What Is Work Related Stress?
Today let’s explore what work related stress is. Often work related stress is harder to determine as it goes with our day to day lives and is something that is often overlooked. Symptoms of work related stress is something to look into if you often feel overwhelmed at work, or the feeling of not wanting to get up and complete your work tasks.
Kloc-in is here to provide resources around overall wellness, wellbeing, and health. So let’s dive straight in.
Demands at work can come with pressure especially when we feel like we don't have the skills or knowledge to do our best work and be seen as valuable to our peers. This can challenge our capacity to cope. Symptoms of work related stress can be made worse when employees feel unsupported from management and colleagues. This can take a toll on your physical and mental health and even affect your behaviour. Putting a strain on your relationships in and out of work, and in worse cases a major cause of long-term absence from work. So let’s help you manage these stresses so that you see the signs and can act accordingly.
If you are in a Management or Director role at work your team relies on you for support which can also increase the pressure you may feel when your superiors start to ask why the team is unmotivated to do their best work on a day to day basis.
The UK Health and Safety Executive (HSE) notes that there is a difference between stress and pressure. Pressure is normal and is often necessary to help motivate employees, enabling them to perform at their best. However when the pressure of work becomes unbearable and more than you can subsist it can make you ill, dealing with the symptoms in advance will help you avoid that stage.
There are some physical signs you may experience which will help you identify what could be affecting you.
Physical Symptoms of Work Related Stress:
There are consequences of work related stress to our physicality. So it is important to understand what that means and the signs to pay attention to. There is a growing problem not limited to the UK but happening world wide where the symptoms of work related stress are overlooked and seen as just normal when they are not.
Symptoms of work related stress are often displayed physically, psychologically and through our behavior. The physical symptoms can often include:
- Breathing Difficulty
- Eyesight problems, redness and feeling sore
- Tension within muscles
- Hard time sleeping peacefully - Not feeling rested when you wake up
- Random sweats
- Menstrual changes
- Feeling dizzy or faint
- Headaches
- Chest Pains
- Skin clarity - Acne
- Heartburn and palpitations
- Feeling of fatigue
- Panic attacks
- Unusual bowel movement
High levels of stress in the work can make these symptoms worsen over time, it can also all happen quite quickly so dealing with the symptoms of work related stress sooner rather than later will be important.
Your health is important and if you are not okay nothing around you can be okay. So taking care of yourself first is important. Looking at when we start to feel the physical effects of work related stress can even help to assess whether we are in the right environment all together. Yes we have financial responsibilities, people to take care of outside of work but what is more important to your longevity?
The physical effects of work related stress can also take a toll on your emotions. What role are you playing in identifying the symptoms of workplace stress? In order to reduce these effects? The first step is understanding you and the things that trigger the symptoms of work related stress.
Emotional Symptoms of Work Related Stress:
The emotional symptoms of work related stress can include many factors. Recognising symptoms of stress at work can reduce the significant health and safety risks. Your company should have processes in place to manage this. Whether it is through resources, having and feeling safe to express your feelings. However knowing this is what you’re experiencing is a great first step.
The emotional signs can affect your overall work performance, increase your level of anxiety and can even lead to depression which we’d love you to avoid.
Other emotional signs include:
- Change in mood
- Irritability
- Feeling of sadness
- Helplessness, pessimistic thoughts
- Avoiding people - Family and friends
- Guilt
- Feeling disconnected
- Increased anger
- Crying more than usual
- Fear and nervousness
- Reality withdrawal
You may experience other emotional “stress” symptoms but these are the main feelings you may feel you can’t shake off. Feeling supported when these things happen are very important, having an outlet will help to offset these feelings but ultimately understanding the reasons why you feel work is stressing you out is very critical to dealing with the source.
Have you noticed that your behaviour is changing, and are thinking why, or trying to understand the stressors on a deeper level?
There are some clear cut behavioural changes to take note of.
Behavioral Symptoms of Work Related Stress:
Workplace stressors have an adverse effect on the behaviour displayed. We tend to start engaging with more unhealthy habits to cope. But it’s not really coping when we are masking what is going on, so here are some signs of symptoms of work related stress to pay attention to.
