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Workplace Anxiety
hegilbert July 3rd, 2020
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Hi.

My name is Hudson and I am a 19 year-old working a job as a sales associate in retail. I would like to express some anxiety I am experiencing with work. In the following, I will describe what exactly causes this anxiety and how it makes me feel.

A major aspect of my anxiety is my social anxiety, combining it with my introverted personality makes social interactions freightening and of great duress. This is hard with the regular onslaught of customers as each interaction forces me to expend energy and fear coming off as mean. A state of emotional comfort for me is being quiet and rather neutral in expression as such expression exhausts me.

I tend to get anxious of overstimulating situations as it will lead to a very discomforting feeling of being overwhelmed. This occurs when there is so much going on at work all at once, such as trying to meet customers' demands whilst also having to rush for help with cashier functions that I can't perform yet. It's the fast-pace and urgency that makes me feel unsettled.

It is for the reasons above that I am regularly frightened to go to work. I have explained to my manager that I have anxiety... Still, there are times in which she has gotten short with me and unfortunately, my shift today is going to be twice as long as I was originally scheduled for.

Please, I would so appreicate some support if it is not too much to ask for.

Thank you.

1
thoughtfulmomma July 5th, 2020
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@hegilbert

I have to say - WAY TO GO taking on a job that puts you in such an uncomfortable situation. I am an introvert - always have been, and I have always felt uncomfortable is social situations. In order for me to "get better" at being out and around people, I took very social jobs - sales, teaching, waitstaff. I don't know if there's a secret to making things easier, but the first step is one that you've done- you got a social job. That is extremely brave.

I always liked to think that when I was in retail/sales, I wanted to care for my customers. If I cared, it was easier for me to interact. I was less nervous. Does that make sense? So no matter how busy it was, I always made sure that I was completely focused just on the person in front of. I smiled. I listened to them. I offered suggestions. I chatted.

Was it hard? In the beginning, VERY HARD. But the more I did it, the easier it got. And when I was more caring to my customers, they were more relaxed and happy, and then my anxiety was less. I guess it's about attempting to find some fun and joy or happiness with what I was doing, and when I found it, I wasn't as stressed.

Am I still uncomfortable in public situations. Definitely. But I can now talk in front of large groups of people and total strangers - something I couldn't even think was possible when I was younger.

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