Any situation of intense and continuous stress can benefit from good psychological work. But work stress has very specific characteristics related to the organizational environment where it occurs.
People who come to my office with work stress are going through very difficult situations in an environment where we spend many hours, the workplace. We spend eight hours a day there, we earn the money to live, and, in many cases, it is one of the main sources of personal valuation or diminishment.
In general, work stress is related to:
- Ongoing situations of overwork and perceptions of enormous load, impossible to take on or cope with. Feelings of “not making it”, no matter how many hours are worked.
- Conflicts with bosses, collaborators or colleagues.
- Feelings of not being treated fairly in the company, by bosses or colleagues, in terms of appraisal, promotions, salaries, schedules, etc.
- Impossibility to reconcile professional life with family life, couple, or free time.
- And much more serious aspects, such as Mobbing and Burn Out situations.
The symptoms of work stress are similar, to a certain extent, to the stress of any situation:
- Worry, sadness or irascibility.
- Constant tiredness, physical reactions such as muscular pains, skin problems, gastric problems, etc.
- Problems to fall asleep properly…
But there are also specific aspects related to the environment in which it occurs:
- Lack of motivation to go to work or to perform tasks. The depressive mood of “Sunday afternoon”.
- Obsessive thoughts about work problems and tasks.
- Fear of meetings and public presentations.
- Recurrent fear of dismissal or punishment.
- The anguish of constant rushing.
- Nightmares about specific work situations.
- Low self-esteem; feelings of inability to carry out tasks.
What can professional Counselling do in situations of work stress?
Many psychologists have experience in accompanying people in stressful situations. However, they are generally unaware of the organizational world in which work-related stress occurs.
My work in professional Counselling addresses the two fundamental aspects of dealing with work stress: personal tendencies and the organizational world in which the person develops his or her work.
My work focuses, above all, on helping the person to alleviate the physical and psychological consequences produced by stress.
In addition, the person must understand and work on personal tendencies related not only to professional life, but also to the approach to life in general. I am referring to issues such as perfectionism, excessive self-demand, undervaluation, lack of assertiveness, excessive rationalism, emotional rigidity, etc.
But it is not only about acting on the negative, far from it. We also focus on enhancing professional skills and making better use of them in everyday situations in the life of the organization.
A differential aspect of my work has to do with understanding the business dynamics involved in your work stress problem. It is not all about working on ourselves as it is also necessary to have a good understanding of the organizational environment in which we find ourselves.
Organizations have very complex internal dynamics, a specific language, expressed and hidden rules, and many other peculiarities that are necessary to know in depth in order to develop a good job of supporting a person who is experiencing work stress.
And this is a very differential and specific aspect, but difficult to do because you need to have known and experienced very diverse organizational situations and environments for a long time.
My long organizational experience allows me to understand the business world in which each person is immersed and, therefore, I can help him/her to understand and influence it.