Rachel, help, my job’s stressing me out

Dear Rachel,
My job is making me stressed out all the time. I love it, but it’s starting to affect my health. I’m losing weight and have trouble sleeping. I’m sure you have dealt with this issue hundreds of times before. What’s your advice? What do I do? Sign me Down with the Twitches

Dear Down,
Yes, I have heard your complaint many times, most often during ad recessions or post-recession times, such as these, when people are working harder to handle the new business that’s come in.

And no, you didn’t ask, but I am not an expert on stress, so my advice is no better or worse than the advice you’d find in books at your local library.

But I do have some insights from my years in media and writing this column, and I will pass these on.

You first need to identify what about your job is causing the stress. Is it the long hours? It is a client who is difficult to work with? Does it come from having to keep track of so many different things at any one time?

You then need to figure out how to deal with that particular stress inducer. It may be as simple as becoming better organized, especially if the stress comes from juggling so many balls at one time.

You certainly should be talking to co-workers about how they deal with similar stresses.

We tend to look at stress that is something unique to us, as if it were some sort of personal shortcoming, but in fact stress inducers have pretty common affects across groups of people.

The difference is always in how people cope with them. And techniques for coping can be learned.

Once you have identified your stress inducer, you may indeed find that you cannot come up with any technique for coping.

In that case, I would go to your supervisor and ask to have your job restructured to have that stress inducer removed.

Say your stress inducer is a difficult client. Ask to be relieved of having to deal with that person and offer to take on work you enjoy more and are more suited for. Maybe it’s churning out the reports that others would prefer not to do.

You may feel reluctant to make this request. Don’t be. Part of any supervisor’s job is matching people’s skills and abilities to tasks and finding the right balance for both. It makes no sense to have someone doing work that they are uncomfortable with when their talents could better be employed elsewhere.

But, again, before asking, first spend whatever time it takes to pinpoint exactly what part or parts of your job are causing you to stress out.

At the least, it will help you better appreciate what you really like about your job. You’ll appreciate your career choice even more.

Tags: co workers, Dear Down, Dear Rachel, insights, media, new business, people, recession, time