Stress Fractures

The key to accomplishing more could be doing less

My friends and acquaintances tend to regard me as someone who’s easygoing. And that, certainly, is the way I have come to view myself over the years. Several years ago, however, I was asked to lead a team representing my company at an important meeting in Madrid. And in doing so I discovered that when the circumstances are right, even the most easygoing person can become an overbearing tyrant.

The story is an old and familiar one. In an effort to get everything “right” for the meeting, I started working 12-hour days, ignoring weekends and seldom taking time to eat meals that didn’t come in a paper sack. In the process I became irritable and obsessive, and by the time we left for the meeting I had succeeded in alienating just about everyone on my staff. Not surprisingly, things did not go well in Madrid. And worse than that, my relentless bullying created a bumper crop of bad feelings that dogged me until the day I finally left the company.

Stress is the mortal enemy of sound judgment and effective leadership. Yet the experience I describe is more the rule than the exception in the American workplace. In a 2004 survey of American workers by the Families and Work Institute, 27 percent reported being overwhelmed “often or very often” by how much work they had to do. And 29 percent reported that they didn’t have time to step back and reflect on the work they were doing. The study’s authors concluded that a full one-third of U.S. employees “can be viewed as being chronically overworked.”

“The workplace, through downsizing and rightsizing, has put more responsibilities on people in terms of their jobs,” says Gus Stieber, national director of business development for Bensinger, DuPont & Associates, a professional services firm based in Chicago. “We’ve compressed everything down to ‘the next thing I have to do is this.’ Part of it is with BlackBerries, or crackberries, as people call them, you’re so accessible for everything now, whether it’s work life or social life, that you can pack more stuff in. The problem is, people aren’t asking if that’s quality time.”

It is well documented that stress is unhealthy for individuals. But what is bad for individuals ultimately translates into problems for the organizations that employ them. This extends well beyond the burden of increased absenteeism and health care costs. Stressed employees are irritable and prone to making mistakes that alienate customers and co-workers alike. Over the long haul, the increased productivity we associate with long hours and heavy workloads often proves to be illusory.

To their credit, many businesses and organizations recognize this — at least at the employee handbook level. The Family and Work Institute’s 2005 National Study of Employers found that an impressive number of employers are trying to make work more manageable by offering options that range from compressed workweeks to sabbaticals to flexible hours. Many employees find, however, that taking advantage of these benefits is easier said than done.

“A lot of organizations have leave for men now when their wife has a child,” says Stieber. “But the attitude is, ‘You’re not going to take time off, are you?’ Even though you have these benefits, we kind of don’t want you to use them because you’re affecting the bottom line, because we don’t have anybody to replace you. It’s an informal thing that’s not very healthy in terms of the culture.”

Managers, then, should encourage employees to take advantage of flexible work options that are available to them. They should watch as well for common signs of stress and burnout, such as increased irritability and inappropriate behavior. Even if a manager can’t offer the employee a sabbatical, a sincere pep talk and an afternoon off can do a lot to soothe ragged nerves.

This is one area, though, where responsibility ultimately rests with the employee.

“It’s a conscious choice,” says Jim Warner, president of OnCourse International, which provides business and life coaching to corporate executive teams. “Individuals have to take responsibility for their lives, knowing their own rhythms. And they must have the courage to draw boundaries.”

This is just the sort of courage I wish I had shown 10 years ago while preparing for the meeting in Madrid. In my blind drive to get things right I became what Warner calls a mere “transactional machine,” obsessed with checking off items on my to-do list rather than collaborating with my team to achieve a common goal. I was working hard, but to the dismay of everyone involved, I was not working smart. It’s a mistake I will never make again.

Need a Refresher?

“Each person has their own form of recharging,” says Jim Warner, president of OnCourse International in Boulder, Colo. “Some people do it by meditative practice or by journaling. Others do it by exercise, by reading great literature, by listening to music, or by having convivial dialogue with their spouse or friends. You have to essentially know yourself.” Warner’s book, Aspirations of Greatness: Mapping the Midlife Leader’s Reconnection to Self and Soul (Wiley, 2002), is a thoughtful guidebook to take along on your own journey toward self-knowledge.

In his refreshing, myth-busting book What Were They Thinking? Unconventional Wisdom About Management (Harvard Business School Press, 2007), Stanford University’s Jeffrey Pfeffer devotes a chapter to the question of whether or not longer workweeks lead inevitably to increased productivity.

A growing body of medical research suggests that daily meditation is a great way to reduce stress and increase one’s ability to focus. In my experience, I’ve found even 10 minutes a day can work wonders. Steve Hagen’s Meditation: Now or Never (HarperOne, 2007) is a good layman’s guide to effective meditative practice. — D.F.