A part of everyday life, work stress can often assume threatening proportions, if ignored or mishandled. There could be many reasons for being stressed at your workplace. These could be due to external factors such as the physical environment, the nature of your job and the work culture of your organisation.

The physical environment could include the noise level, overcrowding and uncomfortable working conditions. If the nature of your job is repetitive, monotonous, you have irregular working hours, difficult deadlines or an excess or paucity of work, you could be stressed. Even the work culture of an organization or your interaction with colleagues could affect your stress levels.

The other indications of work stress are:

Physical Symptoms
If you have been suffering from headache, fatigue, skin rashes, digestive problems, ulcers, loss of appetite or overeating – beware, you are under stress. You could also be having nausea, breathlessness or a dry mouth. In extreme cases high blood pressure, sweating, palpitation and heart diseases are manifestations of work stress.

Emotional Symptoms
These range from general irritability, anxiety, depression, lack of libido, cynicism and lack of concentration to overemotional responses or aggressiveness in conflict situations, apathy towards others, disinterest in oneself and inability to take decisions. In extreme cases, you may lose self-confidence and self-worth, feel sad, guilty and suffer from a feeling of helplessness or failure which may lead you to an abuse of alcohol.

However, work stress can be controlled through stress management techniques.