Stress at Work?

Work stress is the new age monster we have decided to blame for all our problems. Fame, fortune, power and other frills attached give us a huge reason to take work stress.

How many times have you heard people say “I love my job”? Well, I am guessing not many, but in case you do have such fortunate people in your life, who love what they do and have no stress about their work, then make sure to peek a little beyond the periphery. Either they are very passionate about they do, or they are trying to convince themselves more than they are conveying to you that they simply adore their work life.

Some people are really lucky; the day they enter the work world, they know exactly what they are looking for. So work stress becomes an alien term for them, because they love what they do and are taking stress only to get “there”. If you are confused as to what that means, let’s simplify it. If you know you want to be on the top of the pack, you are ready for the power games, deceit, back-stabbing and work dramas. They don’t bother you so much as you are constantly playing along, so that when your turn comes, you can put everybody else in their place.

It’s only the small, handful batch of sensitive ones who get trapped in the functioning of the blood sucking corporate machine. They are too self-respecting to participate in the rat race of the power hungry and at the same time living in the ever-hopeful notion that the best alternative will work for them when the time is right.

If both extremes are so bizarrely perplexing then what is a 20 something person supposed to do when he or she is thrown in the work world pool. Some manage to learn to swim, some end up sinking, and a huge majority constantly beats the tide to get to the nearest shore.

A young enthusiast joins a decent company. At the time of the interview, it all seems pretty alright. The pay is not bad, the office looks hygienic and people seem “normal”. The first salary comes. Oh my God! What was I promised and how come I am getting this meagre sum in hand? After a long session with the boss and the HR department, the hidden lines of the contract come to the fore. The employee realizes that his huge package is not so huge after all the alterations.

By the end of the first month, the stress has already started mounting. The hours are always outstretched, the lunch breaks are becoming shorter by the day and the colleagues’ smiles are fast turning into ugly frowns. Two decisions maybe taken at this point in a new company by the young employee who had joined with full gusto! Either he will start logging on to employment websites to find another job or learn the logic which works for the other employees and start playing along. Unfortunately most of us follow the second option until we realize it’s too late. As the famous saying goes “if you can’t beat them, join them”. So we become more and more like the people we once used to dislike in the hope of beating them in their own game on a given day.

And that’s how it’s done. Years into this nonsensical game and most of us start mutating into something we never thought we had inside. We feel proud that we have outsmarted those who pushed us in this hell hole. But is that really true? Who are we really fooling at the end of the day? The bitchy boss who asked us to look at the same file four times or ourselves?

Speaking from personal experience, I once had joined a really huge group to gain some additional brownie points on my resume. I was excited, as before this I had worked in a relatively small setup where everyone was relaxed and there was not work stress. On the very first day, I was already feeling deflated because the crowd was a bummer, the computers looked like some of the originals by Charles Babbage and the canteen really took the cake. It was dirty, shabby and unhygienic to say the least. At the time I remembered the famous saying don’t judge a book by its cover and tried to stay strong, really strong. However, the negative energy crept so badly within me, that before I even realized I had turned into this sad little person who I could not handle.

So I decided to take things in my hands and took a strong decision that I won’t let anybody corrode my principles and give me stress. I started being myself and stopped participating in any of the work dramas. That time I was labelled child-like, immature and someone who did know the seasoned way of behaving.

But I did not give up, in the end of course I had to leave the place as it had slowly started turning into an asylum of a kind. But on my last day, I had my head up high, as I walked out with my self-respect and dignity, which I was robbed of somewhere in between.