Sounds empowering, doesn’t it? However, you may want to take a deep breath before joining this movement.

What’s Fueling Rage Quitting

Frustrated workers are most likely to walk out the door in a fit of rage. If one more thing goes wrong, they’ll quit in a flash.

Work is a source of stress for many employed workers, leading to irritability, exhaustion, and difficulty regulating emotions. According to The American Institute of Stress, 55% of Americans are stressed during the day, and 63% of US workers are ready to quit their jobs to avoid work-related stress.

Everyone experiences stress from time to time. But what happens when stress levels impact physical and mental health? Eventually, something must give.

We’re seeing a surge in employee quit rates due to several factors, including unrealistic work expectations, company layoffs, and overworked employees. People are getting to the point where they believe quitting is their only option.

The Negative Effects of Rage Quitting

Hollywood has done a great job of helping us fantasize about quitting our job on the spot. The perfect example of this is Tom Cruise as Jerry Maguire, who grabs Flipper the Goldfish and quits his soul-crushing job. In the end, he goes on to make millions.

Here’s What You Can Do Instead of Rage Quitting

When things start to heat up, it’s better to take a few deep breaths before making a hasty decision. Think about what’s really bothering you. Then, schedule a meeting with your boss to discuss your situation.

If, after doing so, you still believe quitting your job is the right move, you can give proper notice or look for a new job while you’re still employed.

While the allure of a dramatic “rage quit” may be tempting in the face of workplace stress and frustration, resisting that impulse is crucial.

It may be tempting to fantasize about a dramatic Hollywood-style exit, but the reality is far less glamorous. Burned bridges, tarnished reputations, and financial insecurity await those who give into their anger. The high road may not be the easiest, but it is the one that will serve you best, both now and in the future.

By Roberta Matuson

OP Forbes

Photo by RDNE Stock project

A recent study by Gallup revealed that 40% of workers experience stress on the preceding day. The study, conducted by the American Institute of Stress, highlights that workplace stress is a significant issue that affects employees across all industries and positions. The study also found that stress can lead to decreased productivity, increased absenteeism, and decreased job satisfaction. According to Headspace’s 2024 Workplace State of Mind study, work-related stress has negatively impacted physical health for 77% of employees and relationships outside of work for 71%. Workplace mental health expert Natasha Bowman, in a recent Harvard Business Review article, has also shared that although a high level of empathy and compassion emerged during the pandemic, there is a shift back to pre-pandemic habits, including rollbacks of DEI and well-being initiatives, which people are not responding well.

The fear of losing one’s job, a lack of resources for well-being, and poor time management can create a vicious cycle that increases stress and becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, driving more unproductive and obsessive behaviors.

The good news is that there are many strategies that individuals and organizations can implement to reduce workplace stress and promote employee well-being. As Daniel Goleman says in his book Working with Emotional Intelligence, “Too little urgency, and we are apathetic; too much, and we are overwhelmed.” Achieving the balance is the key. Research showed that people who, during a challenge, were no more anxious than when they started it, kept calm and stayed alert and productive, maintaining low cortisol, won as more as twice as their peers, whereas the ones motivated by fear of failure got peaks of cortisol that were not as productive.

By prioritizing mental health and well-being, organizations can create a healthier and more productive work environment for everyone.

Understanding Emotional Intelligence

Emotional intelligence refers to the ability to recognize, understand, and manage our own emotions as well as those of others. It encompasses a range of skills, including self-awareness, self-regulation, empathy, and effective communication. Research has consistently shown that individuals with high EI are better equipped to handle stress, navigate complex relationships, and succeed in their careers.

The Link Between EI and Stress Reduction

EI begins with self-awareness, which involves recognizing your emotions, triggers, and stress responses. By understanding how stress manifests in your body and mind, you can proactively address it before it escalates, regulate your emotions instead of reacting impulsively to stressors, and maintain a positive outlook. William James, Father of American psychology, says “The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another”. Here is how to RESET your mind:

1) Recognize and Relax:

Calm your mind breathing deeply. After a difficult conversation or stressful email, take some time to breath and think about what happened before finding a solution.

