Letting Go of My Anxiety in The Workplace

“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.”

Colossians 3:23-24

This post is going to be kind of ramble-y, but should still be entertaining, so bear with me as I share my thoughts on anxiety.

I am almost a senior in college, set to graduate in a year (by the grace of God), and I have realized that I needed some job experience. Sure, I have had a consistent summer job, but it didn’t count because it involved working for my Dad at his third-party Amazon distribution business. And while I love working with and for my Dad, I know that I need to have worked for a boss that I don’t share the last name of before I graduate college, at the very least.

So as soon as I got back to Houston for the summer, I hopped onto the job-finding sites (mostly Indeed) and started applying for every entry-level part-time position within a ten-mile radius of me. I didn’t expect a huge hourly rate, just something above minimum wage and hopefully out of the single-digit range. I secured an interview and job offer at a specific country-food chain restaurant (which I will not be named in case this is iffy water in a legal sense), working in the retail section of the establishment.

Table of Contents:

Getting My First “Real” Job

I was so nervous to start this job. I felt amazed that people who didn’t know me would hire me to work for them, trusting me with important tasks and paying me for my work. For my whole life, I had worked on or around my church, serving in both the children’s ministry and worship ministry for at least ten years. However, this job was the first time I was getting paid by someone for work I did.

For the first two weeks, I was basically on Cloud 9, soaking up everything I was being told like a sponge. I was in a constant state of awe that I was being PAID to do things I did for free around my house. Unfortunately, I also started feeling what I will call Job Nerves. Little did I know when starting this job, but Work Nerves are so much worse than regular nerves. My anxiety gave me nightmares about my job many times in the past few months. I had recurring nightmares of me getting in trouble for being unable to complete an impossible task or for not knowing how to do something I was never taught

Anxiety in the Workplace

Something that is probably a surprise to no one is that workplace anxiety is SUPER COMMON. Most people experience it. In the global capitalistic society we have been thrust into, we have been conditioned into viewing work, more specifically our occupation, as the most important part of our lives Work is where we find purpose, where we meet the important people in our lives, and where we sharpen our life skills.

But despite what our supervisors/bosses and the accomplished CEOs of the world are always telling us in Forbes magazine and on their podcasts recorded in their summer mansions, work isn’t everything. Jobs can only require you to work for a specific number of hours and can only contact you off the clock so many times (thank you, labor laws). While sometimes difficult, I have been told that separating yourself from your job is not impossible.

Of course, saying something like “just care less” is hard for people with anxiety, as it is ingrained into our brains to care deeply about things that some people never even consciously think about. My boss tells me that I have the habit of “getting too much into my head,” while this is true, once someone with anxiety starts spiraling with disastrous thinking, it’s incredibly difficult to pull themselves out.

Generalized Anxiety vs. Workplace Anxiety

So I’ve discussed how I get anxious at work, but I know this is mostly because I have generalized anxiety disorder. So what is the difference between anxiety caused by the workplace and anxiety that also happens to manifest at the workplace?

According to an article in healthline, “Workplace anxiety generally develops in response to stress at work. An anxiety disorder, on the other hand, tends to develop and persist, regardless of your work circumstances”. Since I am still anxious about stuff outside of work just as much as I am with work, I think this is just anxiety I experience at the workplace instead of workplace anxiety. I have roughly the same amount of anxiety about school and frequent nightmares about that.

On the bright side, while for the first month of work, I was super anxious about EVERYTHING, now that I have been at my job for three months, I am not as jumpy or quick to panic about things. In my experience, part of anxiety is fear of the unknown. Once you become more experienced at a task or job, it is significantly easier to become less anxious because you feel confident handling your tasks.

And, of course, prioritizing yourself is the most important thing. If a job depletes you, worries you and turns you into a nervous wreck, you don’t have to stay at that job. Despite what people say, there ARE jobs out there, especially for qualified individuals, which I know you are. You don’t have to stay somewhere that makes you miserable.

Lessons I’ve Learned at Work

While I haven’t been an official member of the workforce very long, I have learned a few lessons that have made my work life much easier and kept my anxiety at work to a minimum. I’ll share three of them with you:

ONE: Just because you don’t get compliments from your boss doesn’t mean that you are not doing a good job.

This was something that took me a good while to learn. Most bosses don’t have the time to constantly affirm that you are doing well, only to correct you when you are doing your job wrong. When bosses are not correcting you, that is the same as saying you are doing well.

TWO: Asking for help is more acceptable to superiors than lying and pretending that you know what you are doing.

I was trained by several different people during my first few weeks; so one knew how much I had been taught. For a while, people just assumed I had learned how to do everything. So when I was told to do something I didn’t understand yet, I wouldn’t say, “I’m sorry, I haven’t been trained on that yet” I just pretended to know what I was doing and would inevitably mess up the task and frustrate everyone.

THREE: If you also have a bad memory, carry around something to jot things down with.

I have a tiny notebook that never leaves the front of my work uniform. Whenever I am tasked with refilling inventory or completing a long list of tasks, I write them all down for myself so I don’t strain my brain trying to remember a bunch of stuff I know I won’t be able to.

I hope that this long-winded blog post was entertaining, and you might have learned something about workplace anxiety. Comment any tips you have down below for coping with workplace anxiety! I would love to hear your thoughts.

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Until next time!