How does work-related stress affect your health?

You have to work the extra hard for lowwages, do more than your best which may not be appreciated, meet and exceed expectations from bosses, bear toxic co-workers who may always step on your toes and more annoying is that you may not even like the job, but you just stay there absorbing the stress […]

You have to work the extra hard for lowwages, do more than your best which may not be appreciated, meet and exceed expectations from bosses, bear toxic co-workers who may always step on your toes and more annoying is that you may not even like the job, but you just stay there absorbing the stress that comes with it, just so you can get some money at the end of the month to cover your expenses.
But do you know that there is work related stress that can affect your health drastically? This week Life Extra spoke with a number of people to find out how your job can affect your health, and how they cope with job-related stress.
Edmund Oluchi, a lawyer, say she enjoys and love his job but that it can sometimes be very tiring and exhaustive: “There are times when a case is so tasking and forces you to dedicate all your time to it going through the case files, dotting all the ‘Is’ and crossing the ‘Ts,’ conducting enough research and sometimes having to go back to your shelf and read books, before you appear in court. All of these are not easy and can take my time, even to the extent of me forgetting to eat. I remember there was a time I had such a case, I had not eating all day and didn’t realise it; I noticed I was losing strength but kept on working. When I stood up from my chair to leave, I felt drowsy and almost collapsed, it was then I remembered I hadn’t eaten. I had to advice myself that, if I starve and fall sick the job will still go on, so why then should I kill myself.”
Oluchiadds however, that she has learnt to cope with her job and enjoy it every bit of the way without encountering much stress: “After the incident of me starving myself I learnt not to mix my work with the time I am meant to eat, when it is time to work, I do it diligently. I also learnt to time myself, I decided that no matter how serious a case may be, I won’t exceed 10pm in the office, and so far it has worked for me. I am still as productive as I was, if not better and I still perform very well in court.”
Charles Mbanefo, a banker, notes that: “It is no news that working in a bank is very stressful; you can even get a detailed explanation of how stressful it is from someone who has not even worked in the bank. Working in the bank means you have to be very careful, cautious, diligent and very punctual. These traits are needed because you deal with a lot of cash and wouldn’t want to make any mistake. I realised during the course of my job that, it is not only staying late at work and getting to work early that stresses you, but the thought of job can also stress you. I  had a personal experience where I couldn’t balance up at the end of the day, the money was short, I was broke at that time and the thought of having to borrow to make up for someone else’s money made me angry and spoilt my mood for almost a week. There was another time when my bank was looking at cutting down on their staff, the thought of losing my job almost made me become a workaholic that at the end of it all I broke down, was admitted in the hospital for three days but the job still went on without me. Eventually, I thought to myself why should you kill yourself for a job that will still continue without you? Why not try and be effective, be productive in accordance with the standard of the organisation, instead of overly doing it at the detriment of your health and that is what I am doing.”
Beatrice Okumagba, a caterer, said: “Health is wealth, my job has stress all over it; I don’t think there is any aspect that doesn’t involve stress but the ability for you to take a break when it matters is what is necessary. I have been in the catering business for 20 years and I can tell you that catering is not a lazy man’s job. When you consider the process and procedures to make that delectable dish for your occasion, then you will also be able to recount the stress you had to go through. I remember when I started catering newly I had several breakdowns, from small headaches to body and joint pain, before I knew it my blood pressure was high. I had to take a break from catering for a while because of my health but when I started again, I decided not to do it all by myself but delegate responsibilities to my workers and I still meet to the needs of my customers.”