Career Trauma Is Real, Face It

Posted on October 25th, 2021

A toxic workplace leads to career trauma in employees and harms their health and psychological well-being. In the recent past, workplace violence and layoff announcements have topped the chart of most stressful moments for employees in the US. However, they feel emotional support from employers can ease the situation. Well, now, what to do if one does not get that much-needed support from employers. Here is how you should deal with it.

Understanding career trauma:

It is damage that happens when a person experiences a stressful event in the workplace like bullying, harassment or being ignored for promotion. It can also occur with no direct event when your job does not give what you need, say, for instance, security, fulfilment, salary or support.

The trouble begins when one doesn't realize this injury and, in its place, tries to overlook the signs by avoiding thoughts and emotions about what occurred.

Know the common symptoms:

The symptoms and signs can be physical, emotional, and mental. Below are the most common ones:

Trouble sleeping
Feeling numb
Lack of ability to retain a regular routine
Trouble concentrating
Feeling continual pressure to overworking
Digestive issues like irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)
Panic attacks, depression, and anxiety
Relationship concerns like withdrawal from family and friends
Impulsive bursts of aggression and anger

These signs can cause hallucinations besides more severe forms such as anxiety or depression disorders.

As time passes, physical ailments may as well start manifesting.

How to recover from a career trauma?

It is hard to recover from career trauma but not impossible. Here are few tips to overcome career trauma.

Prioritize yourself:

Plunge into action to take care of yourself. Do this on an urgent basis. The swifter you act, the sooner you will recover. Ensure there is enough time between your professional works and personal works. Do what makes you happy and destresses you.

Eat right:

How many times did you eat peacefully? The answer for many of us is- not many times. So, change this. Your dining table is different to your computer table. Don’t do both works on the same table or don’t interchange the tables. Besides maintaining this, ensure your plate has foods that keep up your mood.

Sleep well:

Sleep is the natural cure for many ailments in life, be it physical or emotional. If you are sleeping for less than 6 hours, you are doing no good to lessen your career trauma. Make sure your sleep is 8 hours.

Assess yourself & the situation:

Knowing what is triggering your trauma is the first step to take the situation under control. Find out if the condition is self-made or is the outcome of external factors such as your colleagues or workplace. After finding, make efforts to ease the situation as quickly as possible.

Set limitations and disconnect:

Rest, reset and recharge- follow this in all walks of life. When it is time to disconnect just disconnect. Doing so will reenergize you and make you ready for your next task. Rest here doesn’t mean just for the body it is also for the mind. Be regular to take breaks regularly, don’t consider it as wasting time.

Keep trust:

Always hold your faith and confidence. Ups and downs are part of life. Never allow negativity to kill your profession and life altogether. There are good times after bad times, believe this, and you will see the magic for yourself.

Follow these to fight back career trauma. Besides, times and laws are changing, and toxic work environments will slowly leave the scene.

Tags: career advice, career trauma, how to face career trauma