Busy busy busy. It seems more the norm than the exception. It has become very normal to be very busy. Hardly anyone is not busy. Nowadays we work very hard and a lot, then we continue home at the same pace to keep up with the children, the household, dinner and later also social contacts. In person or online. We are on the go all day long. If it is too busy for too long, you have (constant) stress. Constant stress is at the expense of your health. This week is National Work Stress Week. Why do so many people experience stress at work? And what can we do about it? The Week of Work Stress draws attention to this and provides tips to reduce work stress.
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Stress is a natural reaction to ensure that you can react well and quickly to dangerous situations. By producing cortisol, your body can temporarily act and react faster to avoid or overpower the danger (fight or flight). Quite simply, you get a kind of energy boost and you temporarily become a superhero with super powers that you would never have in a normal situation. Your body is just not made to last very long. Not the normal stress, nor the work stress. So when the dangerous situation is over, your body needs some time to recover. You don't have to book a wellness holiday in Thailand right away… But do give your body the necessary rest after stressful situations.
This used to be an extremely useful skill of your body, because as a prehistoric man you had to fight or flee from prey or other tribes. Today we are no longer exposed to these kinds of dangers, but the mechanism still exists and turns on automatically. We just don't have time these days to turn it off or recover. What about your energy balance? Take the test!
Our life/energy level can be compared to a battery or battery. In the past, the capacity of a battery or battery was not very large. This was not a problem either, because more energy was not needed. We didn't have super-fast devices that required so much energy. Because the capacity of the accumulators and batteries increased, the devices could be adapted to this and you could do longer and more with a battery or battery. But no matter how strong your battery or accumulator is, at some point it is empty and needs to be recharged. If you don't do this in time, all kinds of complaints or - worse yet - a burnout are lurking.
You used to work 9-17 and that was it. You were only available to your boss during that time, outside those times you were only available to your family, relatives and friends. People probably also had work stress in the past, but there was enough time outside of work to recharge your battery. Work and private life were strictly done. Very clear and well-arranged.
However, that time is (for good?) over. The amount of work done in the office has increased. With the advent of e-mail, for example, all correspondence is much faster. You are therefore expected to respond much faster to everything. The technology therefore ensures that communication with each other can take place faster and more. If you can do business with each other faster, you can (therefore) do more work.
This shouldn't be a problem if you have enough time to recharge. But today's work stress is no longer limited to office hours. Thanks to mobile phones and home workplaces, you can just keep working. You are also expected to be available for the boss outside office hours.
In addition, during the day you are also busy with other things than just work. With the advent of mobile phones, you can also be reached all day long for private matters. Social media keeps you informed about non-work related things at work all day long. You never used to worry about calling your friends during office hours for an evening appointment or to go out this weekend?! You did this in the evening after work.
And I haven't even mentioned the stream of apps from school and sports that keep you informed of the ups and downs of the children all day long. That also goes on all day and it personally really disturbs me. So you have more work to do but at the same time you are constantly distracted with private matters. Your work is not finished and this leads to work stress.
Then you just continue outside office hours to get the work done. But 'out of office hours was actually the time to spend with the family/relatives/friends, right? You move this to the weekend, while this was the time to recharge your battery. And I'm not even talking about all the shopping, laundry and household chores that have to be done.
So we don't take any more time to recharge. We are no longer used to doing nothing or doing something creative. If there is a moment when nothing is done, we reach for our cell phone to drown aimlessly in how the rest of the world fills its day.
In the past, during the smoke break/tea break/lunch break you used to stare straight ahead or talk to your colleagues, to relax. We now use that time on our mobile phones to keep up with the rest of the world. And how many people even take their cell phones to the bathroom! So now we use our cell phones to charge. But those things just provide a stream of new information that we have to process and keep track of. So often there is no charging at all. There is confrontation with the nice lives of others and our own shortcomings. This creates even more stress.
To avoid or reduce work stress, I would therefore recommend to start put away your mobile phone † Put it in your bag or drawer, as long as it's out of earshot. Keep work and private life separate. If it's just an hour, or start with twenty minutes for me. Then you can fully concentrate on your work. This will take some getting used to, because I once read somewhere that “the youth of today” has forgotten to fully concentrate on a subject/task. I think the average adult suffers from this as well. By the way, that's called "mindfulness" nowadays, but I think this is nothing more or less than learning to focus on 1 thing again and no longer being distracted by all kinds of external factors.
If you have a real sorting job for which you don't need mail, close your mailbox as well † Don't get distracted by new emails coming in either. If you can bring yourself to do this, you will see how much peace this can bring. Then you have been able to complete at least 1 task and you have less work stress.
There is much more to say about (work) stress and there are many more causes and ways to tackle it. My blog is far from complete, but it is a start. I hope with this explanation and two small but very important tips to help you on your way to reduce your work stress. Good luck!
