I’ve been going through a long period (about a month) of bad anxiety attacks. I seem to be carrying a lot of it in my abdomen. I’ve started deep breathing to ease the tension, and it seems to be helping (early days yet). It got me wondering, where do others experience or carry the anxiety/fear/tension in their bodies?
Any suggestions for relaxation techniques also welcome :-)
Vent warning. TLDR: Worked myself sick ye at my retail job, made two minor mistakes and am being punished for them. No amount of hard work is ever good enough.
I worked 30 years in corporate life. After leaving a job and going through 10 months of personal tragedies, I took a job at a family-owned food retailer close to my house. I was truly, deeply grateful for the job.
I’m one of the older employees there but I pull my weight pretty well. Usually I have nearly full-time hours, which I like. I make my state’s minimum wage, which is perfectly normal at the store. The owners hate to pay more.
Yesterday being the day before Father’s Day, it was extremely busy. I was one of two people working the front end (deli, registers, customer service, answering phones) and we were run off our feet early on. I made a couple minor mistakes. Please understand they were truly minor and didn’t cost the store anything. Not a penny.
My manager found out about the mistakes and chewed me out. I took responsibility, apologized, and continued my day determined to shake it off and be cheerful for customers.
Then I found out my manager cut my hours for next week. Pretty deeply, probably because he was angry about the mistakes.
I literally worked myself sick on Saturday - aching stomach, elevated blood pressure (I take meds), sweating, highly stressed because I take this job very seriously.
This manager has a track record of doing this kind of thing, but I’m still upset cuz I worked SO HARD. And I work hard most of the time, and I care a lot about the store. But it just doesn’t seem to matter.
I am really angry that this place (job) has such a toxic environment. Why is nothing ever enough? and for minimum wage! Unreal.