Finding rest in the midst of workplace pressure

Finding Rest in the Midst of Workplace Pressure

The Reality of Workplace Stress

Good evening, everyone. I'm Giacomo, and I work as a software development manager for a tech company. Tonight, I'd like to share my personal experience with stress and anxiety at work.

Let me ask you: have you ever been so overwhelmed by workplace stress that it affected your personal life? Have you seriously considered leaving your job because of it? If so, you're not alone. Workplace stress is a significant issue affecting millions of people worldwide. Recent research in the UK shows that almost 80% of employees have considered leaving their jobs due to high levels of stress.

I've wrestled with stress and anxiety throughout my career. I love my job because it combines two things I'm passionate about: the technical aspects and the opportunity to mentor and coach other people. As an engineering manager, working under pressure is constant, and I've always enjoyed taking on new challenges.

The Difference Between Pressure and Stress

But I've come to understand the crucial difference between pressure and stress. Working under pressure can actually push you to do your best work. It helps you learn new things and focus your mind to achieve great results. But stress is different—it's overwhelming, something you cannot control. It can lead to anxiety and burnout.

This is exactly what happened to me. I started hating my job and lost all excitement from the challenges that used to bring fun and variety to my days. My mind became so fixated on problems that I couldn't enjoy anything—not at work or outside of it. The stress affected my emotions, my body, and I even experienced panic attacks. It damaged my relationships with colleagues, friends, and family. I became less engaged and communicative, always lost in my own thoughts about problems at work—constantly asking myself, "What if? How can I solve this?"

A Breaking Point

I vividly recall a specific period when multiple challenges converged. We were working on a very complex operational event impacting many customers, and we were lost for solutions. We were operating in reactive mode, firefighting constantly.

During one-on-one meetings with my team, each member began sharing their frustration. They said, "We cannot work this way." They were exhausted from the constant firefighting, and they looked to me: "Giacomo, you need to solve this."

I felt responsible for what they were going through, but I also felt powerless because I didn't know how to change the situation. Then, during that same week, one of my top team members resigned, leaving me alone to deal with one of our most important projects. On top of that, I was running late on other documents and side projects because of the constant stream of work.

I remember one day in the office when I suddenly felt overwhelmed. My breathing became heavy, my vision blurred, and I was overcome with an urge to run away. I went outside and broke down in tears. I felt lost and didn't know what to do. It was like everything was falling apart, and I couldn't see a way out.

Two Truths That Changed Everything

I would like to share two things that really helped me deal with stress and anxiety. These two truths are grounded in my faith in God, and I've learned to keep reminding myself of them, embrace them, and find rest in them.

First: I am not alone. God is with me.

I found great comfort reading all the promises God made throughout history—promises about His presence and help. There's a special book in the Bible called Psalms where people like you and me reflect on real-life struggles and express their emotions to God while going through life's ups and downs. Their stories and testimonies encouraged me deeply. They showed me that God can be with you even when things are incredibly tough, no matter how dark or impossible the situation seems.

Knowing that God was with me gave me strength, joy, and peace. I realized I was not alone anymore when I had to join stressful meetings at work. I was not alone when working on projects with tight deadlines. I was not alone when joining escalation calls at 2 a.m. God was right there with me.

Stress and anxiety can push you to feel isolated and alone, but in the middle of difficulties, I found hope in God's promise to remain with me in everything. Nothing could separate me from Him or His love.

Second: God is not just with me—He is interested in me. He cares about me because He loves me.

God is interested in my life, my job, and what causes me stress and anxiety. A beautiful passage in the Bible really helped me understand this. It was written by Paul, who faced significant stress and anxiety in his own life. He was actually in prison because of his faith, but this didn't stop him from writing a letter to his friends who were going through difficult times.

He wrote: "Friends, remember Jesus is with you right there where you are. Do not be anxious about anything. Whatever your situation, whatever you are going through, whatever is causing you stress or anxiety, bring everything to Jesus and receive what Jesus is giving you—His peace, a peace that can protect your heart and your mind."

From Anxiety to Peace

I learned that instead of listening to what my anxiety was telling me—"Giacomo, this is impossible. You're not the right person for the job. You'll be a failure if you can't fix this. You're letting your team, your manager, your company down"—I learned to talk about my anxiety to God in prayer.

This relationship with God, through reading His promises and reminding myself of them, enabled me to remind myself of a different story than the one my anxiety was telling me. This story doesn't focus on all the difficult issues in front of me that seem too big or impossible to solve. Instead, it focuses on Jesus—a story that enables me every day to know Him more and more.

This story reminds me continually that Jesus is not a remote or distant God. He's not an impersonal force. He wants to be involved in our world, in my life, in my workplace, in all my challenges and responsibilities. He knows what stresses me. He knows what causes my anxiety, and He cares for me. He wants to give me peace to face everything.

The Gift of Peace

Let me tell you: He did, and He does it today as well. Jesus hasn't given me a stress-free life—I don't think that's possible on this side of heaven. But through a relationship with Him, He gives me peace. He gives me peace by knowing that He is with me at work and cares about what I'm doing. He wants to be involved in what I do because He loves me.

That's the peace that carries me through.