The AdNews NGen blog: Stress - Friend or Foe?

Feeling stressed? No, I’m not trying to sell you vitamins, but surely while reading this you’re avoiding the ten e-mails that just appeared each with a request as urgent as the last. Not to mention the seven voice mails messages you have waiting. And while you think a quick distraction will help, the looming presence of the inbox and voicemail box is unnerving. It certainly doesn’t give you the warm fuzzy feeling that free cupcakes with a mag drop does. But are we stressed because we have the attention span of a five year old and temptation of Facebook just a click away, or is it that the ‘miracle’ of technology has made us contactable 24/7? Are all these distractions the cause of our stress?

In our industry, we are all a bit guilty of being stressed – who can blame us, only in this day and age can stress levels go from zero to “how the hell am I going to get this done! ARGH!” It comes with the territory, we work hard and play hard. Stress just comes with it, right? I mean we get to go to lunch sometimes! Surely that means stress is okay prior to 1pm Friday, yes?

Personally, there are few times in my working week I’m not a bit stressed, from running to the train, meeting deadlines, trying to answer the phone and email simultaneously, and this is all before 9am. Truthfully, I’m a bit of a stress head, I’ve definitely been known to swear profusely in a sentence over a lost Post-It note, before calming and going back to work. Freak outs aside, if there is anything that gets my blood going in the good way, it’s my old mate cortisol. I secretly love stressful days. In my mind, a stressful day is usually a productive day. And nothing gives me more satisfaction than that.

However, according to our economy, that lovely productivity producing effect of cortisol is only in my head. A recent article on the Courier-Mail Online cites research stating that workplace stress costs the Australian economy $14 billion per year, with absenteeism and presenteeism (where you are present but unproductive) costing more than $10 billion a year. This means in between all the stress, we may not be actually working. We’re just being stressed about being stressed, while of course simultaneously hitting up Facebook and reading the news.

If wasting money that doesn’t belong to you is bad enough, I dare you to Google ‘stress’ and ‘health’ - prepare yourself for a whole bunch of stress when you see you are more likely to get heart disease, obesity, cancer, stroke and every other disease under the sun. Sure these seem like problems Future You will have to deal with, but wouldn’t it be nice to feel a little less tense now? To walk out of the office with a smile and your desk free of hair you didn’t pull out over that frustrating call?

Stress is an issue we all deal with, whether like me you thrive on it before overdosing on cortisol, or just get a bit anxious around deadlines. But ultimately, no matter how motivating it is, all arguments are stacked against it. Not only does it waste large amounts of time and make you ill, it just isn’t fun.

Managing my stress is something I tend to be bad at, but I’m getting better. For one, I actually try taking breaks to get my head straight, and before I know it the missing Post-Its have miraculously reappeared. I find I work far more productively, which means I get out on time and manage to achieve the ever popular work life balance that seems to elude me.

I hope I’ve given you somewhat of a breather before you launch yourself back into the towering pile of paper that is your to do list. But for what it’s worth, for the next hour, try closing the emails, turning off the phone, jumping off Facebook and allow yourself to burn through your list. Then enjoy as you enter the land known as cool, calm and collected. Both Present You and Future You will thank you for it.

Beth Hutchinson
Mindshare