Specialist Dr. Demirkan: “Learn to say ‘no’ to overcome work stress”

Specialist Dr. Arda Kazım Demirkan provided information on stress management and coping with anger in social life and the workplace.

Stating that factors such as the disruption of work-life balance and the fear of being fired due to rising unemployment increase stress in professional life, Specialist Dr. Arda Kazım Demirkan said, “Office workers spend almost the entire week at their workplaces. Sometimes personal stresses can challenge an individual at work. However, one of the most important problems that create stress is being given a workload beyond what one can handle. Therefore, you should be able to say ‘no’ when you are given a task that exceeds your capacity or knowledge.”
Emphasizing that working hours in the workplace are also a source of stress, Psychiatrist Dr. Demirkan said, “According to the 2017 report of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Turkey ranks 14th among 38 countries in terms of the longest annual working hours.” Stating that there are also different issues and problems that create stress in family and social life outside of working hours, Specialist Dr. Demirkan said, “Due to living conditions, people encounter many personal and environmental obstacles in their real lives. For example, a successful football player may get injured, we may have less money than we want, or we may have problems in our marriage. In these and similar situations, the psychological state we experience when we are unable to cope with difficulties that negatively affect our physical and emotional health is defined as ‘stress’.”

''CRISES MAY EMERGE''

Expressing that stress is caused by the effort an individual exerts beyond their physical and psychological limits due to incompatible situations occurring in their physical and social environment, Specialist Dr. Demirkan stated, “There are some important factors that allow us to understand intuitively, to a certain extent, why one stress-inducing situation is more important than another. These are the intensity of the stressor, its chronicity (how long it lasts), its timing, how much it affects our lives, how predictable it is, and how controllable the stressor is. When sources of stress are very intense and powerful, crises can emerge when the coping methods used by individuals remain insufficient. There are some factors that distinguish stress from crisis. In a crisis, the situation that causes trauma or crisis in individuals exceeds the person's ability to cope with events. In stress, it is not necessary for the individual's coping ability to be exceeded. The faster the changes in individuals' lives develop, the greater the stress will be. It has been defined as the disruption of the psychological and physiological balance resulting from uncertainty in role and task definitions, inter-role conflict, interpersonal conflict, responsibility, participation, job security, management style, work stress, the individual's work-related situations, work processes, and interaction with other employees in the workplace.”

'LEARN TO SAY NO'

Emphasizing that factors such as the disruption of work-life balance and the fear of being fired due to rising unemployment are also cited as stress-increasing elements, Demirkan said:
“It has been stated that intense stress increase reduces productivity, increases the burden on the economy, and causes absenteeism and the situation of being at work despite being ill, which in turn leads to a decrease in work motivation and performance, and a negative work life such as frequent unit changes. Office workers spend almost the entire week at their workplaces. While some individuals start Monday, the first day of the week, happy and excited, others start Monday reluctantly. However, we must accept that this issue has nothing to do with the day and seek solutions to our personal stresses. Another important point is that employees are sometimes given more workload than they can handle in workplaces. For this reason, it is important that you are able to say ‘no’ when you are given a task that exceeds your capacity or knowledge.”