Author: Daniel Matthews / Source: Lifehack
Does your job give you chronic stress? Chronic stress is different than regular stress because it causes your brain to consistently release adrenaline and cortisol hormones.[1] In turn, your body reacts to the constant strain: you feel fatigued all the time, have frequent headaches, can’t concentrate, and you get sick a lot more than you used to before you started working here.
Those are just a few of the symptoms of chronic stress.While you’re working a job that causes chronic stress, the solution seems complex. The common advice is for you to use all sorts of tools and strategies — but now you’re discovering the simplest, least stressful solution: quit.
But you also wonder, “I quit my job because of stress, is it bad?”
Not at all! Reading further, you’ll find out exactly why quitting your job is the smart thing to do. Our culture is chained to the idea of persisting for consistency’s sake, but there’s a reason why Ralph Waldo Emerson said,
“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.”
To be consistent in a stressful situation such as yours is to work harder, not smarter. And don’t be fooled by the word “quit” — this is about empowerment.
Keep going to find out why you should quit your job and leave chronic stress behind.
1. Your Toxic Job Is Making You Sick
Chronic stress and consistently adverse work conditions will affect your health. Think back over the course of the last 6 months or so. How has your health been?
You need to think about the long-term. Even if you haven’t been sick lately, people oftentimes make the mistake of running themselves down over an extended period of time. When you do this, your immune system flatlines and you get hit hard.
Poor health is your body’s way of telling you something isn’t working. There are some specific things to look for when it comes to stress-related health problems. According to CompTIA, the following symptoms are telltale signs your job stress is negatively affecting your health:[2]
- You need to sleep far more than normal, or you suffer from insomnia.
- You’ve experienced significant weight loss or weight gain.
- You lack energy and motivation, and you don’t feel like socializing very often.
- You seem to always be coming down with a cold, and when you get a cold or any other illness, it takes longer than it should to recover.
- Your job encroaches on your life to the extent that you don’t have time or motivation to exercise.
No job is worth losing your health over, and if you haven’t experienced a major breakdown yet, this is the perfect chance to break away.
Wait until your health breaks down completely, and you won’t be able to search for another job, or at least it will be much harder.
2. Multitasking Is a Recipe for Failure
Is there nothing insanely stressful about your job yet you are still insanely stressed? Chances are you’re juggling a full-time job and another (or more than just another) full-time obligation.
For example, if you’re a nontraditional student who went back to school because your job prospects were slim — yet you still have to work while you’re in school — you’re creating stress.
You need to quit something. About 61 percent of multitaskers who seek counseling have anxiety, and 49 percent are depressed.[3]
Counseling helps, but it’s not a cure for multitasking. Professor Gloria Mark at the University of California, Irvine says that people who multitask are more susceptible to stress, neuroticism, and impulsivity.
According to Mark, it takes your brain about 23 minutes and 15 seconds to regain focus after you switch tasks. This drains your energy reserves, and if you continue, you can enter a state of chronic stress.[4]
People who have two or three major priorities weighing on them all the time are caught in a multitasking trap. Determine your priorities and evaluate your job. If your job is not something you’re passionate about and it’s not at the top of your priority list, drop it.
3. Employers That Don’t Help Relieve Stress Aren’t Doing Their Job
The truth is employment shouldn’t be a one-sided relationship.
You pour your heart into your job, you take pride in your work, and you truly care about the outcome. An employer who doesn’t encourage you to take breaks and doesn’t provide opportunities for stress-relief is an employer…
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