you are entering a crisis. In the end, without knowing how, you managed to do everything. But the next day arrives and a new setback arises… What stress!
” The are real difficulties may be overcome, only imaginary are invincible.”
-Theodore N. Vail-
What is stress at work?
Stress at work is a set of emotional, cognitive, physiological and behavioral reactions to certain adverse or harmful aspects of professional content, organization or environment. Cognitive reactions refer to the set of thoughts we have about our inner dialogue. Physiological refers to changes in the activation of our body, such as the increased heartbeat.
Stress will appear as a process of adaptation to the demands that arise in the professional environment. First of all, it will help us overcome them. The problem arises when it interferes with our performance. High levels of excitement and anxiety then appear. In addition, we will feel that the situation is beyond us and that we are unable to cope with it.
Whether this situation arises or not depends on the influence of a series of factors. These include situations which depend on the company in which one works and the professional environment. But also personal characteristics which can act as vulnerability factors. Knowing all of this can help us work on it and prevent this harmful work stress.
“Stress is caused by being there when you want to be there.”
-Eckart Tolle-
What characteristics of the work cause stress to appear?
Regarding the situations that take place in the company, there are a series of organizational stress triggers that influence its occurrence. Here we want to talk about hours, rotations, physical conditions, wages, occupational risks, ambiguity of status, hierarchy etc. which must be taken into account.
Work stress will be favored under a number of conditions. If the work involves keeping a steady pace for longer than half of the working day, for example. This also happens if the level of attention that one needs to have for the task is very high during half of the day. Likewise, if the tasks are very repetitive for more than half of the day.
If the job is rotating, it can also promote stress. The sectors most associated with this phenomenon are: health, veterinary and social services, transport and communications, public administration and education.
In a survey, conducted by the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA), in 2012 and 2013, the following reasons were given to explain the onset of stress at work:
- Job insecurity or staff reorganization.
- Hours or workload.
- Workplace harassment or bullying.
- Lack of support from colleagues or superiors.
- The rare opportunities to control work rules.
What characteristics of the worker promote stress?
Knowing the characteristics of the environment that trigger stress at work is very important. But if we are one of many employees, it is very difficult to do anything to change that, unless we are in the human resources industry. This is why we are now going to see what are the personal factors that can show a greater or lesser vulnerability to this, in order to find solutions.
For example, if one is very perfectionist and ambitious, it is very likely that one suffers from work stress. It’s the same if you get too involved in the profession and put too much effort into it. You should know that, to a fair extent, these characteristics do not have to be harmful to us.
“One of the symptoms of a nervous breakdown is believing that our work is too important.”
-Bertrand Russel-
In addition, if we are unable to relax and are in constant tension, stress at work is more likely to occur. It will also happen if we are dependent on others to make decisions, that is, if we are not confident in our ability to do so. Having a tendency to perceive the situations around us as threatening situations has the same effect.
But other characteristics also have an influence. If we tend to be introverted, don’t use social support, the working conditions will do more damage to us. If we are rigid, we are more likely to fall into conflict. It will also promote an environment conducive to stress at work. Finally, poor lifestyle habits and poor diet also influence working conditions.
If you see that any of these characteristics apply to you, that’s okay. If you realize it, then you can work on it. So you can make your professional life easier. And you will avoid stress at work and all its negative consequences.
Images by Ryan McGuire
