By Pearson Mbendera
(News of The South) – There are a lot of expectations from work. For anyone who hasn’t worked a single day in his or her life, they will probably think that it’s all easy and they can’t wait for their first day at work. Who can blame them; we all expect the best from work. We all want to be paid well, have job security, and work in a conducive environment and many other great things. But the last thing anyone would like to get from work is stress.
43% of Zimbabwean employees are stressed from work says a recent study. Of late people had been focusing more on the financial and economic toll the economic crisis in Zimbabwe places on employees as they are subjected to various things like underpayment and not getting salaries on time among other things, but most didn’t take into account the emotional and mental toll this crisis has on employees.
For starters, it’s not just bad working conditions that can trigger stress. People can get the best from their jobs but still fail to maintain a balanced lifestyle that takes into accounts other facets of life relationships, family, spirituality, hobbies and just free time from everything else. But here in Zimbabwe, it’s easier to see the economic conditions triggering stress in employees.
Mental health is of importance to every one of us. We as Zimbabweans pride ourselves to having the best literacy rate in Africa, in fact we actually translate that to us being the best educated (whether that’s true is another story) but what good does that education, which enriches our mind, do to us if we are going to be stressed from work. We go to school so that we can find better jobs, but if these give more stress than financial benefits, then we have a problem.
But not all stress is bad. Small amounts of stress and positive stress can be desired, beneficial or even healthy; they can improve performance, and play a part in motivation, adaptation and reaction to the environment. However, excessive stress can be harmful to health, thus its management is key.
In countries like the United States, people are used to visiting psychologists and talk about their problems. But here we are not used to that, we cry on the inside and hope to God things will turn around for the better. Sometimes they do but sometimes they don’t but it’s that hope and faith that carries us through.
Humans experience stress, or perceive things as threatening, when they do not believe that their resources for coping with obstacles are enough for what the circumstances demand. When we think the demands being placed on us exceed our ability to cope, we then perceive stress.
I know it’s a big ask, but if we can shift our perceptions and be a little more optimistic, we may not be as stressed as we are today. Truth is, nothing may change from our hoping for the best, but maybe the strain on our minds maybe reduced. In the end, our mental and general health is of great importance thus there is need to preserve our sanity especially over things we have little or no control over.
To better deal with our stress, we may use affiliation, humor, repression or even reaction formation. We all have different ways of trying to deal with our stress. The main objective is that we deal with it before it destroys us. I have seen people laugh at their problems, thus lessening the impact they pose on their health.
In the end, we shouldn’t treat this stress issue like we have treated every other issue that we have faced. Just focusing on the symptoms and forgetting about the cause. Truth is, the economic crisis that Zimbabwe has faced in the last couple of years has caused so many problems than we know how to fix. And we have been fighting fire for too long now, just extinguishing the burning areas.
We should stop the fire altogether, let’s solve our economic situation and get rid of these stressful thoughts. It’s not the war on stress we need to fight, it’s the cause and we all know what that is. Zimbabwe has been underperforming for too long now. It’s about time things change for the better.
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