Why Is Your Job Really Stressful?

In my survey conducted few weeks back I realized a very crucial fact pertaining to professional career. A common question Is your job really stressful? was the theme of the survey. What was really uncommon was the result of the survey. I realized that a majority of the survey takers were happy with their job. Every morning was a new challenge to them as far as their jobs were concerned. However this was a positive feedback and contradicts the fact that many people are unhappy with their jobs. So I researched more on this topic. This is what I found out, 90% of the masses are happy with their job but extremely stressed because of many allied factors. Let us see these factors in detail.

Here goes the bosss pet, a phrase used commonly against people that try to be extra friendly to their seniors or bosses. This is mainly done with the motive to get noticed in the eyes of your seniors or bosses. People who are called so cause unavoidable stress to the rest of their colleagues. Their colleagues won't just envy such people but would be worried that their contribution towards the company would be overlooked and decisions could be influenced by that particular person. On the other side of this story would be the fear incurred by such people, of loosing the attention that they got from the seniors. The co-operation level got by their colleague would constantly be reducing. Hatred and anger would be emotions constantly shown towards people with this behavior. This could be considered as one important factor that could cause that person to part ways from the company or cause their colleagues to do so.

Another point that was high up in the list of factors that cause stress in a corporate environment is sabotage the company. This can happen in many different ways, so let us see few incidents on this topic. This is what happened in one case scenario; A senior chef of a hotel got a better job opportunity at another place. He made up his mind and decided to leave. During his notice period at the company, he offered better job opportunities and remunerations to his junior chefs and asked them to quit too. They did the same and joined him at his new work place. All the chefs who left were happy. However this is not the end of the story, here we see that one person so easily sabotaged the entire hotel. This is one concern that keeps bothering many people. They keep living under the fear that if any member of their team quits then how do they manage the rest of the team, so that it doesn't affect the business.

Another cause of the stress element in everyday professional life is competition. In fact competition is one issue that if done over a certain limit could be harmful in any phase of life. This is what I once witnessed; two good friends were employed at the same law firm. They were new and the urge to impress your seniors was obviously. This led to mere competition between the two of them. For every small case they got they was always a tough battle for the poll position. Every case was thoroughly studied, well researched and amazingly presented to their seniors. The seniors were happy with both their performances. However, something that was ignored and later faded was their friendly and their trust in each other. A healthy competition is always a step towards success but over a certain limit it could be very harmful. This competition would make all the competitors stressful. It could cause ill health, mental sickness, employee sabotage or even force an employee to quit their job.

Last but not the least is back stabbing a colleague. This happens in most cases and could cause a lot of stress to the person who is being back stabbed and the person who back stabbed him. The first person may be extremely stressed as he was back stabbed once and would fear to trust any other employee. He might also be forced to quit his job due to bad performance. The back stabber on the other hand will also be stressed because he would fear the fact that someone else could back stab him or else if his colleagues would realize his behavior then they would avoid him and ignore him completely. People generally back stab other friends or colleagues with the intensions of hatred, envy and jealousy.

These were some conclusive factors that the second survey resulted in. One more thing I often see is people often change their jobs because they were offered more pay or a lesser hard working job. Well your work should be spiritual. So work hard and true, there are no short cuts in life. You may try a short cut but soon you will realize that we don't work for the money but we get money because we work.

Related Links:

What is stress?

Stress (roughly the opposite of relaxation) is a medical term for a wide range of strong external stimuli, both physiological and psychological, which can cause a physiological response called the general adaptation syndrome, first described in 1936 by Hans Selye in the journal Nature.
An emotionally disruptive or upsetting condition occurring in response to adverse external influences and capable of affecting physical health which can be characterized by increased heart rate, a rise in blood pressure, muscular tension, irritability and depression. Stress does not cause migraine but can be a migraine "trigger".
A condition in which the organism is subjected to unfavourable or unfamiliar environmental conditions, resulting in some alteration in normal physical functioning. Short-term stress can often be overcome. Long-term stress can reduce resistance to disease and parasites, inhibit self-healing processes, and reduce life-span.