Workplace Strees

What is Stress?

Stress is often described as a feeling of being overloaded, wound-up tight, tense and worried. We all experience stress at times. It can sometimes help to motivate us to get a task finished or perform well. But stress can also be harmful if we become over-stressed and it interferes with our ability to get on with our normal life for too long.

Workplace Stress

Workplace stress can occur when there is a mismatch between the requirements of the role, your capabilities and resources and supports available.  

Everyone knows what stress feels like and we've probably all experienced it at some stage – at home, school or work, or while getting outside our comfort zone, but while this stress is normal, if it is ongoing, it can become a problem. 

Types of Stress:

Acute stress

 Sometimes stress can be brief, and specific to the demands and pressures of a particular situation, such as a deadline, a performance or facing up to a difficult challenge or traumatic event. This type of stress often gets called acute stress.

 Episodic acute stress

 Some people seem to experience acute stress over and over. This is sometimes referred to as episodic acute stress. These kind of repetitive stress episodes may be due to a series of very real stressful challenges, for example, losing a job, then developing health problems, followed by difficulties for a child in the school setting. For some people, episodic acute stress is a combination of real challenges and a tendency to operate like a ‘stress machine’. Some people tend to worry endlessly about bad things that could happen, are frequently in a rush and impatient with too many demands on their time, which can contribute to episodic acute stress.

 Chronic stress

 The third type of stress is called chronic stress. This involves ongoing demands, pressures and worries that seem to go on forever, with little hope of letting up. Chronic stress is very harmful to people’s health and happiness. Even though people can sometimes get used to chronic stress and may feel they do not notice it so much, it continues to wear people down and has a negative effect on their relationships and health.

Signs of Stress

Stress is a normal response to the demands of work. It can be beneficial in short bursts, helping you stay alert and perform at your best.

However, prolonged or excessive job stress can be damaging to your mental health. Stress can contribute to the development of anxiety and/or depression and may cause an existing condition to worsen.

As well as affecting your relationships and life outside work, stress can increase your risk of injury, fatigue and burnout.

Signs of Stress 

Physical:

• chest pain or a pounding heart
• fatigue
• reduced interest in sex
• nausea, diarrhoea or constipation
• getting colds more often
• muscle tension, pains and headaches
• episodes of fast, shallow breathing and excessive sweating
• loss or change of appetite
• sleeping problems

Non-Physical

• feeling overwhelmed or frustrated
• feeling guilty or unhappy
• being irritable
• losing confidence and being indecisive
• thinking negatively
• having racing thoughts
• memory problems
• excessive worrying.

Tips on how to manage everyday stress:

a. Identify warning signs

b. Identify triggers

c. Establish routines

d. Spend time with people who care

e. Look after your health