Job Stress

Is there really any relief from job stress. I read more and more articles about scheduling your time, talking to your boss, and other ways to relieve job stress. I've even read that you may just have to quit your job. Yeah right, how may people in this economy have enough savings to tie them over if they just decide to up and leave their jobs? How many jobs can you truly decide what you are going to do and when? With my current job and jobs I've had in the past, you have to do the work as it comes. Bosses hound you and you have to answer to them now, not schedule them in when you anxiety levels allow you too. Lets get real here!

As with every morning, I layed in bed long after the alarm went off, wondering what would happen if I just didn't go in. I knew what stress was ahead for the day and just didn't want to deal with it...then reality set in. I hopped out of bed and grudgingly left for work.

Now that I'm here, I'm miserable. Day after day, week after week. My health is failing, my face is breaking out, I'm losing my hair and I'm nauseous, but guess what; I still have bills to pay, so off I go.

How would that look on a resume anyway? "I left my last job because I couldn't handle the stress." I suppose there are more creative ways to word it, but what about when they call for references. Most every listing for jobs I read in my field states "must be able to handle stressful situations". Are they advertising that your job will be stressful. How many people can handle that and for how long. Even after successfully interviewing potential employers, I find out after the fact (from my fellow employees) that the person who's position I took hated the particular position because of one sort of stress or another. The employer painted a different picture during the interview. You know "They couldn't handle the work" etc. What I'm beginning to learn is employers, just like employees on resumes, can make anything look rosier that it really is.

Take my current job. The woman I replaced worked here for 25 years and retired. I was told everyone has worked here 10+ years. "This company must be alright". WRONG...Everyone who works here is burned out and miserable. The woman I replaced only held this position for a few of her years, then couldn't handle the stress anymore. So here I sit, stress out and sick.

Till yet another day........