The Ugly Truth About Work Stress
Julie had spent the past year working 12 hour days. It wasn’t unusual for her to bring work home on the weekends as well. She felt overworked and tired, like there were never enough hours in the day to get everything done at work, but since she loved her job she felt ok about bringing her work home. But, it was starting to catch up with her.
She was exhausted. It’s a surprise she maintained this type of schedule as long as she did. Before, work was spilling over into her personal life. Now, suddenly she felt like it was a pounding waterfall that she couldn’t stop. She was beginning to realise just how far reaching the effects of her work, the stress about her work, and her behaviour had stretched.
Her two primary school aged children understood that she loved her job, and it wasn’t like she was ignoring them. She spent extra time with them on the weekends because she often only arrived home an hour before they went to bed. But lately she found herself shortening or even cancelling the extra kids time on the weekends because she needed time to finish work before Monday morning.
Her partner was supportive, and he enjoyed taking a more prominent role at home with the children. But even he was starting to make noises like he wanted Julie to spend more time with him and the kids. He commented that they hadn’t gone out as a couple in many months, so Julie made a point to arrange a dinner out the following week. They had a lovely meal, and an enjoyable evening out. And then Julie stayed up until 3am finishing the work she hadn’t done earlier while they were out.
The guilt started creeping in… and she kept pushing it aside.
As time went on, Julie became more and more exhausted. Despite this, she wasn’t sleeping well, finding it near impossible to turn off her mind to allow her to sleep. She woke feeling drained each morning and spent the day in a somewhat of a fog while rushing around and thinking in three channels to keep up with her hectic schedule.
Do you feel like Julie? Click here to grab my free eBook on how to stop work stress in its tracks, before it affects your health or your family.
Early one morning she woke up with a tightness in her chest. It’s nothing… she told herself. Deep breaths…. but it didn’t go away. The rest of the household was fast asleep still and she had one of those moments where your life flashes before you. What if this is it? What if I’m having a heart attack and I die right here…. My children have barely seen me for weeks, my partner is carrying the family while I’m focused and dedicated on work….
Julie still loved her job. That was the hardest part! If she didn’t love what she did it would have been so much easier to change the whole situation. But she did, and she was pulled in so many directions that she couldn’t find the right direction for her… or for her family.
I have seen many ‘Julie’s’ over the years – all unique but they all have the same issue at the core of their problems, their work stress has gotten out of control, or has taken control of their lives.
You may also be feeling stressed from your work – overwhelmed by all the things you need to do and anxious that time seems to go past so fast that you are always running to keep up. You feel guilty that you don’t have much left in your tank to share with your family when you are home. Your life may not be at the stage Julie has found herself – but you may be noticing you just can’t switch off from work and you have less focus, patience and energy for your family. It is time to put some checks and balances in place – so you too don’t end up placing all your eggs in your ‘work’ basket.
Even if you love your job, every job has some stressful elements. It may simply be that there is not enough time to get everything done. Just like any other stress, when work stress becomes chronic – it’s there most of the time – it can become overwhelming. You start to find that you can’t turn your mind off even when you are at home. It begins to impact on your family life, and you feel guilty about that… which creates more stress!
You might find yourself starting to suffer with low level health concerns. Perhaps you just don’t feel quite right and can’t put a finger on what it is. You may find yourself short tempered and irritable without really understanding why. You’re probably tired, because stress is causing your body and mind to work overtime.
Regardless of how it presents for you, when you’re not feeling your best, you really aren’t ‘there’ for your family. Your relationship with your partner and/or your children starts to suffer. Many people find that they just aren’t coping at home, and it comes back to what’s going on at work.
You’re not alone. Up to half of employees report experiencing workplace stress, with many of these realising that their workplace stress is spilling over into their family lives. Check out this report for more details on how Australians are feeling about stress in the workplace: https://www.convergeinternational.com.au/docs/default-source/research/a-future-that-works-2016-snapshot-of-the-australian-workplace
It’s important to realise that while your work or career is important to you, each one of us is more than just our work. We have personal lives that are important too – and people who we love and want to enjoy relationships with. We have interests outside of work that deserve some time spent enjoying them. Our sense of purpose in life comes from all of these aspects of our lives. Allowing one aspect such as work to take such a strong presence and spill over into other areas tips that work/life balance we say we desire and disconnects us from our sense of purpose.
We will never be able to completely remove stress from work but it is possible to take take steps to reduce it. This means you protect yourself against the negative ways that stress impacts on your body, mind and ….not least, your loved ones! You deserve to live a happy and fulfilling life, without stress and overwhelm.
After extensive testing at the hospital, Julie was thankfully, but not surprisingly, diagnosed with stress. I say thankfully because it wasn’t a heart attack. But, stress has affected many systems within her body and she was likely to develop further health problems. Her health was suffering, her relationship was suffering and her family was suffering. She told her husband ‘I just can’t believe I let work take over my whole life. What started as dedication to a career I loved had culminated in a total imbalance in life that I now realise is totally unsustainable. She realised that she had given her soul to her career, and in the process lost everything that was important to her… her love, her sense of self, her health. Realising that this had gone beyond a situation she could get herself out of, she started searching for someone to help her find a way to find herself again… and restore her relationships and that balance in her life.
I wrote my new ebook with you (and the Julie’s of the world) in mind. I want to help you find strategies that will allow you to overcome the overwhelm, cope better with work stress, and help you leave work at work so you can enjoy your family and your life. This short ebook gives you 5 simple steps you can do – right now – to release your stress and bring calm into your life. It’s free and is my gift to the women and men of the world who want to find their work/life balance and enjoy life!
Click the image below to download your free ebook today.
