More than a million people run the risk of being burned out for a long time. A high workload, irregular work, or insufficient growth opportunities cause unrest.

Short-term stress is usually not unhealthy. It is actually quite normal to come home tired after a hard day’s work. After a hard day, you can easily recover from the stress. But if you have a lot of these days, it can get a little trickier. If you regularly experience  stress, your body will not get enough time to recover. The stress can accumulate and because of that, your body can not rest enough and cannot adjust and heal anymore. Complaints such as restlessness, headache, difficulty in noticing, forgetfulness, gloominess and irritability can arise.

Some people are temporarily unable to work due to these complaints. However, most people tend to recover rather fast after a dropout because of stress. 

Causes of stress

Stress can have various reasons and often it is a combination of factors. For example:

• Work related factors: at work you can experience stress through time constraints, little autonomy, structural overtime, a lot of work, being bullied or because you receive too little support from supervisors and colleagues.
• Personal characteristics: perfectionism, being ambitious, fear of failure, great sense of power or not being assertive, are personal qualities that may cause more stress.
• External influences: often there are also other influences that can cause stress, such as relationship problems, problems with money or a major life event.

How can you recognize stress? 

• Physical complaints: tiredness, insomnia, pain (muscle, head, back pain), palpitations, increased blood pressure and increased cholesterol.
• Psychological complaints: mentally exhausted, extinguished, insecurity, worry, anxiety, and stubbornness, difficulty relating, forgetful, irritability and gloominess
• Behavioral complaints: perform less, smoke more, consume alcohol, avoid social contacts.

NiceDay coaching

Stress really influences your health. It is therefore important that you take enough rest after busy days and that you do not take on too much for a long time. Do you find it difficult to find a balance? NiceDay would like to help!

A NiceDay coach can help you deal with (work)stress. Together with your coach, for example, you look for specific characteristics, your ambitions and what you value in life. Your coach also helps you to better define your boundaries. 

Read more: tips against work stress