2) Enjoy

Evaluate your thoughts and aim for a 3-to-1 ratio, positive vs negative thoughts by looking for the bright side of things.

3) Simplify

Catch yourself overthinking and make it simple by reducing distractions and avoiding regrets.

4) Exercise

Turn thoughts into actions by choosing to work now on something you can control. Go outside, walk in nature or practice a sport.

5) Thank

Thank yourself for choosing a different reaction to stressful situations. Recognize your efforts and thank others for their positive contribution!

Developing emotional intelligence (EI) is a lifelong journey that requires practice and self-reflection. By developing EI skills such as self-awareness, self-regulation, empathy, and effective communication, individuals can navigate challenges more effectively, build stronger relationships, and thrive in their careers. Investing in EI benefits individuals and contributes to a healthier and more productive work environment for everyone.

Embracing the power of emotional intelligence can transform your work life, leading to greater resilience, fulfillment, and success. So, explore and discover how EI can make a significant difference in your personal and professional life. Take 5 minutes today to think about what new behaviors you could add to your daily routine to make it more stress-free.

By Luciana Paulise

OP- Forbes

Photo by VAZHNIK

So often, a well-paying job comes with near impossible demands: long hours, the need to be “on call,” minimal sick leave, high expectations, lofty goals, no room for life balance. And then, of course, there’s the stress, oh the stress! All stemming from your job.

According to a study from The American Institute of Stress, 83% of U.S. workers suffer from work-related stress, with 25% saying their job is the No. 1 stressor in their lives. About 76% of workers report that workplace stress affects their personal relationships.

Surely, not every job is a high-stress situation. In fact, there are jobs out there that are relatively low stress.

A study by the CDC’s National Health Interview Survey was indexed by TRE House, which determined America’s least stressful industries to work in by analyzing factors such as wages, hours worked and paid sick leave.

Which are the least stressful jobs and do they actually pay enough to live on?

Transportation Equipment Manufacturer

Industries in the transportation equipment manufacturing category focus on the production of equipment for transporting people and goods. Key industries in this sector include motor vehicle manufacturing, aerospace products and parts manufacturing, and ship and boat building. How much do professionals stand to make in these respective industries?

For motor vehicle manufacturing, the average annual salary in the U.S. is $86,041, according to ZipRecruiter. This is well above the national average salary, which hovers at around $64,000 per year, according to 2022 data from the Social Security Administration.

Those working in the aerospace product industry, as engineers, average $115,100 per year, according to ZipRecruiter. This is also well above the national average salary.

Professionals in ship building sector pull in an average salary of $132,754, according to ZipRecruiter.

Insurance Carrier

Raking in an average of $58,198 a year, per ZipRecruiter, insurance carriers make slightly under the national average salary.

Machinery Worker

What exactly is the machinery job sector? Could be a few things: industrial machinery mechanics, machinery maintenance workers and millwrights, to name a few.

A job in the industrial machinery industry could be low stress, comparatively, but it’s not well-paying when looking at the national median salary: $51,053 a year, on average, according to Zippia.

Machinery workers are doing fine, salary-wise, according to ZipRecruiter, pulling in $96,249 annually.

Millwrights are getting by, but not luxuriously so; they make, on average, $54,596, according to Talent.com.

Rental and Leasing Services Worker

According to ZipRecruiter, professionals in the rental and leasing services space are not exactly cleaning up, financially. They make an average salary of just $38,515 a year.

Publishing Professional

Publishing isn’t exactly a booming industry these days — at least, not when it comes to books and magazines. And that fact makes it interesting that it is considered a relatively low-stress job. Still, the pay ain’t bad: $69,970 per year, on average, according to Indeed.

Miner

Workers in underground mining pull in an average salary of $47,840 per year, according to Talent.com. This is hardly big bucks, and it’s difficult to perceive this as a low-stress job, as the risk of dying or serious injury on the job is fairly high.

Information Services and Data Processor

This is another industry that canopies several job types. Let’s consider data processing. In this field, workers make an average of $82,640 a year, per ZipRecruiter. No wonder these folks aren’t so stressed out.

