Stress and the Workplace

We commonly say to leave your life at the door when you get into work. It's about the job and you need to focus on that. While I believe that is true it is certainly not an easy accomplishment. At the beginning of the month I was actually pretty relaxed. I finally thought that my interest relief was going to go through and it made things a lot easier. Pat was still there so life was easy. I worked overtime so that I could get caught up on my bills and thought things were finally turning around.

But like a house of cards everything just collapsed. There were two pivotal moments in that. One was Pat leaving. There was no one to replace her... So for three weeks it was just me trying to do the work of 2 people. Needless to say that has a HIGH cost. Now that it's the last week I don't want to do anything... I don't want to listen to calls. It's my own mini burnout. Now that one is directly related to work and not something I can just forget about when I'm there.

The other big one was when the Royal Bank took out my student loan payment... and then my interest relief application was denied. Suddenly I didn't have any outs and there didn't seem to be an end in sight. There still doesn't seem to be an end in sight.

Those two events really added a LOT of stress. makes it difficult when I am at work to think about the job... well for the most part it's not that hard but when I am on calls it's a little more challenging. My mind just isn't in it. This week that is especilly true. I am back on nights so I find that customers aren't as nice. They are much more argumentative and won't accept your answer as readily. My last call tonight turned into a bit of a fight. I was actually trying to be nice. Turned out that was a bad idea. For the most part it's probably just a subtle change in tone... but a change none the less.

I guess the other thing that is affecting me is the pain... All down the right side of my face and into my neck is pain. I can even feel it into the sinuses. Most of the time it's a dull ache. But it's also causing me to clench my teeth more which is just causing more damage. I am constantly trying to massage away some of the pain. Even while I write this I have to take a break every couple of minutes trying to lessen the pain. If I ever have money one of the first things I am going to do is get the dental work done. Or perhaps I will just yank out the tooth.

But what I have learned is just how difficult it can be to separate home and work. Now I don't use it as an excuse. Or justify poor behaviour with it. But I do know that it does play a role and impacts how I take calls. I've learned to control it so for the most part it is slight but stress affects everything. I know I've got a vacation coming up but unless my student loan gets sorted out that thought doesn't bring me much pleasure right now.

All I really want is some peace... Well peace and no pain. I just want my stress level reduced. And somehow I've got to learn how to not let it affect me when I'm at work. Easier said then done.