Re: Stress at work/Value of connection

[Guest guest]

I was reading a little article about a woman in Germany who decided to try

living without money. She ended up writing three books about it and now a

documentary I suppose. These stories tend to be romanticized, sanitized. For

example, she had a lot going for her, including minimal needs,responsibilities

plus skills to barter with. And Germany has a much better health care system

than the U.S. But the whole community connection thing and all it entails is

really a glaring thing for me now, very intriguing..and coming up against how

inept and ill-experienced I am with the same. Requires a lot of interesting

skills, willingness, vulnerability. Definitely too closed off here. Looking at

things I can do about this, however small, such as in all my relationships. Need

to start somewhere.

http://shine.yahoo.com/work-money/german-grandmother-lives-money-free-never-happ\

ier-173900934.html

> > >

> > > Hello

> > >

> > > I'm mulling over my career. Not in the best frame of mind to do that (job

is under threat, and I'm applying for new funding with deadline of next Weds!)

but a question keeps returning. Is it legitimate to want a lower-stress job,

or is that just avoidance?

> > >

> > > I long for a rather more wholesome working life than the one I have now,

which is full of competitiveness (both in a business sense, and amongst

coworkers), judgmental attitudes, late working, horrendous god-awful commuting

and - yes, most of all - high stress.

> > >

> > > I would like a job with less stress. Or are all jobs stressful - because

they are what we make of them. I have a friend who is more experienced than me,

but my junior, who never sought advancement because she didn't want the

responsibility. I don't think it was because she lacked confidence. She

certainly doesn't regret her choices. Should that be where I should go? I've

followed promotions and moved jobs, actually because I thought to avoid doing so

would make me feel like a failure, by avoidance. But that's not a very good

reason, is it?

> > >

> > > I've read a pamplet on workplace stress. Stress is a gap between the

pressures of responsibility and demands upon you, against (your perceptions of)

your capacity to manage them. If I " step down " into a job with fewer pressures,

will my perception of my capacity to manage them also reduce... so I'm left in

the same boat?

> > >

> > > At the moment I can't do my job well. I can't concentrate, I keep

forgetting things. I leave the office regularly because tears force me out.

I'm left weeping (so humiliating) on the train home. This is not all in the

mind - this is stopping me from functioning.

> > >

> > > Thank you. Cathartic. A stream of thoughts written onto this forum

actually acts as defusion for me. I will leave them here and go to bed. Have

the answer for me ready for the morning, will you please? :0)

> > >

> > > Night x

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