Education Services Pro

The educational services sector covers organizations that provide instruction and training in a vast array of subjects. It covers schools, colleges, universities and training centers. Now, we pretty much are all in agreement that public school teachers could stand to make more money; so, unsurprisingly, these professionals are not enjoying an excess of cash. They pull in an average salary of $46,590, according to ZipRecruiter.

Public Administrator

Public administration is a field that is all about leadership. It sees professionals serving communities to make things better for everyone within those communities. Evidently, it’s considered a low-stress job. And it pays well, too. According to ZipRecruiter, the average annual salary for professionals in this sector is $125,844. That’s twice the amount of national average salary in the U.S.

Investment Professional

This one is a doozy because it could be so many jobs, and some (e.g., securities and commodities) are complicated to examine. For the sake of space and sanity, let’s look at how much financial investors make. It’s less than you may think: on average, $69,759 a year, per ZipRecruiter.

Utilities Worker

Are your utility bills stressing you out? Well, the people behind the scenes of them are, apparently, the least stressed workers on this list. But wow are they barely getting by. They make an average annual salary of just $38,319, per ZipRecruiter. It makes you wonder how they aren’t majorly stressed out.

By Nicole Spector

This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: These Are the 11 Least Stressful Jobs, But Do They Pay Enough To Live On?

Photo by ELEVATE

Sammy is the founder and CEO of 

In a recent report that surveyed 5,000 full-time employees, a striking 96% expressed a preference for companies that clearly prioritize well-being when exploring potential employers for their next job opportunity. But while there have been growing calls for workplaces to focus on greater work-life balance as part of employee well-being, we’ve also seen a counter-narrative arise from those who advocate for working longer hours at a high intensity if they desire success, as in the case of Elon Musk and the Wayfair CEO’s recently leaked email to his staff.

It is no surprise that this sentiment has earned both CEOs flak. Pushing staff to work 60 to 80 hours a week has historically been associated with workplace trauma and burnout. But this also seems to suggest that despite all the recent strides companies have made in terms of well-being, there are still those at the very top who believe that employee well-being can sometimes stand in the way of corporate profitability.

At its core lies a question of whether there can genuinely be a win-win here: Can employee well-being and productivity (and therefore profitability) go hand in hand in this economic climate? I believe they can.

What is the case for employee well-being?

The research indicates that companies that do not prioritize employee well-being will eventually pay in the long run in the form of attrition, absenteeism and insurance claims. According to McKinsey, unaddressed employee stress, burnout or health issues can yield higher absenteeism and reduced productivity, costing medium-sized companies $228 million to $355 million per year.

Furthermore, increasing levels of stress in the workplace are contributing to a surge in insurance claims as well as a subsequent rise in premiums. This is underscored by a report from The American Institute of Stress, which says that around 40% of workers’ compensation claims can be directly attributed to elevated stress levels.

Nurturing a culture that prioritizes employee mental and physical health can help minimize businesses’ risk exposure and bring several positive outcomes, including reduced absenteeism. When employees are healthy, both physically and mentally, the likelihood of them taking sick leave diminishes. A well-supported workforce exhibits a higher chance of being regularly engaged.

Is there a happy medium?

As someone who has experienced corporate burnout personally and is, at the same time, a founder concerned about firm performance in this economy, I think there is a healthy medium—a way to win on both fronts of productivity and well-being. I believe employee well-being can be realistic and aligned with market realities, but only if leaders become much more flexible with how we think about both productivity and employee well-being.

For starters, productivity levels are not proportional to hours spent at work, nor is productivity confined to the workplace. Many employees are exceptionally productive within a 40-hour work week and do not need to work longer hours. At the same time, employees are now adept at finding opportunistic pockets of time to do their most productive work. Our CMO, for instance, calls 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. her “magic hours,” a two-hour window in which she achieves more than she does in an entire afternoon.

Working habits often depend on an individual’s job function. Our data scientists, engineers and designers, for instance, need hours of uninterrupted deep work. They often find they work best after conventional work hours because they get the most productive work done in the absence of meetings.

