Stress-free worker
Stress-free worker who actually looks (dare we say it?) happy. Image: SFIO CRACHO/Shutterstock

How to beat stress and find your happy place at work

24 Feb 2017

Struggling to combat your stress at work? These tips and stories can help you find your working-life bliss.

Most weeks, we do a deep dive into advice that will help you land a job. This week, our focus was more on what you do in the job once you have it.

We took a look at some tech roles, finding out what agile lead Claire Fitzpatrick does at Liberty IT on a daily basis, and learning about the life and career of PwC lead enterprise architect David Stapleton.

Mostly, though, we looked at stress.

We’re all a lot more stressed in our jobs than we used to be. The always-on nature of work – brought about by our reliance on technology ­– has seen to that. Even the things that are supposed to make us more relaxed, such as working from home, can actually increase our stress rather than reduce it.

One way to combat that could be to practise mindfulness at your desk, on your lunch break and during your commute. Helpful hint? Breathe.

Another source of stress – and one not so easily combatted by breathing – is salary. Trying to live within constricted means can be tough. That’s why you should never be afraid to discuss a raise. Hays’ Martin Dixon gave us some tips for broaching the subject at work.

Of course, sometimes the stress is due to the fact that you’re simply not happy on your current career path. Lucky for you, it’s truly never too late to change things. This week, we spoke to Susan O’Beirne, a member of the .Net team at Version 1, who came to the tech world after discovering that a career in music was the wrong fit.

For anyone in that position, anyone who feels the desperate need to move on, we do have some tips, from getting yourself headhunted to how to prepare for interviews.

But beware of where you’re moving to. If you work in tech, and value a diverse team of colleagues, you should be conscious of the fact that many of the top tech companies exhibit large gender gaps.

If you’d still like to jump into the job search after all that, there were a number of jobs announcements this week, including 110 jobs at print and document player Ricoh, 153 SaaS roles at four companies across Dublin, and a potential 100-job expansion at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

This week also saw the launch of the first Career Zoo event of 2017, which will offer jobseekers another opportunity to dip their toes in the job hunt pool.

As always, for more on any of these stories, follow the links below.

1. ‘My favourite thing about agile is the marriage of IT and business’

There’s far more to working in tech than being a coder or data scientist. But do you know anything about the other roles on offer?

2. ‘Work as a team and you will have a better chance of success’

When we hear the media talking about the tech sector and its workforce, it can feel like a faceless mass of people glued to their computers. In truth, it is far more varied than that.

3. Fancy working remotely? It could make you more stressed

How much do you wish you were working from home right now? Well, it might not be as good as you think.

4. How to practise mindfulness at work

Employees are more reachable than ever, making them less likely to switch off from work. Mindfulness has never been more important.

5. Under 30 and underpaid: How to beat the pay trap

How many of us have taken the first job we were offered after graduation, only to be stuck with the same low salary for years? Hays Recruitment’s Martin Dixon is here to help you escape the pay trap.

6. Making a big career change from music to tech

Have you ever started going down one career path, only to dramatically pivot to something completely different?

7. Getting headhunted: How to find a job while still in a job

When you’re already employed, you can’t exactly put ‘Hire me’ on your LinkedIn profile. So how can you get headhunted without telling the whole world?

8. 14 things to do if you want to nail your interview

During a job search, getting an interview is only step one. Hays’ Robby Vanuxem has some tips to help ensure you make it to step two.

9. Top tech companies still have a massive gender gap

Women fill less than a quarter of the tech roles in some of the biggest tech companies in the world.

10. IoT, biotech and deep data lined-up for March Career Zoo

The first of two Career Zoos in 2017 is taking place this March, and major employers will come from the exciting sectors of IoT, biotech and deep data.

Looking for jobs in tech or science? Check out our Employer Profiles for information on companies hiring right now and sign up for our Career Republic e-zine for a weekly digest of sci-tech careers news and advice.

Kirsty Tobin
By Kirsty Tobin

Kirsty Tobin served as careers editor of Silicon Republic from 2015 up to August 2017. When she was younger, she had a dream where she started and won a fight with a T-Rex, so she’s pretty sure she kicked butt at this, too. Passions include eating all the cake, watching more TV than is healthy and sassy comebacks.

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