How individuals experience work pressure differs from person to person. Causes of extreme work pressure can be: too much work in too little time, a lack of experience or knowledge, a conflict with your manager, a poor work environment or a lack of fun during workdays. If you recognise yourself with these five symptoms your workload is probably too heavy:
There are many consequences and not everyone will experience the same things. For example, when workload is unbalanced, frustration, dissatisfaction and even team conflicts may result. In some cases, mental and physical stresses caused by an unbalanced workload can cause illness or burnout. This intense pressure can also cause tension in your private life. More time spent working automatically means that less time can bespent with loved ones. In many cases you feel too tired to spend time with friends and/or family, while these should be the people who energise you and help you recharge for work.
Many young highly-skilled professionals show clear signs of burnout and this trend is increasing rapidly. This might be because they are now living in a dynamic world where they have a lot of responsibility and are doing intelligent work, that they are motivated, successful and very ambitious.
These young professionals suffer the consequences of always being connected to the world. There is a negative impact due to all this connectivity since it impacts the quality and quantitative capacity of their brains. They often have a chronic lack of sleep and little time for anything but work. Also, they are continuously working on their tablet or smartphone. Many of them show clear signs of burnout.
That depends per person and per situation. We can say that from all work-related mental health problems a burnout takes the longest time to recover. This varies from three months to over a year.
Character can be part of the problem, as well as the environment where we grew up and live in. If you are someone who always wants to score or you are a perfectionist, there is a chance that you cannot let go and often work long hours and feel pressure to achieve. However people who do not have any of these characteristics can suffer from unbalanced workload too.
We always advise to make sure you discuss how you feel and what you are experiencing with your manager and colleagues so you can look for a solution together. Maybe colleagues can support you by sharing the workload or you can work flexible hours so you have a better work-life balance. Furthermore, you need to take care of yourself: sleep well, at healthy, exercise and take time to relax and do things you love, things that energise you. These energy sources help ensure that you are in a better state to handle the work pressure.
You can start balancing your workload by evaluating your workload on a frequent base.
Sources: www.TNO.nl and www.duurzameinzetbaarheid.nl
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