You Might Be Stressed If…

When working conditions degrade gradually enough, we tolerate them even though they're intolerable. The cost is chronic high-intensity stress. We become short with each other. We hurt each other. Productivity falls. Quality degrades. Worst of all, we take our troubles home, which can spread the misery and which limits our ability to recharge and repair.

To regain control, we must recognize the indicators of chronic high-intensity stress. Here's a little catalog.

You might be stressed if…

• …someone asks you for comfort about being stressed, and you blow your top.
• …you add to your to-do list stuff you've already done, just for that feeling of accomplishment when you check it off.
• …you suddenly realize that although your desk is usually neat, it's been an unholy mess for three weeks and you never noticed.
• …you suddenly realize that although you usually don't mind a messy desk, you now feel an overwhelming compulsion to clean it up.
• …you suddenly realize that 40% of what you've eaten today contains some form of chocolate.
• …you no longer feel the effects of consuming two espressos before 8 AM.
• …you take a ten-minute break to relax, but after minute three, all you can think about is whatever you were taking a break from.
• …sleep mostly consists of waiting to get up until some hour that you think most people would consider reasonable.
• …you believe that even if you nod off in a meeting, nobody notices, because you do it cleverly.
• …things that used to be only mildly annoying are now unbearable.
• …things that used to be unbearable are only mildly annoying compared to the really idiotic stuff that's happening now.
• …everyone around you seems totally stressed, but you think you're absolutely fine.
• …everyone around you seems calm, but you think it's because they haven't yet grasped the reality of the situation.
• …you thought you were decisive before, but now you're making decisions before you realize you've made them.
• …when you have to decide something, all you can do is dither about it endlessly.
• …you feel an irresistible urge to make decisions that aren't yours to make.
• …after you arrive You might be stressed if
  you feel an irresistible
  urge to make decisions
  that aren't yours to makewherever you were going, you can't remember why you went there.
• …even though you're not a VIP, the conference room goes all quiet the moment you enter.
• …it isn't just that you couldn't keep the thread of what she was saying, it's that you couldn't keep the thread of what you were thinking.
• …you bite someone's head off over something they had nothing to do with.
• …two hours late, you realize you missed lunch.
• …two hours to go, and all you can think about is lunch.
• ..you've finally figured out how the whole thing fits into a nice, neat pattern.
• …you believe that you could actually save the company if only they would do it your way.

How many of these indicators seem familiar to you?  Top    Next Issue

Are your projects always (or almost always) late and over budget? Are your project teams plagued by turnover, burnout, and high defect rates? Turn your culture around. Read 52 Tips for Leaders of Project-Oriented Organizations, filled with tips and techniques for organizational leaders. Order Now!

Your comments are welcome

About Point Lookout

Thank you for reading this article. I hope you enjoyed it and found it useful, and that you'll consider recommending it to a friend.

This article in its entirety was written by a human being. No machine intelligence was involved in any way.

Point Lookout is a free weekly email newsletter. Browse the archive of past issues. Subscribe for free.

Support Point Lookout by joining the Friends of Point Lookout, as an individual or as an organization.

Do you face a complex interpersonal situation? Send it in, anonymously if you like, and I'll give you my two cents.

Related articles

More articles on Personal, Team, and Organizational Effectiveness:

Films Not About Project Teams: II

Here's Part II of a list of films and videos about project teams that weren't necessarily meant to be about project teams. Most are available to borrow from the public library, and all are great fun.

Retention

When the job market eases for job seekers, we often see increases in job shifting, as people who've been biding their time make the jump. Typically, they're the people we most want to keep. How can we reduce this source of turnover?

The Good, the Bad, and the Complicated

In fiction and movies, the world is often simple. There's a protagonist, a goal, and a series of obstacles. The protagonists and goals are good, and the obstacles are bad. Real life is more complicated.

Anticipating Absence: How

Knowledge workers are professionals who "think for a living." When they suddenly become unavailable because of the pandemic, we consider substituting someone else. But substitutes need much more than skills and experience to succeed.

Recapping Factioned Meetings

A factioned meeting is one in which participants identify more closely with their factions, rather than with the meeting as a whole. Agreements reached in such meetings are at risk of instability as participants maneuver for advantage after the meeting.

See also Personal, Team, and Organizational Effectiveness for more related articles.

Forthcoming issues of Point Lookout

Coming July 23: Microdelegation

Microdelegation is a style of delegation in which the delegator unintentionally communicates the task to the subordinate in such detail and so repetitively that the subordinate is offended. As a result of this delegation style, many subordinates feel distrusted or suspected of fraud or goldbricking. Available here and by RSS on July 23.

And on July 30: What the Dunning-Kruger Effect Actually Is

Although the Dunning-Kruger Effect is widely recognized, people describe it — and understand it — in many different ways. Some of these expressions are misleading. Proceed with caution. Available here and by RSS on July 30.

Coaching services

I offer email and telephone coaching at both corporate and individual rates. Contact Rick for details at rbrenaXXxGCwVgbgLZDuRner@ChacDjdMAATPdDNJnrSwoCanyon.com or (650) 787-6475, or toll-free in the continental US at (866) 378-5470.

Get the ebook!

Past issues of Point Lookout are available in six ebooks:

• Get 2001-2 in Geese Don't Land on Twigs (PDF, )
• Get 2003-4 in Why Dogs Wag (PDF, )
• Get 2005-6 in Loopy Things We Do (PDF, )
• Get 2007-8 in Things We Believe That Maybe Aren't So True (PDF, )
• Get 2009-10 in The Questions Not Asked (PDF, )
• Get all of the first twelve years (2001-2012) in The Collected Issues of Point Lookout (PDF, )

Are you a writer, editor or publisher on deadline? Are you looking for an article that will get people talking and get compliments flying your way? You can have 500-1000 words in your inbox in one hour. License any article from this Web site. More info