Well-being and productivity are certainly not a one-size-fits-all, and productivity can be achieved without compromising on well-being.

How can you balance productivity and employee well-being?

Interestingly, my company has found that when individuals live healthier lives, this improves their focus and productivity levels. For instance, some employees may sneak in a workout during lunch hours or do a walking meeting so they can get another peak in focus and productivity after lunch, which is typically followed by an energy slump. Leaders can help support employees by encouraging regular breaks, physical activity and mindfulness practices.

A flexible schedule can also accommodate productivity by allowing your employees to work during times that align with their natural energy levels. In my experience, recognizing and respecting diverse work styles contributes to a more engaged and satisfied workforce.

Health tech and wearables have made it possible to observe, predict and therefore engineer your focus and productivity throughout the day through the measurement of vital health data points such as daily step counts, heart rate and deep sleep. (Full disclosure: My company offers this type of service, as do others.) Instead of focusing on the number of hours worked, consider using these as proxy metrics to understand employee focus and productivity levels, which can be a better indicator of performance than clocking numbers on a time sheet. On a broader level, you can also now use AI to analyze such datasets to predict negative outcomes like absenteeism and insurance claims in the future, which cost companies worldwide billions of dollars.

Other ways AI and health tech can be leveraged include:

• Equipping wearable devices with sensors to monitor environmental factors and employee movements so as to check potential safety hazards, helping you and your employees prevent accidents and injuries.

• Tracking biometric data, such as heart rate and sleep patterns, to identify signs of fatigue. This can provide insight into when employees are burned out.

• Monitoring stress levels, anxiety and overall well-being to help identify patterns associated with potential mental health challenges, allowing for more timely interventions and support.

Methods like these can help address a notable pain point for companies, many of which are gunning for profitability yet struggling with attrition, absenteeism and burnout. Even as we think about improving well-being and productivity, it is equally important to develop ways of managing health risks—and this is all the more possible thanks to advances in AI.

There’s so much we’ve learned about humans at work since the pandemic, and we need to continue evolving and adapting our understanding of productivity and well-being. I believe it will be through our willingness to revisit the ways we measure productivity, mitigate risk and understand well-being that we can truly achieve the win-win and build successful yet sustainable businesses today.

By Sammy Rubin

Originally posted in Forbes

Photo by fauxels

Paula Davis remembers all too well the feeling that would overcome her after just a few weeks back at work following a blissful break. Like many of us, she would take annual leave and try to forget about the workload, the petty office politics, the anxiety-inducing emails – and for a few days it would work. But then, as a new working year loomed, it was as if the leave had never happened. The now-former lawyer sums it up in a single word: dread.

Eventually, Davis diagnosed the cause: chronic burnout that no amount of leave could cure, and went on to write a book, Beating Burnout at Work, in the hope of helping others manage workplace stress.

Many of us have experienced similar feelings – or will over the next few weeks as the working year begins in earnest and we encounter, once again, those gossipy co-workers, pointless mandatory meetings and, now that school’s back, too, the unavoidable and impossible “work-life” juggle. These daily hurdles don’t even need to be particularly noteworthy to impact our quality of life and physical wellbeing; indeed, as a pair of US academics have explained, seemingly trivial “micro-stresses” can ripple outwards like a stone thrown into a pond.

So how can we create a more congenial life this year? How is it that people seem to do it so much better in some other countries (such as France, home of the multi-course lunch and month-long summer holiday)? Is there anything in quiet quitting, lazy-girl jobs and silent partners? And might you suffer from ergophobia?

Photo by Valeria Ushakova

Photo by MART PRODUCTION

Photo by Paul Efe

Calm’s CPO shares how the company promotes mindfulness through daily meditations and company-wide mental health days.

Do you ever feel stressed at work? Of course you do. You’re only human.

In fact, almost all US employees (80%) feel at least some amount of stress on the job, and about one-half of those workers want to learn how to manage their stress, according to The American Institute of Stress.

