Weekly Prompt #12: Do you feel pressure to constantly achieve and excel at work due to anxiety
Hello everyone, I hope you are all being easy on yourself this week.
Last week we discussed: Do you think there are certain personality types that are more prone to feeling misunderstood or dismissed? Thank you to all who participated and shared their thoughts for discussion. I enjoyed them. I hope you all did too. If you didn't share yours, please share them here and I look forward to reading and discussing them with you.
This week's prompt: Do you feel pressure to constantly achieve and excel at work due to anxiety? How does this pressure impact your mental well-being and overall job satisfaction?
This week I want us to reflect and discuss the relationship between anxiety and work. I think work is a huge part of our lives. From being a student to working, we all may have experienced it and so I believe discussing it will help us normalize and find better ways to tackle anxiety. Let's get started!
Join us in the Anxiety Support Chat every Monday and Tuesday!
@ASilentObserver
Do you feel pressure to constantly achieve and excel at work due to anxiety?
Sometimes. I have a fear of not being good enough and if I'm not careful I can fall into the trap of trying to prove myself. It can make me very tense, stressed and snappy.
I'm trying to fall into that trap less by reminding myself that it is just a job. That good enough is good enough. And that the reason we have reviews is because it is human to make mistakes. If it wasn't normal to make mistakes, we wouldn't do reviews. As it's normal, don't make a big deal out of it. Colleagues often prepare for reviews as if they are making a presentation of a finished object and so are upset if anyone spots a mistake. Whereas if they looked upon reviews as opportunities to find mistakes early, they would instead be glad when someone spots their mistake. The idiot is the one who avoids getting their work reviewed because they think they don't make mistakes. And then the mistake they make, because they will make a mistake, is found too late.
I guess I'm saying I'm trying to welcome small mistakes, because then i can better avoid big ones. And doing this changes my feelings about mistakes
@Clio9876 It sounds like this struggle to feel good enough causes you a lot of stress and tension. Wanting to prove yourself is understandable. How are you currently coping with these intense feelings?
@ASilentObserver
How are you currently coping with these intense feelings?
I share them on 7 cups. I go for walks. I take a deep breathe. I challenge the underlying belief with positive affirmations.
And maybe I dismiss them as not so significant. I haven't totally thought this through yet. But I generally find that if I share them with people I'm close to, they kind of, get, like, brushed off. The other day I said I feel like an inconvenience to everyone. And got quite a muted response. Which is better than a bad one. But is very different to yours. So I'm quite interested right now in how intense are these feelings for me?
@ASilentObserver I don't think it's axiety in my case. I think it's more like unrealistic expectations.
Every day I have five reports to review. Many have no data on them but it takes time to open and filter them. And then I have monthly reports to do. Usually I have about twenty with an unknown quantity of customers on them. Now I have to do Excel profiles for every customer which adds time to everything.
And currently, I have 400 customers to go through from a list of 700+ customers that I should have gotten done last week while I was getting caught up on my daily reports.
Plus, it's a new month so I have the monthly reports plus about five new ones and whatever else I get assigned.
If I let anxiety get the better of me, I don't think I could function which would just make matters worse.
@Enthenia It sounds like you have a lot on your plate right now with many reports and tasks to complete. Getting through such a large workload can feel overwhelming. What aspects of these work demands are the most frustrating for you?
@ASilentObserver I think it's waiting on other people to generate the reports so I can look at them. And creating customer profiles that make it easier for supervisors to look at. It's simple for them because I spend all the time preparing them. Depending on the data, I can spend fifteen minutes to an hour on something that the supervisors will take a a few minutes to look at.
But, I am now caught up (somehow). I'm up to yesterday on the dailies and I have the reports to do for July. Plus what has been assigned to me. At least I don't have the quarterly report this time around.
@Enthenia It sounds like preparing reports and profiles for your supervisors takes a significant amount of your time and effort. You mentioned being caught up for now - that must be providing some relief. How are you feeling about the workload lately?
@ASilentObserver I generally feel like I'm treading water even though it's supposedly slow right now. And as mentioned in other posts, saying anything generally makes things worse. I just try to get to Friday afternoon when I have my two day reprieve.
Anxiety could play a part but I feel like the urge to achieve and excel mostly stems from the culture that we live in. A society that promotes bigger, better, faster, stronger only fuels this fire. We should not compare ourselves to one another but that seems contradictory when the workforce is competitive. There are many variables to this question so I do not think that anxiety is always the underlying cause of the pressure. The end result is that the pressure can lead to feelings of inadequacy which can then fuel the anxiety.
@NaturalEmpath It sounds like there are many pressures at play from both society and the workforce that can fuel feelings of inadequacy. What kinds of support do you find most helpful during challenging times?
@ASilentObserver
Peer support
I don't and can't work and never have worked so not much to add.
