Stress vs Anxiety

One of the things I'm realizing the most since my job change was exactly how much anxiety I had in the job. Anxiety is different than stress (at least for me) -- I've had stressful jobs with a lot of deliverbles, tight timelines, things that went wrong, every job has that. But what I am realizing was that the other place wasn't stressful as much as it was completely filled with pure anxiety:

• anxiety that you were going to get fired
• anxiety that taking time off meant you were dropped from projects and out of the loop
• anxiety that you were going to be cursed out in front of people with whom you have to work
• anxiety that missing a meeting meant you would lose parts of your job
• anxiety that you'd get thrown under the bus to make someone else look good
• anxiety that you had to answer emails right away or you weren't doing your job

Just a lot of pure anxiety. And none of it was constructive to a good working environment or increased performance. I remember having similar conversations with other people working there and it not really registering. Now that I'm in a role and a company where things are professional and normal, it just seems so different and relaxing. There is no anxiety (there is still stress, but that's ok). And as a result, things get done, people are content and things move a lot smoother.

And the weird part is, I'm having some trouble adjusting. Almost like I'm constantly looking over my shoulder waiting for a hammer to fall and get blamed for something.

Anxiety in an organization is poison, it poisons performance, it poisons working environment and it will eventually poison product and client satisfaction. You can debate the merits of some stress in a job to keep people at their best, but anxiety has no place in a business. If your people are on edge and anxious then your company cannot prosper.

So the lesson here for me is to look for this in places where I work and teams that I manage. If the company can never quite get there than maybe, just maybe what you think is stress is actually anxiety. Then the key is to find the cause and get rid of it. If that's a person, fire them. If that's a job function, change it. If that's a corporate culture, change it. ASAP.