| 28 April 2010
A recent study done by health insurer, Medibank Private shows that stress claims by Australian workers have doubled in recent years. Workplace stress is now costing the Australian economy an estimated $15 billion a year. Many employers and employees would be concerned as to what could be causing this trend but a recent Lifeline Australia Newspoll gives an indication of the likely culprit.
The poll revealed that nine out of ten Australians that feel stressed blame work for the way that they feel. However these results don’t prove that work is the cause of stress. More importantly, the results prove that you will feel stressed when you start blaming something else for the way that you are feeling.
Why do you get stressed at work?
Is it because of the way someone spoke to you? Is it because of something someone else said or did?
If you answered yes to either of those questions, it means that you are setting yourself up for workplace stress. You are allowing other people and circumstances (that you have no control over) to influence your emotional wellbeing. If someone does something or an event occurs that you don’t like, you will feel stressed. You have set yourself up for your emotional state to be completely at the mercy of others around you.
There are no circumstances or people that can actually make you feel stressed. Relaxed and calm people acknowledge the fact that only you can make yourself feel stressed. Stress comes about only by how you choose to interpret any particular situation. You can’t control what happens to you but you are the only person who can control how you interpret each situation. And it’s your interpretation of the situation that brings about the feelings of stress, not the situation itself.
When children manipulate their emotions to try to get others to change their behaviour to correspond with their every whim, they call it being spoilt. But when adults do the same thing at work they say that they are suffering stress and think that others in the workplace should modify their behaviour according to their every whim.
Many stress management consultants encourage employers to pander to stressed out employees every desire: give them more job security (when many employers have none), employ more staff so the employee doesn’t feel overworked (so they want to be paid the same for doing less).
The first step in immunizing yourself against workplace stress is to realize that other people and things around don’t have the capacity to stress you. Remove the burden of responsibility for your emotional welfare away from others and place it firmly on your own shoulders. Be responsible for your own emotions. Let your own actions and behaviour determine how you feel. Don’t get upset by things outside of your control.Then you will have the freedom to be happy and calm even if it is raining and people around you are in bad moods.
