Agony

Agony is a very strong word....not one you hear very much these days unless associated with a life threatening illness.  Definitely not one that I would use when describing a job situation.  If that word were to ever come into play, I thing I might have to either:

• change my situation
• change my attitude until I could change my situation.

I know this doesn't necessarily make sense, but a comment was made to me today and I'm still pondering why those particular choice of words were used.
Just saying.....I'm perplexed.