Harmful stress can wear you out and make you anxious and leaves you jittery. When you are in a stressful environment where you experience distress for a long period of time, it can lead to health problems. According to Hans S., an endocrinologist who conducted his work on harmful stress, if one wants to be less stressed they have to manipulate their environment to fit their needs.
“The best way to avoid harmful stress is to select an environment which is in line with your innate preferences.”
Hans Selye
1, Self-awareness and distress
One of the first steps that you can take to avoid harmful stress is practising self-awareness. It’s easy to say to people that they should choose an environment that suits them to avoid distress. Environment refers to our surroundings, such as friends, workplace, our relationships. But it is not that easy most of the time to change our environment to avoid harmful stress.
It is a good idea though, but for this to work self-awareness and experience are needed. Where do I feel good? Who do I like to be with? What tasks do I like at my workplace? Being self-aware will help you to understand the cause of your stress. And it which will result in less distress and more eustress.
2, Extroverts and introverts
If you’re a more extroverted person, you might enjoy dealing with people, a fast-paced workplace may fit you better.
If you describe yourself as an introverted person, then maybe a less people-centred, more relaxed workplace atmosphere would fit better.
3, Person-job fit and harmful stress
If we are talking about job satisfaction, then we should talk about an important topic, which is person-job fit. It entails in which environment you feel good, what motivates you in the workplace, is there a work-life balance. What may help you with increasing your work-related satisfaction is rearranging your tasks. Moreover, transform them to your own needs. This method is job crafting. Job crafting means that an employee or even the company can take proactive steps to lessen hated tasks.
For example, an employee can do more liked and less hated activities at work. Or may change her thoughts about the assumed value of her own work.
These ideas were just randomly chosen, there is more to stress management of course. But a first step would be self-awareness and looking at our own values and preferences. An extroverted person may value teamwork more than an introverted person. If you already have some experience with different jobs, then you have knowledge about the work environment that makes you happy. Choosing the right workplace is crucial because we work a lot of hours. And it has a huge impact on our stress levels.
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