In the modern-day of age requirements for a person to be good at their job have developed far beyond simply being able to complete a collection of tasks efficiently and with high quality. Instead, along with being a strong software developer, you need a full arsenal of tools, ready and at your disposal at any time.

Excellent use of soft skills is more important than ever before. Not to mention tech-related skills that go above and beyond simply using the technology you have been employed to work with. Like being familiar with different trends in software development. In addition being knowledgeable of uprising programming languages, at least on a basic level and being overall competent on both hardware and software, is considered a plus. The list goes on and on...

Why do we Need to be Aware of Work Stress?

As much as we talk about how to be better at your job and do more on a daily basis, from my experience working in a java development company, the stress from being overwhelmed is very dangerous. Not taking proper care of yourself can cause for serious mental health issues that can even translate into physical illness.

Here is what was released by EXCELI Journal: “The result of a study that traces the impact of stress on body function: A review”

“Based on the type, timing and severity of the applied stimulus, stress can exert various actions on the body ranging from alterations in homeostasis to life-threatening effects and death.

In many cases, the pathophysiological complications of disease arise from stress and the subjects exposed to stress, e.g. those that work or live in stressful environments, have a higher likelihood of many disorders.”

Naturally, many believe that physical health needs to be a priority regardless of what you do on a daily basis. So mental health should not be neglected either. However, there is a stigma when it comes to dealing with this type of issues, whereas we would do well to work towards bettering the environment that escalates them.

In addition, we cannot always remove the factors that cause stress so we need to build a strong mechanism to cope with such and limit the severity of impact that stress has on the workforce.

If you are still not convinced about the connection between mental and physical health, here is a statement from The American Institute of Stress:

“In New York, Los Angeles and other municipalities, the relationship between job stress and heart attacks is so well acknowledged, that any police officer who suffers a coronary event on or off the job is assumed to have a work-related injury and is compensated accordingly (including heart attack sustained while fishing on vacation or gambling in Las Vegas).”

You can observe the impact of stress on the data collected by STRESS…At Work NIOSH Report

40% of workers reported their job was very or extremely stressful
25% view their jobs as the number one stressor in their lives
75% of employees believe that workers have more on-the-job stress than a generation ago
29% of workers felt quite a bit or extremely stressed at work
26% of workers said they were “often or very often burned out or stressed by their work

Realistically speaking the idea of a workplace without stress is not implementable, simply because of the endless list of factors that could be considered stress. Especially considering, those factors affect different people in different ways. For example having to deal with the same 5 moderately difficult tasks in a day can be extremely stressful for some and seem trivial to others.

That being said we need to establish a process that helps us dissect and actively reduce the cause for stress, to stop it from piling up and escalating to dangerous levels.

How to Identify Symptoms of Dangerous Stress Levels?

Identifying the symptoms and actively applying methods to fight the cause for stress and anxiety related to work is very important. But how do we know if we are reaching dangerous levels of stress? What about colleagues of ours? Is it possible to notice that they may be struggling with something, based on their overall demeanor and their actions?

There are several symptoms that tend to be fairly easily identifiable and are often associated with stress. They may include:

• Headaches
• Sleep disturbance
• Antisocial behavior
• Short temper and behavioral issues
• Stomach or chest pain
• Loss of concentration
• Lowered quality of work
• Often get sick or take longer sick leaves
• Extended time off work beyond vacation or sick days

Knowing what symptoms to look out for both in ourselves and other people, helps developing methods to cope with stress. Naturally, to even begin doing that we must understand what is the cause of the distress and target it specifically.

What Causes Stress in a Programmer’s Day to Day Life?

As in any professional field, work stress is bound to pile up unless released properly. And again, as in any other field, there are some condition-specific downsides to being a Software Developer in terms of stress that can affect your life greatly.

To even begin to tackle stress management, we first need to isolate what it is, in particular, that is causing distress and develop ways to cope with it directly. Luckily, programmers tend to be very analytical in their approach towards their work, so applying the same method to their health should be doable with the right motivation. Below are a few of the main reasons for stress in the workplace along with a little bit more information on how to tackle each.

