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Mental Health

Job Stress: How to Keep Your Cool

Summary & Participants

For many people, "work" and "stress" are virtually synonymous. But stress can have negative effects on your body and mind, from muscle stiffness and insomnia to hypertension and general unhappiness. How can you keep your productivity maxed while staying relaxed? Join our panel of experts for some work-time de-stressing tips. Viewers are encouraged to submit their questions in advance, or during the live program.

Medically Reviewed On: June 19, 2008

Webcast Transcript

PAUL MONIZ: But the danger is that when someone is really relying on this punctuality as some kind of a test of their own responsibility, if they fail in a recreational environment, it can ruin the whole experience. You get someone who is standing there waiting for you 10 minutes before the movie and you're late, there is no reason for the person to get all in a huff about it, but they do. So how do you learn to have some boundaries in terms of when stress is appropriate and when it is not? For instance, if someone is late, if you are holding a board meeting and someone is five minutes late, it is an issue. It's a board meeting, and they need to be there. And there is an appropriate response to someone's lateness. If someone is five minutes late for the movie, there is not that same sense of responsibility.

WILLY WIENER, PhD: I think the question is, is it adaptive? And that's the key question that people should ask themselves. Is the way I'm thinking about this adaptive? To be on time for board meetings, as you point out, is quite adaptive. You'll be well received in your place of work if you're on time, and perhaps not so if you're late.

At the same time if someone is late for a movie and you make a big deal of it, you can taint the whole evening and that's not adaptive.

PAUL MONIZ: How does stress manifest itself in the body? Can people see it in your face? We know sometimes it can work and sometimes it can be kept inside where someone else might not know that you're stressed.

FRANCIS MASSINO, PhD: I think both. It really depends on the individual. A lot of times people furrow their brows, look distracted by something that's going on. A lot of times it's really happening internally. A lot of times when people have given speeches that they are nervous about, or anxious about, afterward people will come and say, "Wow, you seemed so calm or you seemed so relaxed," even though internally their heart was racing, their mouth may have been drier, their palms may have been sweating a little bit more. So sometimes it's easier to read in certain people, particularly when it's carried in the shoulders or in the neck when people tend to get tensed up.

PAUL MONIZ: Stress in the workplace is a huge issue for people. They spend so much time at the office. People are working 50-60 hours a week. How do you deal with a difficult boss, probably the most asked question when it comes to stress in the workplace?

WILLY WIENER, PhD: Well I think firstly you might dispense with the notion that you're entitled to an equitable, fair and intelligent boss even. I think if people lose their what we call an investment in a just world hypothesis and accept the idea that some people will fall short of their expectations and may not even be fair. You don't have to like that, but accepting that state of affairs can render you less susceptible to being stressed out about it.

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