How Can I Stress Less About Work? Part 1

This is the first part of my Acne and the Economy series where I speak about the issue of stress in the workplace and how it can effect your emotional and physical well-being, as well as how it could be negatively affecting the clarity of your skin.

As an independent woman with her own business, many of my clients ask me about how to become less stressed out about work.

Here in Chicago, my clientele generally work in the corporate world, holding positions in the sales, advertising, consulting, marketing, and public relations fields. They see me not only as independent, but also calm and serene much of the time. I clearly love my work, I am an enthusiastic expert in my field of esthetics, and I don’t have to follow anyone else’s orders since I run my own show. Naturally, my clients want to know just how I do it all by myself, and especially, how I stay so calm!

The biggest source of frustration I have observed over the years is that people feel like they're putting 110% effort into their careers and receiving nothing in return. 

I believe there is a reality in the corporate world today that is vastly different from how many of us were raised.  The idea that you must put in 110% to be acknowledged, praised and promoted has been the basis of the American work ethic for generations.  Our grandparents’ generation believed this mentality to be ethical as well as a guarantee of job security.  Our parents’ generation believed it to be the way to stand out and get ahead of one's peers.

But in our generation? In this economy? 

It’s the way you keep your job.

As a result, women are especially more likely to put up with workplace negativity in hopes that one day their efforts will all be worth it.

When you seek acknowledgement of and benefit from the work you put forth everyday, but you are instead taken advantage of, scolded, ignored, pressured, or blamed, you end up wearing that stress as a personal garment.  Right?

Is there a way toward a paradigm shift?  Can a change in attitude switch this around? On to Part 2!