Stress is the emotional response that makes us overcome the problems we face every day, which is why we talk about good and bad stress. The lists to define each one are usually endless but on this occasion it is convenient to talk about one of the most harmful and underhanded that we suffer today: work.
Just in times when any job depends not only on the goodwill of the employer, but also on an economic crisis that has taken its toll on the labor market, women demand more and more of ourselves, trying to avoid dismissal or dismissal. Temporary leave. The bill for this excess goes to our health account because despite knowing and diagnosing the problem, we end up with the resigned phrase of what remedy is left for me!, and we continue to be subjected to the same pressure until the body explodes.
Work stress
Work stress is considered an inevitable evil of the modern era and there is currently a public debate on whether or not to consider it an “occupational disease” —a legal medical concept that would grant greater social coverage to those who suffer from it. The truth is that this type of stress affects the quality of work and causes discomfort in both the employee and the employer.
For specialists, the common trigger for this type of uncontrollable anxiety are the demands that exceed the resources of each person. Its symptoms are diverse and can range from brain or cardiovascular accidents, digestive disorders, skin disorders, insomnia, irritability, lack of appetite to profound emotional disorders, musculoskeletal injuries and disorders related to pregnancy and low birth weight.
This evil particularly affects people who carry out their work in the service sector: health, education, commerce, tourism, or others where their objective is to satisfy the needs of other people, make them feel good or support them in their distraction, overcome suffering, illness or conflict.
Everything seems to indicate that putting yourself in the other’s place has an incalculable emotional cost for the worker because, among other reasons, he must overcome his problems daily to care for others. It’s like asking an actor to play Shakespeare 24 hours a day and transfer, to the intense and complex Hamlet, each of his daily conflicts.
The effect of this type of stress on people is such that when one of them overflows, psychologists and specialists agree to call it burnout, and the term Burnout Syndrome has even been coined —assistance stress— which illustrates the scope of this phenomenon.
The spontaneous reaction of people who cannot transform the conditions that cause the imbalance is to unconsciously readjust and lower the quality of their professional performance.
Occupational medicine specialists assure —without trying to get their patients to throw in the towel— that these are not cases of negligence, but the natural response of those who do not realize that they have lost motivation for work and simply seek resources to adapt to demands that exceed their possibilities.
Organizing work and trying to establish a rational routine for each of the activities that make up the day are usually two of the pieces of advice for people who begin to feel attacked by stress? So are a proper diet and daily physical exercise.