Work induced anxiety

I never had anxiety so bad in my entire life. I never had to take meds, seek therapy, etc. Two years ago I was transferred to another office. (My former supervisor retired) the new one wanted me out from the get and she succeeded. My current supervisor is no better, but the old supervisor is putting stuff in her head. She sends demeaning emails to me, constantly being negative, constantly pointing out my mistakes (which I don’t make in a more relaxed environment) and even after I fix my error she will keep emailing me demanding an answer, and continuing to point out my mistakes. Negative, negative, negative. Not one positive thing comes out of her mouth. The long term goal is to either A) transfer or B) find a new job and resign. I’m not getting any younger, so I need to figure this out quickly. I am experiencing other health issues I never had before. Acid reflux, etc. Last night, I couldn’t keep anything down and I couldn’t get to sleep until after 3 am..bad stomach pain and my stomach was in knots...woke up to yet another email...Currently, I’m one week at home, one week at the office, but that won’t last forever. I’m working on getting an accommodation to work partly from home once it goes back to F/T In the office...I am constantly walking on eggshells. Her constant pushing buttons makes me forgetful, unable to concentrate, etc. Life is too short to be unhappy

I’m so sorry you’re dealing with this and i have to say i know 110% where youre coming from. Take it from me... RUN. It will only get worse. Believe me, I was at this company for a decent amount of years and it only got worse. Didn’t matter if i texted, called, emailed, wrote a letter, sat face to face with management, they continued to take advantage of me. But i stayed because i needed the money and i wanted to give back to the community. And towards the end i started taking days off to experiment with a shorter schedule, id eventually change my availability so i worked less days/ hours and let me tell you. It didnt matter a bit. Because the days that i WAS there, it was still hell. Still being harassed, still have double the workload. And id spend my whole week anticipating the drama and my anxiety went through the roof. I started getting paranoid that I would do something wrong or even harmful! All because i was constantly told i was doing something wrong even if i wasnt and always asked to do more. Basically, it led to physical, mental, and emotional burn out. Finally i just had it. And i quit. I havent worked there in over a month and I am still struggling. The mental damage they did to me over the years is my own fault for sticking around but it’s not easier quite yet. I still have anxiety. I still am paranoid over things i never used to be. I do see a professional and she says itll just take time to heal.... i now need to build my confidence up all over again, my self esteem, etc. so I’m telling you. If you are okay financially, if you can find another job. DO IT. Because if it didnt get better before or they wont listen to you, it will only get worse and it is NOT worth it. I wish someone would’ve just pulled me out of there yrs ago and said no, you’re bot working here anymore.

Do you think her emails border on harrassment?

I am so sorry you are dealing with this..

I went through a situation like that last year. My boss decided that she wanted me out. Basically it was a personality thing. She was hot and cold about people. I saw so many people come and go because they somehow got on her bad side. Suddenly, everything I did was criticized. The editor started to be as nasty to me as the boss. Suddenly things that were acceptable, like types of sources of information, were rejected, so my production went way down. The thing is where I live, they would have had to pay me severance, so the idea was to get me to quit. Obviously.

I was like you, not sleeping, not eating, losing weight, panic attacks, dreading every day. Finally, I ended up in the ER diagnosed with adjustment order with anxiety after my boss and her boss said they wanted a meeting with me. The doctor sent me out leave for a while. I came back a few months later and a few weeks after that, they let me go but with severance. It was a relief. My mental and physical health improved so much. I was able to find work a few months later.

I know the job market in many places is really bad and you may need to have to stay for financial reasons. But, I agree, that you need to do all you can to transfer or a new job for your health. Maybe a transfer would be easier since they know you at the company. I tried that but it was shot down. I think my boss had something to do with it.


I wish you all the best in finding something better. No one deserves that kind of treatment.

I have experienced this from 3 separate jobs I’ve had but the difference is I can’t come up with a distinct reason why. I’m not harassed or degraded or mistreated. I’m well liked by all, accelerated through the ranks with ease and have received countless rave reviews from customers and clients. I’ve finally given up on maintaining employment and now am a stay at home mom. But this has left me feeling like a failure and insecure and lacking confidence. I can completely understand what you’re going through and I agree, it will likely not get better. I just wish that the reason I experienced these things was more obvious like in your case. It feels like I can’t find closure to that chapter of my life and can’t move on and completely heal from it.

Yep I would transfer or quit as soon as possible. I experienced a lot of stress from impossible deadlines at my old job, which set my nerves on edge and eventually led to panic attacks. I should have quit much much sooner because I'm still living with some of the health effects it caused and in the end It would have been financially smarter to quit while my health was still relatively okay.

yes...I’m working on a reasonable accommodation. Right now, it’s still 50% capacity so one week I’m there for 4 days, then I work remote for the following week..still doesn’t change the emails.

Thanks..I’m working on an exit plan