steveindenmark
Legendary Member
On Monday I was instructed by my doctor to take 4 weeks off work in order to combat work related stress. It has come as a shock but I knew things were not quite right with me.
The strange thing about it is that I have never suffered from stress before although I served 12 years in the military and 8 years as a police officer. I was obviously subjected to stressful situations, but they were in short sharp episodes and then normality set in again.
I have worked in the sail making Industry for the past 13 years. Not the most dangerous occupation in the World and not where you think stress could strike, but here is a lesson for everyone.
I have found that stress is like an empty cup that receives a drop of water every now and again and then the drops stop. Then they start again and stop. The problem comes when there is no room left in the cup and even the smallest drop makes the cup overflow.
This has what has happened to me and it could be happening to you as well.
To keep up with the amount of work I have to do, I have always worked long hours and lots of overtime. I work alongside a collegue who also works long hours and overtime. My collegue was injured a couple of months ago and is on sick leave. Much of his work was passed on to me as he was replaced by someone who was not as efficient as my collegue. I was told recently that the relacement was being moved and I was getting a brand new collegue who knew nothing of our work and I would have to train them. In fact I was now doing my job, which I struggled to manage and also my collegues job which he struggled to manage as well as training someone new.
Management being management could not see my opinion that what they were asking was impossible. Bearing in mind that management have never cut a sail and I have spent 13 years cutting thousands of them.
I then started to start having chest and arm pains, headaches, lack of apetite and was almost in tears. When I tried to sit still I could feel my insides constantly quivering. It was exhausting.
Thats when I went to see the doctor who told me to remove myself from the stress for 4 weeks. After 3 weeks I need to talk to management to see if a resolution can be found. I know the Company does not want me to leave and that the production manager is also under pressure to get work completed.
I sent an e mail to the production manager setting out the problems and the doctors findings. His reply was that I should return to work and face my troubles head on.
At that stage I began to lose sympathy with the Company.
I am now at home, pretty bored and thinking I am letting people down.
This has totally knocked me sidewards and never considered myself a candidate for stress and this has come out of the blue.
Has anyone suffered this badly from stress and do they have any hints?
The strange thing about it is that I have never suffered from stress before although I served 12 years in the military and 8 years as a police officer. I was obviously subjected to stressful situations, but they were in short sharp episodes and then normality set in again.
I have worked in the sail making Industry for the past 13 years. Not the most dangerous occupation in the World and not where you think stress could strike, but here is a lesson for everyone.
I have found that stress is like an empty cup that receives a drop of water every now and again and then the drops stop. Then they start again and stop. The problem comes when there is no room left in the cup and even the smallest drop makes the cup overflow.
This has what has happened to me and it could be happening to you as well.
To keep up with the amount of work I have to do, I have always worked long hours and lots of overtime. I work alongside a collegue who also works long hours and overtime. My collegue was injured a couple of months ago and is on sick leave. Much of his work was passed on to me as he was replaced by someone who was not as efficient as my collegue. I was told recently that the relacement was being moved and I was getting a brand new collegue who knew nothing of our work and I would have to train them. In fact I was now doing my job, which I struggled to manage and also my collegues job which he struggled to manage as well as training someone new.
Management being management could not see my opinion that what they were asking was impossible. Bearing in mind that management have never cut a sail and I have spent 13 years cutting thousands of them.
I then started to start having chest and arm pains, headaches, lack of apetite and was almost in tears. When I tried to sit still I could feel my insides constantly quivering. It was exhausting.
Thats when I went to see the doctor who told me to remove myself from the stress for 4 weeks. After 3 weeks I need to talk to management to see if a resolution can be found. I know the Company does not want me to leave and that the production manager is also under pressure to get work completed.
I sent an e mail to the production manager setting out the problems and the doctors findings. His reply was that I should return to work and face my troubles head on.
At that stage I began to lose sympathy with the Company.
I am now at home, pretty bored and thinking I am letting people down.
This has totally knocked me sidewards and never considered myself a candidate for stress and this has come out of the blue.
Has anyone suffered this badly from stress and do they have any hints?