Everyone has bad days at work, but there are signs employees need to be wary of before a bad week at the office turns into never-ending, debilitating work stress that takes a toll on your health.
Too many Americans are trapped in toxic jobs, and employers and employees need to take this issue more seriously. Studies have found that poor corporate governance in the United States results in medical costs as high as 8% per year and is associated with 120,000 excess deaths per year.
Before you fully act, your body may know that your stress symptoms are caused by your job and send you a red alert telling you that you’re not okay.
You can’t sleep
Oftentimes, the first thing we hear is a sleepless night. People report either being unable to fall asleep or staying asleep because their thoughts are racing. They wake up in the middle of the night thinking about their to-do list.
A few sleepless nights isn’t a big deal, but if it becomes a pattern, it could be a sign that your work stress has become toxic.
If it’s consistently work-related, that’s a sign that something is out of balance.
You get headaches
Your muscles tighten to protect your body from injury. According to the American Psychological Association, when you view the workplace as a danger zone, your muscles tighten. Chronic tension in the neck, shoulders, and head may be associated with migraines and tension headaches.
Stress can produce physical symptoms that manifest as pain.
Your muscles in general ache
When your job is toxic, it can feel like you’re fighting a wild tiger at your desk. When it senses a threat, your brain floods your system with adrenaline and other stress hormones.
Our nervous systems in toxic jobs are constantly in a state of tension. We are constantly anticipating and preparing our reactions to an unpleasant boss or co-worker.
If you’re always hunching over and clenching your jaw while typing “just following up” emails, it could be a sign that your job is taking a toll on your health.
Your mental health gets worse
Increased stress can exacerbate existing mental health issues. People who may be worried in a toxic work environment; this worry often escalates beyond clinical thresholds.
If you feel like your boss is always out to get you, it can take a toll on your mental health. A 2012 analysis of 279 studies linked perceptions of organizational unfairness to employee health complaints such as overeating and depression.
Unfair treatment at work can cause us tremendous stress.
Injustice is a particularly toxic stressor because it strikes us to the core. When you treat me unfairly, you violate my dignity as a human being—essentially saying that I don’t deserve to be treated fairly and don’t deserve the same treatment as others.
You get sick more often
If you often get colds, consider how you feel about your job. Numerous studies show that chronic stress can damage your immune system, making you more susceptible to illness.
You lose interest in sex
How you spend your time reflects your values. When you take work home, your relationships suffer. The American Psychological Association states that when women must juggle career pressures on top of ongoing personal and financial obligations, it can lower sexual desire. In men, this chronic stress can lead to a decrease in testosterone production, which in turn can lead to a lower libido.
There has to be a certain level of relaxation to create excitement, and then there’s also the time factor. People reported not having enough time to have sex.
You are tired all the time
This is fatigue, a bone-deep tiredness that no nap or weekend sleep-in seems to cure.
There is no set way for an individual to react to a toxic workplace, but fatigue falls within the range of physical symptoms that employees may feel.
Toxic work creates a cycle that burns us out. You feel overwhelmed because you work too long, and you work too long because you feel overwhelmed.
Your stomach is acting up
Indigestion, constipation, and bloating can all be related to stress, as stress can affect what is digested in the gut and can also change our gut bacteria, which can affect our mood.
That’s why you might get a stomachache when you’re upset.
Your appetite changes
Your appetite is closely connected to your brain. During acute stress, your fight-or-flight response releases adrenaline, telling your body to suppress digestion and focus on saving us from perceived danger. However, under chronic stress, your body’s adrenal glands release and build up cortisol, a hormone that increases hunger. When your job causes chronic emotional distress, you may turn to food for comfort.
Eating sugary foods may blunt stress-related responses and emotions, which is why they’re often considered comfort foods—but it’s an unhealthy habit you should avoid.
What you can do to combat this
Take a break. After your body goes into high alert to protect you from unreasonable demands and bad bosses, you need to give it a break. When we don’t give our nervous system a chance to relax and reset itself, it can begin to cause long-term damage. Companionship, meditation, and exercise outside of the workplace can help offset stress symptoms.
Reframe negative thinking. One of the tenets of cognitive behavioral therapy is that the way you think can change the way you feel. It’s not possible for everyone to change jobs, but we can focus on the situations we can control. We can use mindfulness to manage our unhelpful ruminations about how a presentation went or how our colleagues viewed us.
Leave. Consider this a warning that you need to find a new job, or else. Long work hours, lack of autonomy, uncertain schedules and financial instability at work are all factors that contribute to a toxic work environment that employees need to leave behind, not just cope with. You need to address the root problem, not the symptoms.