Remote Worker Wants To Quit Her Job Because She Thinks She’s Legitimately Allergic To Meetings
The mind-body connection is a powerful thing.
Dima Berlin / Shutterstock Work and stress often go hand in hand, but existing in a constantly stressed-out state of mind is no actual way to live.
Without a true work-life balance, our systems stay on edge. Stress isn’t just mental and emotional; it can manifest in a physical way, as one worker discovered.
The remote worker is quitting her job because she believes she is legitimately allergic to meetings.
Vicky didn’t say what her job was, just that it caused her so much stress that she had a consistent allergic reaction each workday.
“Part of why I’m quitting this job is that I think I’m literally allergic to it,” she said before removing the TikTok filter to reveal what her skin actually looked like.
“Do you see my face?” she asked. “This happens every day that I work around 3 p.m., and especially if I have meetings.”
She pointed out the irritation on her face, saying, “I flare up here, here, here,” indicating the redness on her cheekbones and chin.
“I’ve had this turn into a full-blown stress rash before,” Vicky explained, sharing a set of photos of herself from last November that looked “like an allergic reaction.”
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“It only happens when I’ve done several hours of work and had to have meetings,” she said. “It goes away when I calm myself down.”
Stress could be the catalyst for her physical ailments.
Dr. Rubin, an allergist, explained exactly how stress can cause hives, saying, “When you’re going through a stressful period in your life, there are many different changes going on in your body to accommodate that stress.”
“As an example, your brain has something called the hypothalamus, which releases various hormones, including something called CRH, or corticotropin-releasing hormone. That hormone has many different functions in your body,” he said.
“CRH talks with your pituitary gland to release another hormone called ACTH, adrenocorticotropic hormone. That hormone talks to your adrenal glands that sit near your kidneys that release something called cortisol, which is your stress hormone,” Dr. Rubin said.
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He explained that among the many things cortisol does, it suppresses immune responses, and “it may make you susceptible to getting sick.”
In a separate post, Vicky gave an example of just how acute her stress reaction can be, revealing what her face looked like right before the clock struck 3 p.m. “Hey, it’s 2:48 p.m. on a Tuesday,” she said. “The rash is back.”
Vicky shared the news that she made the executive decision to quit her job, but was still having a stress reaction during her final two weeks of work.
“The issue today is that we’re going through our audit, our yearly audit,” she said, lifting her glasses up to show how irritated the skin underneath was.
Stress can exacerbate already-existing allergies in a way that creates extreme discomfort.
Dr. Jason Chouake, a New Jersey-based dermatologist, noted that getting stress hives highlights the intensity of the mind-body connection.
He explained that for some people, stress leads to hives or urticaria, a skin reaction causing red, itchy bumps.
While it would be easy to look at what someone like Vicky is going through and tell her it’s all in her head, even if that were true, it would still highlight how our minds and bodies work together to process stress and anxiety.
Life is short, and days are long, and everyone deserves to have a job that doesn't make them break out in hives every day at 3 o’clock in the afternoon, which means that Vicky did right by her body and brain in quitting that job.
Alexandra Blogier is a writer on YourTango's news and entertainment team. She covers social issues, pop culture and all things to do with the entertainment industry.