Feeling stressed with work

[ZibbleDibble]

Recently I’ve been feeling overwhelmed and stressed with work. My workload has massively increased and I feel like I don’t have enough hours in the day. I’m juggling so many things at once.

It’s a very male dominated work place with an attitude of anyone who is stressed/struggling etc is pathetic.

I’m trying my best to not let it affect me but I feel like after work I’m completely drained. This then means I can’t be bothered sorting the house, spending time with my partner and all I want to do is sit about and enjoy the peace and quiet. I’m able to push myself a couple of times a week to exercise and that does make me feel better.

Does anyone have any advice on how to cope with the stress and how to not allow it to spill in to my personal life? (Speaking to my manager or HR about the way I feel really isn’t an option unfortunately)

Do you have the kind of job where you're expected to take work home/continue to answer emails in the evenings? I have a job that I occasionally find quite overwhelming, but once the workday ends so does the work. So that's what I tell myself--"They only pay me to worry about this between the hours of 9 and 5. If I'm stressing about work after I go home, that's the same as working for free." For some reason I REALLY can't stand the idea that I'm providing free labor, so that helps me switch it off in the evening. But I know it can be really hard.

Exercise, fresh good food and sleep

But apart from that: ruthless prioritisation

If one of your male colleagues was in your situation what would they drop? How would they get the workload under control? Who can you delegate stuff to - do you need to let go more?

And: it can be tough

My DH has a similar issue. Recently he put everything he had pending into a 'to do list', and published it in teams.

He had someone contact him today about when was such and such going to be done, and he directed him to the 'to do list', highlighted the item contained therein, and said, 'you are here'.

You can only do so much. They do not pay you enough to own you body and soul. Do what you can do in a day, and that is exactly what they have paid you for.

Thanks everyone, I appreciate your replies.

Luckily I get flexi time so any extra hours worked are banked to use at a later time. Due to the nature of my work I am able to delegate tasks, but I need to get the work to a certain point first before I can ‘farm it out’ as such.

That’s a good point about what would my male colleagues prioritise. I know fine well the majority of my colleagues don’t feel stress in relation to work, as they are winding down to retirement.

I definitely need to learn to get in to the mindset of ‘I’m not being paid to worry past 5pm’