Is Work Eating You Alive?

Are you consumed by work?

Is your job consuming you?

I have been there. If you’ve read these articles for very long, you’ve heard my story of work stress and how it put me in the hospital for several weeks. The sad thing is, despite that bit of trauma, I still find myself allowing my work to take a bigger chunk out of me than it should.

I’ve also noticed that there are a lot of “us” out there. I have worked with quite a few people struggling with “work stress” – some situations become so severe that “work stress” soon becomes, “home stress”, “marital stress”, anxiety, depression, and a variety of other concerning issues?

Why is that?

Is it because employers know that it is a tough economy out there and they’ve got you where they want you? Or is it a choice, or series of choices we make, causing work to become much bigger portion of our lives than it should?

I think it’s both.


What can you do about it?

Refresh yourself with the POWER OFF button on your cell / smart / mobile phone. That’s right, it has a power button. It has a mute button too. You can use both of them at different times so that your time to be away from work is not interrupted. Is work that important that you need to have your phone on in church, or at 2am, or while watching a movie with your family?

While we are turning things off, how about turning the computer off too? Remember when computers where great big monstrosities in large plastic boxes that had to sit on a desk and stay connected to the wall? They got smaller and more portable with rise in laptop functionality – and the introduction of tablets has made it far easier to be “always on” – always productive. But were you meant to be always productive?

Since the computer is off, you can stop checking your email every 10 minutes. But what about when the computer is on? Researchers and productivity experts tells us that you should only feel compelled to check your email a few times day – that you don’t have to respond to everyone within 30 seconds of receiving their message – that is called “asynchronous communication” for a reason. The bottom line, that constant checking is eating in to your productivity and your down time. Set aside time to check a few times a day, but leave it alone for the rest of the time – set your smart phone NOT to alert you each time a new email comes in so you are not compelled to jump to it each time it buzzes/rings/chirps/sings.

Now that all of our electronic distraction devices have been turned off, what about setting aside some down time? Set aside time each day AT work to take a break – go for a short walk, grab some water, stretch, engage in deep breathing exercises, listen to a little music, take a quick nap – all recommended tips to de-stress, refocus, and relax. The amazing thing is your productivity will INCREASE if you do this throughout the day, so that you don’t feel compelled to work at home.

If you are going to have down time at work to increase your productivity, you certainly will have more time for down time, relaxation, and family time at home. Use this time! Schedule in time to play with your kids, make sure you are still dating your spouse several times each month (remember when you would date several times each week?!), develop hobbies to engage in, pick up a new healthy habit like running or weight-lifting. Block off time for you – and don’t let those devices interfere with it!

Drop the time-wasters like a bad habit – or at least set effective boundaries with them. The 20 minute session gossip at the water-cooler, the 15 minute IM session, Mafiavilles and Farm Wars all serve the same purpose; they suck up your time and take away your ‘happy’. They trade productive time or relaxation time and sometimes even money for….. well, I’m not really sure what the trade off is. I know I fell victim to the MafiaFarm trap for a while. And then when I woke up from the glittery haze, I was embarrassed to think of how much time I spent there, instead of being productive or doing something with my family.

In the end, it all comes down to setting boundaries – boundaries with your time, boundaries with your boss, boundaries with your work, boundaries with your life. Electronic devices have made it far too easy for those boundaries to disappear. But they are not to be blamed alone – we have to allow them to take over. By re-establishing those boundaries with your work, your smart phone, your laptop, your boss, etc; you will take back your life, and you won’t let work eat you alive.