Take note of:
- Substance uses - Drugs, alcohol
- Displays of aggression - Outbursts
- Things are more frustrating - Level of patience
- Interpersonal relationships strained?
- Tolerance levels
- Taking more time off
- Appearance - Less care and effort taken to look your best
- Arriving late to work - Leaving early
- Making excuses
- Jittery - Unable to relax
- Lack of inspiration - Creativity drops, lack of initiative
- Work performance drops
- Isolation
- Negative gossip
- Lack of overall interest
This can often lead to being more disorganised not only at work but in your day to day. You may find that you have a difficult time relaxing, as well as the way you see others leads to more criticism. Pay attention to the way you treat others during these times, are you harassing or bullying the people around you?
Cognitive Symptoms or Work Related Stress:
Symptoms of stress in work can have cognitive effects. Cognitive is the ability to be conscious of the way your brain reacts to work related stressors. The ability to understand then nurtures development of the change that has occurred, this may affect the day to day trends you were once used to. Work related stress can impair cognitive natural responses the brain and body are linked to. These types of symptoms affect the body and brain. There are ways to minimise the negative impact at work.
Confronting prolonged periods of work related stress can help switch the response the brain has to stress levels. This is the psychological variables associated with symptoms of work related stress helping to process what is happening in order to get to a better place. Understanding where you are in the journey means you can take action in ways that will help you improve and deal with symptoms of stress at work now and in the future.
There are actions to improve the brain's response which then decreases the possibility of cognitive disorders in the future. Although stress is a natural human response to be aware of its important to protect ourselves from the possible dangers that may surround us:
- Forgetfulness
- Inflexible thinking
- Concentration and focus
- Level of day to day worry
- Poor judgement
There are two types of symptoms of stress to take note of. The first being acute stress which is the way you may feel when besotted with instant challenges. This could be the team putting you in a place of accountability for work not completed on time or to a certain standard. When this has been resolved you may just feel lighter again.
The second is chronic stress. This is when a person spends lengthy periods of time feeling the symptoms of work related stress. This could be traumatic events that have occurred in a person's work or personal life, loss, and abuse as an example. This then can trickle into all areas of a person’s life causing a domino effect. This type of stress can have health related implications. Chronic stressors are associated with overall cognitive loss as you get older. So it is important to deal with the cause to prevent these stressors from continuing in your day to day including work.
Causes of Work Related Stress:
There is no doubt that symptoms of stress in the workplace can be caused by a number of things some examples are:
- Sudden changes to your day to day duties
- Work overload
- Feeling micromanaged
- Security of your position
- Fast and demanding work deadlines
- Uninspired work - Creative juices being dulled
- Lengthy hours
- Heavy pressure
- Lack of work to complete
- Changes in your personal life
- Lack of support
- Being bullied
That being said Symptoms of work-related stress are not limited to what's been mentioned. There may well be some other factors that play a key role in the level of stress felt at work.
How Work Related Stress Can Impact Your Life:
Symptoms of stress in the workplace can have an adverse effect on your life. This can be both physically and mentally. This then can have a trickle effect on the way you behave at work and outside of work. Decisions that you wouldn't usually make may turn more pessimistic, limiting the way one feels they can overcome. A person may not feel motivated to do work, or complete day to day tasks like household chores, hygiene and even communicating with people that love you. Please pay special attention to these changes and look for a way to approach symptoms of stress in the workplace. The risk of not dealing with what’s going on can have long term effects where a person no longer knows who they are, and even questioning their ability to do their best.
You are human and deserve grace no matter the circumstances. You don't have to be alone in your transition to deal with what is happening but knowing is the first step. Asking questions is the next. Looking for the resources right for you comes after, and actioning the steps becomes critical in handling what you are currently facing. Remember clouds don't last forever and this too shall pass.
The impact of work related stress can affect everyone around you. Families, loved ones, partners, children. The tension felt can cause others around us to feel symptoms of stress. So it’s important to create the balance needed to get back on track. The sooner one is able to identify what is happening the sooner action can be taken.
