WORRIED SICK ABOUT WORK

STRESS AND A TOXIC ENVIRONMENT HURTS PHYSICALLY AND PSYCHOLOGICALLY, WRITES ROWENA HARDY

When catching up with a young friend and sharing news and events, it turned out that she had been made redundant a couple of months earlier after four years or so in her role. While that could be devastating and challenging for some, she mentioned she was quite relieved although it was putting pressure on her financially. It turned out it had also brought some unexpected rewards.

For her the rewards were physical – within a couple of weeks the pain and tension she had been carrying for a long time in her neck and shoulders diminished significantly. Despite having physiotherapy, acupuncture and chiropractic in the past, nothing made a difference until she left her job.

This sort of situation is not unusual and there are a couple of questions in an experience like this; what caused the physical discomfort in the first place and why was it that nothing seemed to help when she had used similar things before successfully?

At one level, the cause may have been ergonomic – she may have needed a different chair or a height-adjustable desk to support healthy posture and weight bearing. Or she may have had an underlying physical issue that hadn’t been detected. From previous conversations and awareness of what can cause pain, particularly in the neck and shoulders, I also recognised there was likely a combination of factors – psychological and physical. I’m talking of a toxic environment.

I describe a toxic environment as one where people are competing rather than collaborating, where there is relentless pressure to conform and perform to a certain timeframe and budget, where there is gossip, judgment, bullying and harassment – overt or covert. Where you are told what to do rather than being asked for your input and the opportunity to make a valuable contribution. Where your skills and experience are overlooked or deemed unimportant in favour of your ability to just get the job done without debate. Would that be somewhere you could thrive? Would you choose to bring your “discretionary” effort? Would you be enthusiastic to go to work each morning? What might happen to your psychological wellbeing in those circumstances?

Given all that is spoken and written about the mind-body connection it is hardly surprising that, if we are working in a toxic environment like the one described above, (unfortunately they are quite common), it can have a significant effect psychologically and, as a result, physically. Our friend’s body may well have been giving her physical pain before she was consciously aware of being unhappy in her work and had not linked the two.

So, when she chose to leave such an environment and quickly felt her neck and shoulder pain reduce, I suggest physical relief was a result of being able to let go of the significant psychological stress caused by her role and/or the workplace environment plus perhaps the weight of responsibility she had carried, whether she needed to or not.

If we are aware our environment causes physical and psychological pain, why do we choose to stay? Of course, having paid employment is necessary for most of us to be able to lead the life we choose, but it can become a case of “golden handcuffs” where we are paid a lot of money and can’t afford to leave even though we hate the job or company or it’s making us sick. Sometimes we feel we have no choice and wouldn’t be able to find another job, but what is the cost of staying? Potentially it’s your health and general wellbeing.

If you recognise that your work environment may be toxic and your job is taking a toll on you physically and mentally maybe it’s time for a change.