When work is making you sick

Sometimes work is not good for you

This week a friend of mine described how work has been quite literally making him sick. He hasn’t been sleeping, he has had some health issues that his GP said are likely stress-related and his wife said she is concerned for him. In parallel, a client I have been working with reported that a stressful work situation has much improved since she had an open and honest (but dreaded) conversation with her boss. This week too, another client reported that a team member was describing feeling stressed from their day to day interactions with a colleague.

The question is, how do you know when there is something you can do to change a situation at work; when changing your response or your own behaviour will resolve a situation; or when the job or context itself is simply not a good fit?

Sometimes we have to take action to move through difficulties at work. We have to have a conversation with our boss about the challenges we are having, or push through a difficult time, knowing it will likely improve. Sometimes, simply accepting that things are the way they are, can alleviate how we feel about it.

However when distress is ongoing, and attempts to change the situation or change how we respond haven’t helped, we need to consider the impact it is having on us.

Choosing to make a change to maintain our own health and wellbeing is a courageous choice.