Office stress? Frustrated by deadlines and overwork? Today’s Wall Street Journal reports that companies are making an effort to help employees deal with the stress. Some have meditation rooms. Some offer programs that encourage cognitive strategies, such as reframing conflict and focusing on the positive.
You can read the article here.
Ultimately, the article concludes, these interventions have limited impact. If you’re doing the work of three people, surrounded by jerks or working for an abusive boss, you have to plan a longer-term strategy.
The truth is, living with a stressful job can have serious consequences for your health and your well-being. Recently I came across an excellent book by Nortin M. Hadler, MD: Rethinking Aging: Growing Old and Living Well In An Overtreated Society. Hadler draws a relationship between job frustration and mortality.
Most career counselors, consultants and coaches will want to do the responsible thing: they won’t encourage you to quit your job before you find a new one. I won’t either.
My own contribution is my ebook, Ten THings To Do When You REALLY Hate Your Job. Several of my suggestions seem to have anticipated those discussed in today’s WSH article and some are totally new. See
https://midlifecareerstrategy.com/hatejob.html