Excessive Workload and Deadline Fatigue

Тrully a potential source of multiple different issues in the workplace, including stress, and it really does not have to be. Deadlines are inevitable, but that is not to say you cannot handle them in a way that supports a healthier state of mind. There are a few common mistakes that people tend to do in regards to deadline setting, either because they think this is correlated to productivity or simply because they do not want to let down their colleagues or management staff.

• Stacking up assignments. There will always be plenty of work that is left on the backburner. And that in most cases is considered a part of the work process. This work will be completed when its time is due, but that is not to say you need to do it all at once.
• Taking on more than you can handle at a time. The possible negative results of over-promising your deliverance capabilities are quite big. Underdelivering a service when the deadline has been previously established is directly linked to your reputation regarding reliability.
• Stacking two or more time-consuming assignments in the same period. Even if you do manage to pull off all the work on time you are running the risk of submitting subpar work in addition to burning out. It is highly unlikely that you would have the time to go back and polish any issues that may have occurred with the execution of your work.

For anyone who takes their work seriously, feeling like the quality they are providing is below what it can be is just another source of stress. Especially considering that many people’s sense of worth is tightly associated with their perceived work performance.

Communicate Your Concerns - Honesty is the Best Policy:

While wanting to commit to the promise you made is admirable, and needed in modern-day work etiquette, be realistic. Overpromising something you cannot handle does not make you a better employee. Your reputation is on the line every time you commit to something and then have to back out because you took on too much work and cant handle it.

Do not make a habit of it! Learn to say no and be upfront and honest about any concerns you have regarding the workload that is being assigned to you. Open communication is the simple but often overlooked solution. Give your manager the necessary heads up on time, so they can find a better arrangement to have the assignment taken care of. Trust me, it will be appreciated!

A Sense of Job Insecurity

We already touched on this at the beginning of the article - nowadays to stay on top as a good developer there is so much you need to keep track of and constantly build upon. This can cause for some people to feel like they are not standing on solid ground professionally speaking.

With the way that older technology makes way for newer, it is not unreasonable to assume there may come a day where your skillset becomes inadequate for the current standards and requirements of the software development market.

Additionally, the sense of job insecurity is linked directly to the way your work is perceived. If you feel your work is not being appreciated, despite how much effort you put in to offer it high quality, you may notice your sense of job stability has plummeted down. Often, along with your quality of work.

Update Your Knowledge

As your work requires you to constantly develop new tech you need to keep up with the new advancements in the industry in order to stay relevant in your work.

Set aside enough time for research. Being on your A game in your work would naturally require you to grow along with the field you are working in. So making it a point to dedicate time out of your work week to update your knowledge and actively work on acquiring new skills is a good principle to establish. You do not have to become master of everything, but at least get a little familiar with the subject matter!

Another thing you can do is work with another developer, or even a small group, to learn and grow together. If you know someone who is much more advanced with a part of Informatics you are interested in, do some research on your own - try to understand the base of it, and then start discussions with them.

Helping create a small community of colleagues, looking to learn more together, can have plenty of pleasant effects on you. Such as creating a stronger interpersonal relationship, even starting a partnership, a sense of accountability to keep growing, knowing someone you respect may depend on you and more.

Giving yourself more of a sense of control regarding your skills and knowledge can significantly better your overall sense of self-worth. In addition, the fear of becoming inadequate to the tech environment is no longer something that eats at you as much, simply because you know you are better prepared if a big shift in development does occur.

Take Care of Yourself

The constant strive for a better job, a better salary and a better quality of life is something that has elevated many people to professional success. Striving to be better is never a bad thing. But it is important to be mindful of the toll it may have on your mental and physical health. Burning out and ruining your life for good is simply not worth the temporary sense of success you feel when you mistake productivity with consistently overworking yourself for long periods of time.

No one is immune to stress, so knowing how to manage it to stop it from taking over your life is something that is becoming more and more important in the dynamic modern world we live in. Not to mention when working in an industry that is a constant race with time, creating systems that have never existed before, making them functional and exciting for the end-user.

I hope this article has made you better prepared to tackle work stress as something that is important to take care of but manageable once you develop a good strategy that is sustainable over time. As this is a constantly expanding subject, let’s start a discussion! Anything that contributes to helping people handle work stress is welcome in the comment section below!