We all go through stressful days at work but some people get affected by this stress to the extent they struggle physically.
Have you ever experienced trouble breathing, fast heartbeats, or felt frustrated or overwhelmed when you thought about work? Have you ever struggled mentally and physically when you were working on a presentation and lost grip? If your answer is yes, then there is a big possibility you have work anxiety.
Work Anxiety is different from general anxiety and today we will tell what work anxiety is, its symptoms, its causes, and how to manage it.
What Is Work Anxiety?
Work Anxiety is the feeling of being anxious and stressed, which is caused by and revolves around work.
Work Anxiety’s causes differ from one person to another; some may experience work anxiety due to deadlines, performance, new projects, or upcoming evaluations, while others may have it due to the work culture, co-workers, or work system.
Work anxiety can be long-term and short-term but both have serious consequences, both can cause missing deadlines, low productivity, lack of focus, and even losing the job.
How To Know If You Have Work Anxiety And What Causes It
Having work anxiety have certain symptoms that include feeling irritated or frustrated, anxious or depressed whenever you’re thinking about work.
One of the symptoms is that whenever you get a call from someone from work, you get a small panic attack, you’d also find it very hard to wake up to go to work, and you’d feel stressed almost all of the time.
You will also struggle with your productivity, meeting deadlines, and concentration and you’d procrastinate and allow distractions just so you don’t work.
To tell the difference between work anxiety and general anxiety is that on weekends or holidays, anxiety tends to be reduced.
What causes work anxiety is work taking over your entire life, the overload of tasks and projects, an unclear future in the company, the inability of making friends with your colleagues, and unrealistic deadlines that end up stressing you.
How To Manage Work Anxiety
What’s different about work anxiety than general anxiety is that it is manageable and can be cured in a short time.
There are some things that you can do to be able to have control of your work anxiety.
Admit To Yourself That You Need A Break
There’s no use in stressing yourself and denying that you’re burnt out.
A break is like pressing the refresh button; during this time you will be able to reset everything and rearrange your thoughts. You can also evaluate your performance in the company and make decisions regarding your career.
You can use this time to travel and stop worrying about work and just enjoy a moment of silence and start doing something for yourself.
This will help you clear your mind and come back stable and energized.
Time Management
Work anxiety can cause procrastination, which will affect your productivity hence increasing your work anxiety.
You have to manage your time and not allow tasks and projects to overlap each other. Dedicate certain times of the day for each task and set a deadline for yourself and commit to it.
You also need to organize your time and tasks. Always start with the soon-to-be-delivered tasks so you can finish them on time; organize your work according to priority.
This way you will find yourself finishing on time and meeting deadlines.
Your Tasks Belong To The Working Hours Not Your Home
Never take your work to your home, you have to set boundaries.
Taking your work home means that work is controlling your life; it means that you have put work over your mental and physical health. No one can work 24/7, this will increase your anxiety and instead of finishing on time, you will exhaust yourself and miss deadlines.
Once you take your work to your home, you won’t be able to stop and this will have a very bad effect on your and even your family.
You have to have a little balance between your work and life.
Be Realistic
Don’t try to be a superhero and put unrealistic deadlines and goals, you know your capabilities, work according to them.
Many people stress themselves out just so they can be the best employee and neglect their mental and physical health. They stress themselves out and set unrealistic deadlines just to prove they’re good at their job.
To prove you’re the best, you need to do your job well and set realistic deadlines so you can give the best result.
Stressing yourself and loading yourself with work will make you end up losing your health for nothing because the company you’re favoring over your health will seek a replacement in no time.
Practice Techniques That Can Reduce Your Anxiety
There are some techniques that you can do to reduce your anxiety at work.
Whenever you feel like you’re about to be very anxious and might get a panic attack, you need to pause immediately and take a deep breath; always practice deep breathing exercises. You can also go for a walk to get some fresh air to clear your mind, distractions will help you control your anxiety.
Acknowledge and admit that you’re anxious, don’t deny it and stress yourself out more, just take a break to calm yourself down and use words of affirmation, keep telling yourself that you’re ok and you can handle this and that everything is under your control, you know what’s wrong and you can find a solution to it.
Ask For Help
If you’re struggling with a project or a task and it is giving you a hard time then ask your colleagues for help.
You can ask your closest colleague in the company to help with either calming down or with the tasks you have. Also, if your company provides insurance or has any resources that might help, then reach out. You can even go to a therapist to help you how to manage your anxiety at work.
There’s no shame in asking for help, you’re saving yourself.
In the end, if you have work anxiety, you don’t need to worry, learn how to control it so it won’t turn into general anxiety. Also, if your job started giving you a hard time to the extent of having work anxiety, then start looking for other opportunities.