How To Reduce Work Related Stress:
Here are some ways to help reduce the symptoms of work related stress. The first thing to understand is that stress in itself is a normal feeling, you won't be the first or the last to experience stress at work. Knowing that people deal with symptoms of work related stress in different ways is another thing to note.
These things may help start the journey of reducing symptoms of stress in the workplace:
- Make your life outside of the workplace a priority.
- Take a step back - Take deep breaths, walk away and take short breaks, writing down what you are grateful for can be helpful.
- Take care of your passions outside of work - What do you love doing outside of work? Reading, drawing, socialising, etc?
- Create a support group at work - Talk to your colleagues, find solutions together, reach out to HR for ideas.
- Track when you feel stress - Write things down, for a week or two to help understand what is triggering your symptoms of stress in the workplace.
- Find ways to relax - This is personal, baths, walks, tea, music chatting to loved ones, find ways to laugh.
- Meditation - Before and after work even if it’s only for 5-10 minutes at a time.
- Arrange team nights - Especially if you work from home, get into the habit of linking up with colleagues outside of the office.
- Consider the hours you may be working - Oftentimes working longer hours increases the stress felt as you reduce your downtime.
- Mentors - If you have a mentor, speak with them to get ideas on how to reduce the stress you may be feeling at work.
When To Seek Help From a Professional:
Sometimes dealing with work related stress symptoms means getting help outside of ourselves. When is a good time to get a professional involved?
- When nothing you try seems to work or reduce symptoms of work related stress.
- When you’ve been going through long periods of workplace stress. More than say 1-2 months without your stressors being reduced.
- If work has limited professional help available or you feel you are not supported.
- If none of the resources offered supports what you are experiencing and find yourself constantly hitting a brick wall.
- It may be that you are feeling overwhelmed and just want to speak with someone outside of yourself. It’s not a bad thing once you realise you’re displaying symptoms of work related stress to seek help from a professional immediately, things like therapy.
There is nothing wrong with skipping the self help and going straight to a professional. The idea is not to feel like you are stuck. We’ve come across some useful resources that may help.
The NHS provides resources and tools to help manage stress individually or through a professional, click here to find what may be right for you, there are a number of suggestions.
There are also some stress tests you can take to understand the symptoms of workplace stress as well. Stress Management Society offers multiple choice lifestyle questions around common stressors.
Work related stress is common and we’ve found Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has a great work related stress assessment along with some case studies.
Takeaways And Conclusion For Managing Work Related Stress:
It’s fair to say that experiencing symptoms of work related stress is normal. This can be triggered by a number of things. Mainly feeling overwhelmed and unsupported, as well as it being potentially a new feeling that can affect us cognitively. It’s important to start to understand the causes in order to render the best solution for you.
Demands and pressure of work can change which then triggers us to need to respond in order to eliminate the symptoms of stress in the workplace. Writing these changes down can help as a starting point to what may be going on, once aware solutions can be found to help get to a better work life balance which then positively trickles down to other areas of our lives. Going through stress at work can negatively affect other areas of our life as well as the people in our lives. Looking at the way one’s behaviour changes in response to symptoms of work related stress can help determine the best cause of action. Don’t forget there is a difference between pressure and stress, pressure can be a positive thing so identify where the pull is, is key.
As always one shoe doesn't fit all so knowing is the first step, then tapping into what can be done alone or through a professional is determined by the individual. Work related stress can show up physically, emotionally and through behaviour.
Champion Heath has highlighted Workplace Health in a report that we feel you may find useful - 2023 Health Report it highlights key areas around workplace stress and best practices.
To understand the impact of work-related stress on yourself and others helps get to a place of management which is what Kloc-In is promoting. We understand that stress can be continuous but managing symptoms of work related stress positively helps reduce those stresses now and in the future as the brain has a way of storing what's good once it knows what’s going on. Don't be afraid to seek professional help openly or privately. Ultimately it's about you getting what's needed to feel successfully positive in and out of the workplace.
Kloc-In would love to hear from you, have you experienced anything similar that you’d like to share? We are building a community of people that look for resources in order to get to your best, stay at your best and better understand the peaks and troughs of everyday life.
Kloc-In we build together.
