Workplace anxiety can be incredibly stressful, whether it’s a tough boss, nasty colleagues, difficult work, unrealistic deadlines, or unforgiving clients. It’s therefore unsurprising that somebody’s work situation is a very common source of stress and anxiety amongst the adult population.
Around one in five Australians took time off in the past 12 months because they felt stressed, anxious, mentally unhealthy or depressed. Below, we’ll look at workplace anxiety in detail, and suggest a number of strategies you can use to alleviate the effects.
What Causes Workplace Anxiety
There are a number of factors that can contribute to feeling anxiety about going to work. This can include things like:
- High expectations and workload. You may be working in a high-pressure job that expects a lot from you, such as delivering a high volume and excellent quality work. This can often make us feel scared and anxious that we won’t meet these expectations and let down the people around us.
- Tight deadlines. Related to the above, you may be required to deliver high quality work in a very short time frame. Jobs may expect you to complete tasks on the day, or large projects in various milestones. This can cause what’s called ‘deadline stress’ and can be a major factor in workplace anxiety.
- Colleagues and superiors. You may not have the best relationship with your colleagues and/or your supervisors. They may have an attitude that makes you stressed, be unreasonably demanding, or they may just be unpleasant people to be around. They may also be bad at their jobs and make it difficult for you to complete your work (and thereby cause you stress).
4 Warning Signs of Workplace Stress
Workplace stress can occur if what’s expected of you at work is more than you feel you can manage.
There might be a work deadline, or an assignment that needs to be completed, and you have to focus your energy to make sure the task is done right.
What happens though when your tasks repeatedly take over and become too much?
We can experience work-related stress. This can lead us to become ineffective in our work, make mistakes or even become cynical, believing that if you stop nothing will get done. It is important to know the warning signs of when your workload is becoming too much in order to put strategies in place.
Ask yourself these questions
1. Basic physical signs
- How is your sleep going? Are you staying awake at night working on a project? Are you waking up throughout the night due to an issue at work that needs fixing? Or are you simply not sleeping enough? Between 7-9 hours is recommended.
- How is your eating? In a busy time we sometimes are on edge with coffee pumping through our veins, often forgetting to eat or just eating unhealthy high energy foods.
2. Your normal work day
- What does your work day look like? Do you have a list of tasks that need to be completed? Or are you constantly chasing your tail with new tasks that come up?
- Is there ability to finish a task fully before moving onto something else?
- Do you get a break at work?
- Do you actually turn off your computer and have ‘home time’ and ‘work time’?
3. The work team
- Do you feel supported in your role?
- Is there someone else you can ask questions related to a task? Are you able to ask for help when you need it?
- Can you talk to someone about feeling under pressure?
4. Some last questions
- How are you coping? If we scaled your regular stress levels (‘0′ being calm and ’10’ being overwhelmed) how often would you hit a 10 throughout a day?
- When was the last time you had a holiday or a decent break?
- How do you slow down?
What can you do about workplace stress and anxiety?
Check on your answers to the questions above, regularly. It will help you shape a better work/life balance because we can often miss the basic signs of overload.
If you’ve got anxiety about going to work everyday, there are various strategies you can put into place. We’ll outline some of this below.
Be positive yet realistic
The first thing to do is be realistic with yourself – are you being overworked? Are you using your time wisely? Are you sacrificing critical personal time for work? If so, that’s very likely one of the main factors contributing to your anxiety. Set realistic expectations for yourself so you can complete all your work without pushing too hard.
Speak with your boss about the problem
While this may be scary at first, a discussion with your boss may be necessary to improve upon your mental health. It’s likely that they will want a happy employee in their ranks and will be willing to accommodate your needs. Reach out to your boss about the workload, the deadlines or the colleagues that are causing you the stress.
Know your triggers
It’s important to know what triggers your anxiety, so that you can develop appropriate coping strategies. This could be public speaking, doing a specific type of work or speaking to a particular colleague. Coping strategies such as breathing exercises can work to help you combat this anxiety.
Speak to a professional
There are counsellors for workplace anxiety who can help. It may be the case that your workplace is exacerbating already existing conditions, such as generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) or social anxiety disorder (SAD).
Here at Safety Place Therapy, our counsellors in Melbourne can help you if you have anxiety about going to work everyday. Our therapists help many people experiencing anxiety in many facets of life. Their relaxed and non-judgmental approach assist patients to overcome their everyday hurdles.
Talk with a counsellor about your workplace stress. If the demands of your work exceed your ability or resources to cope, reach out to us today.
Safe Place Therapy is your safe place to talk.