I guess I feel less because I can't work and anxious about people thinking that I should work or am no good because I can't work.
@AutiBoy I can understand why feeling unable to work would cause anxiety. You're not alone in experiencing struggles, and it speaks to your strength that you're reaching out. How are you coping with those difficult feelings day to day?
Short answer
A lot of questioning my believes
Long answer
Mostly this particular one is easier to deal with because it's about what people think. I practice a worksheet in my head or in my Journal called mind reading.
I think about what I believe and what's the truth. If I'm ok socially on that day I ask them bluntly by saying what's in my head. I look at both my thoughts and the truth. Slowly it's happening less and learning that it's never the way I think it is.
Another workbook that helps to do in my head or Journal is overgeneralizing where I put down the thought and then look at accuracy and evidence.
@AutiBoy Thank you for sharing about your experience questioning beliefs and using worksheets in your journal. It sounds like you're developing skills to gain clarity and perspective during uncertain times. You seem dedicated to learning healthy ways of thinking. How have these practices helped you so far?
Short answer
Workbooks have taught me every skill I know except for socialising. Jorniling has taught me the things about who I am as a person.
Long answer
It's helped me in more ways than I can write. I started from the basic feelings and feeling wheel and built up taking time to learn. I think all the skills including making and maintaining my routine. It wouldn't have worked if I had less time but I have been doing workbooks since I left school at 10.
Journling has helped me learn myself the things the workbooks can't teach me like what I stand for and what sets me off. Journaling has helped build me into the person I want to be rather than skills you can use day to day. The only thing neither of them of taught me is how to deal with people.
I am a hairstylist by trade so my entire income is dependent on my quality of work on a daily basis. Although I do enjoy my job, there is never a time where I don’t have anxiety living in the back of my mind. You are working with one of the biggest physical features that a lot of people depend upon for their self esteem. This mixture can sometimes cause a burn out pretty quickly for myself. If I dont do a satisfactory job or happen to lose a client I tend to beat myself up more than I should over it and can contemplate my entire career. But 90% of my job is amazing otherwise.
@MindBodySpiritMatters Thank you for sharing about your work and the pressures you face. It's understandable that depending on your skills for your livelihood would cause anxiety at times. You seem dedicated to providing quality work for your clients. How do you usually deal with the difficult feelings when a job doesn't go as planned or you lose a client?
Hey, I would like to ask how u are and I hope u are doing well. I used to take tutoring and language classes (3 hours daily each) on top of school work (8 hours daily) and I am an older sibling so I have little ones to take care off and it was very overwhelming and I didn't have time to take care of myself that during the summer break I was burned out to the point I couldn't get up from my bed.
@elaboratelayal Thank you for sharing about your experience. It sounds like you took on a very full schedule and pushed yourself to your limits. It seems you must have learned a lot about your own well-being through this challenging time. How did it make you feel to find yourself unable to get up from bed during your break?
It was pretty hard back then but I learned that I shouldn't push myself all the time and I am deserving of breaks :)
I have anxiety about not doing my job well😅 I am mostly worried about my boss yelling at me, even though it never happened before. I worked with some angry colleagues though. I am currently unemployed and searching for a job and I feel a lot of anxiety about whether I will be able to manage it mentally
@smolLITTLEpotato Thank you for opening up about your experiences, potato. It sounds like the anxiety about your new job is weighing heavy on your mind. You are dedicated to doing good work while also caring for your well-being. Can you please share more about where this worry comes from?
At my previous jobs, I felt a lot of stress about finishing tasks on time while having to do something else. I worked in customer service and I will probably have to work in this kind of job again until I have the qualification to do something else.
@smolLITTLEpotato It sounds like feeling stressed from juggling multiple tasks at once in your previous customer service roles has been difficult. You seem determined to gain qualifications for work that may be less stressful. Maintaining hope for the future can help during challenging times. What was it about having to switch between tasks that added the most pressure?
I had to stop working on task 1, even though it was far from finished and do task 2, while keeping in mind that I would have to start doing task 3 soon. It was stressful. I have autism and jumping from tasks is quite hard for me. I am currently waiting for a few employers to give me a call about whether they hire me or not. At this point, I just really want a job so I can pay for stuff. I understand that these jobs will be stressful no matter what, but I hope I can manage them.
Thanks for listening btw :)) <3
@smolLITTLEpotato We are all here for you, Potato. you are not alone in this. Please do share anything and everything as you feel comfortable to. We will discuss, talk, brainstorm and take one step at a time to get through these tough days together.
Update: I JUST FOUND A JOB AND IT'S ONE OF MY DREAM JOBS
It's in a calm environment and I'm so happy!
@smolLITTLEpotato Congratulations on finding your dream job! I'm so happy for you that you'll be in a calm environment that brings you joy. You must feel very relieved and excited to start this new chapter. Wishing you all the best moving forward.