How Toxic is Your Work Place?

Stress represents an everyday part of life at work for many people. While some workers may find a high-pressure job exhilarating and challenging, it remains important to differentiate between ordinary work stress and a toxic work environment.

Work stress can have serious consequences for your health. It can lead to short-term illnesses that turn into long-term health problems. A toxic work environment exacerbates these problems, creates an office with low morale and substantially reduces productivity. Watch out for signs that your workplace may have more harmful effects than good benefits.

Gauge your "Monday blues" mentality between Friday afternoon and Monday morning. Journal or notate every time your stress level rises during the weekend when you think about going back to work on Monday morning. If you constantly have cases of Monday blues, perhaps your toxic work environment has already invaded your personal time that replaces fun moments with stress. Ascertain these same feelings at rush hour in the morning and evening. Does slow traffic make you even more upset?

Eat healthy food rather than junk food at work. Forgo the afternoon candy bar and get a healthy smoothie instead. Replace the fast food burger at lunch with a hearty salad. Make sure you stop working in time for dinner. When you find yourself engaging in unhealthy eating habits at work, that could be a way your toxic work environment ruins your health and packs on the pounds. Make sure you have regular, semi-annual medical checkups with your primary care physician and take advantage of preventive dental cleanings every six months. Doctors and dentists can help ascertain any health problems, so do not miss any medical appointments because of work.

Observe how your toxic work environment operates on a daily basis. You do not have to tolerate disrespectful treatment from your supervisors, co-workers, or other staff. Consider politely asking your boss for different methods of doling out work assignments or receiving constructive feedback. Gauge if other people at work remain unhappy and ask yourself if you want to stay around them 40-plus hours per week. Unhappy co-workers affect morale, productivity and profits. If demanding work creates regular emergency situations that seem to result from people's attitudes, ineffective leadership and too much stress, you may want to consider finding a better place to work.

You can attempt to mitigate stress at work in several ways. Get regular exercise, enjoy the time you have with family, see a counselor, and get plenty of sleep. Identify the toxic people at work and avoid them as much as possible. These people tend to gossip, cause dissent at meetings, place blame on others, quickly assume credit for a good job on a project and avoid responsibility for problems in general.

You do not have to tolerate a toxic work environment. If attempts to improve your circumstances fail, you could find another job in your field or try something totally new and freelance on your own time. Minimizing your exposure to work-related stress is a good way to ensure your continued good health.

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