This is where people leaders can play a key role in helping workers, said Scott Domann, chief people officer at meditation app Calm, and be “rewarded with high productivity and employee satisfaction,” he said. By creating a culture that values mindfulness, he told HR Brew he’s been able to help his roughly 300 employees strike a “strong work-rest balance” through daily meditations and company-wide mental health days.

Meditations and breaks. Two years ago, Calm started conducting twice-yearly engagement surveys, the results of which have helped shape the company’s mindfulness programs.

ByMikaela Cohen

As burnout has reared its head, workers and managers alike have struggled. A startling number of people have found themselves experiencing burnout, defined by the World Health Organization as an occupational phenomenon resulting from chronic workplace stress that goes unmanaged. Around 42% of the global workforce at the end of 2022 said they were burnt out, according to Future Forum, a research consortium backed by Slack. And according to an April 2023 report from the American Psychological Association, 77% of workers had experienced work-related stress in the last month, and 57% said there had been negative impacts often associated with workplace burnout from that stress.

But some people have successfully avoided burnout, even in high-pressure jobs. It’s hard to put an exact number on this phenomenon, as “few organizations and research institutions are in a position to do those kinds of longitudinal studies,” says Ken Matos, people science director at human resource platform Culture Amp—but the burnout escapees certainly exist.

Who manages to avoid burnout and why is central to Kandi Wiens, co-director of University of Pennsylvania’s master’s in medical education program and author of the upcoming book Burnout Immunity: How Emotional Intelligence Can Help You Build Resilience and Heal Your Relationship With Work. Over the course of her research interviewing chief medical officers during the pandemic, Wiens met health care workers who not only evaded burnout, but thrived in hospitals’ high-stress environments. The experience upended her belief that “everyone experiences burnout.”

“No one is immune to stress. Every one of us feels stress, whether it’s good stress, bad stress, anywhere in between,” she tells Fortune. “But there are people everywhere that are immune to burnout.”

Although most experts agree that the idea of a true, permanent immunity to burnout is impossible, Wiens and others say there are some key emotional tools available to most people that could allow them to choose the right work situation, and thrive under stress.

“It’s all about awareness,” Wiens says. “Awareness has a lot to do with really understanding yourself and what it is that makes you more vulnerable to burnout based on personality, temperament, and what you want out of work.”

Self-awareness and self-regulation

Wiens’ theory is that burnout avoiders are particularly strong in two areas of emotional intelligence: self-awareness and self-regulation.

There’s a certain level of healthy stress that humans actually need, Wiens says, but it’s important to be aware of what keeps you in that “sweet spot of stress” and what puts you over the edge. A physician she met during her research thrived during the pandemic, for example, but he knew the stressful conditions he worked under every day fell within his tolerance level—the same wasn’t true for the other doctors.

Individuals who avoid burnout also develop successful self-regulation tools to help prevent negative thoughts, emotions, and reactions when work stress comes to a head, according to Wiens. Those coping mechanisms can include reaching out to a supportive friend or loved one, engaging in breathing techniques, exercising, getting out of the office into green spaces, or even having a good old-fashioned endorphin-filled cry—whatever can help you re-center yourself to healthily manage the stress you’re under.

Christina Maslach, a psychologist and professor at University of California, Berkeley, who pioneered research on burnout and co-created what many consider the gold standard assessment for burnout, agrees that people who avoid it develop various strategies to deal with chronic job stress. They can also simply adjust their relationship with their job to be a better match for them. That includes taking on less work or saying no to additional work, improving relationships with coworkers, and not constantly thinking about work when they’re not there.

But experts Fortune spoke with are careful to point out that there’s no such thing as a burnout superhero. “It is not that there are only some sort of ‘special people’ who are ‘immune to burnout’ and other people who are not,” Maslach told Fortune via email. That would be a medical way of thinking about it, she says, but burnout isn’t classified as an official medical diagnosis. And “immunity,” says Maslach, might not be the right way to think about avoiding burnout.

“One of the problems of the medical approach is that it frames the question in terms of an individual person, i.e. ‘who is burning out,’ rather than framing it as ‘why are people burning out,’” she says. “It is fine to help people cope with chronic stressors, but a better, preventive strategy is to make changes to eliminate or reduce those stressors, so that people are less at risk for burnout.”

