About one third of the Dutch population experience pressure during work activities. This is a problem for the employee, but also for the employer: so we should pay attention to this! It seems obvious that too much work stress can lead to psychical or mental complaints, but also low work pressure can lead to these complaints. A high work pressure is not like having a busy time at work. It arises when you have too much work to do and you do not have enough time to finish it. The balance between workload and loadability of an employee will get disturbed with experiencing too much pressure.

How does work pressure arise?

High pressure arises mainly when the amount of work is getting too much. You are experiencing stress as a consequence of this pressure. Having work pressure does not have to be negative: if you do not suffer from it, it is all right. However, people who suffer can get complaints. Furthermore, it is not only the time pressure that leads to work stress, also your colleagues can have an influence. When you do not get enough support of your colleagues or team leader, it can have a bad influence on the way you like your job. This can in turn lead to stress and work pressure. So there are more factors influencing work pressure.

Which complaints arise?

Several complaints may occur, like physical and psychological complaints. Physical complaints are: raised blood pressure, headache, dizziness and hyperventilation. The psychological complaints are fatigue, insomnia, gloom, burn-out and/or overstrung. These complaints can have a huge impact on someone’s life, but also at the workspace. Because of this complaints, employees perform less, which results in them not finishing their tasks in time. This causes stress and gloomy feelings and that leads to more physical and/or psychological complaints. This vicious circle has to break to reduce complaints.

Tips to handle the work pressure

Work pressure arises when you have too much work that you have to finish and you don’t  get enough time for it. Discuss this with your team leader or your colleagues. It is OK not to get everything done. Your boss does not want you to be sick at home. If you make it negotiable to your team leader, he or she can intervene on time. Furthermore, talking about it can reduce stress. By breaking the vicious circle, like discussed above, you can focus on preventing complaints.

NiceDay: Discuss how you could reduce stress with your professional. Write in you diary how you feel about these changes. Also, plan in a moment on your daily planner to talk to your colleagues or team leader about your stress.