Michael Leiter, professor emeritus at Acadia University and burnout researcher who works closely with Maslach, says that while it helps for someone to be self-aware and have high levels of emotional intelligence, what helps more is having work environments that allow for flexibility, belonging, and respect.

“Coaching people to endure or tolerate disrespectful workplaces would be a catastrophic strategy,” he says. “Developing more respectful workplaces would be the way to go.”

Building a better workplace

Burned-out workers are a big problem for corporate America.

Disengaged employees, and those who are not actively engaged, cost the world roughly $8.8 trillion in lost productivity, according to Gallup. And according to research from Stanford, how workplace stress is managed in organizations correlates to roughly 8% of annual health care costs and leads to roughly 120,000 deaths a year.

Burnout is also related to more than just the workplace, which makes studying the phenomenon even more difficult. Other factors, like someone’s personal life and stressors, can hinder their so-called burnout immunity.

“A lot can be done to prevent it, but it’s very difficult to provide evidence for that. Because looking at everyone who did not get burnout, you don’t know if they all did the right things or not,” says Jacqui Brassey, co-lead of the McKinsey Health Institute, a nonprofit within consulting firm McKinsey & Co. dedicated to improving life expectancy and the quality of life.

That may be why much of burnout research centers on what organizations should do to help foster work environments and culture where burnout is less likely to happen. That includes emphasizing a sense of belonging and purpose for employees, setting and encouraging healthy boundaries, and allowing for flexibility and autonomy.

But managing burnout from the top is also critical, according to Melissa Doman, an organizational psychologist who’s written a book on how to have conversations around mental health at work. The stress that executives experience from financial and performance pressure puts them at higher risk to suffer heart attack and other health issues often related to burnout. Developing emotional intelligence tools to better manage stress, she says, should be a must for leaders.

“Not prioritizing leaders’ emotional health ever was stupid,” Doman says. There’s an increasing expectation and need for leaders to be emotionally intelligent, both for their employees’ benefit and their own. “Just because someone is in a leadership position does not mean that emotional intelligence is a given,” she says.

Perhaps the answer is a mix of both individual emotional intelligence and organizations being intentional about workplace environments to help avoid burnout. Because, “there’s a lot to be said for people who report specific skills reporting lower levels of burnout symptoms,” Brassey says. “So it’s a combination of both, but it’s also definitely trainable.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

Photo by energepic.com

Visit THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF STRESS

Do you ever feel stressed at work? Of course you do. You’re only human.

In fact, almost all US employees (80%) feel at least some amount of stress on the job, and about one-half of those workers want to learn how to manage their stress, according to The American Institute of Stress.

This is where people leaders can play a key role in helping workers, said Scott Domann, chief people officer at meditation app Calm, and be “rewarded with high productivity and employee satisfaction,” he said. By creating a culture that values mindfulness, he told HR Brew he’s been able to help his roughly 300 employees strike a “strong work-rest balance” through daily meditations and company-wide mental health days.

Meditations and breaks. Two years ago, Calm started conducting twice-yearly engagement surveys, the results of which have helped shape the company’s mindfulness programs.

“It’s blocked on our calendar, so that even if you don’t join the daily call, it’s time that you don’t schedule over,” Domann said. “From a mindfulness standpoint, regardless of what you do, you get a bit of a break…and this leads back to the importance of rest, breaks, and being able to step away from your day-to-day.”

Advice for other HR teams. Domann said he has seen HR teams at other companies struggle to get employees to engage with mental health resources. That’s why he has implemented a way for employees to care for their mental health how they choose, with five mental health days to be used alongside daily meditations and breaks.

“I encourage [other HR leaders] to make sure there are unified moments where everyone at the company is doing the same thing at the same time,” Domann said. “That way, it’s not like Scott’s people team is taking a mental health day but the engineering team isn’t…so if everybody is taking that day off, then everyone has the opportunity to fully take off.”

Domann said he understands that it may be harder for people leaders whose businesses don’t revolve around mindfulness to get employees to engage with mental health initiatives. He recommended encouraging candid conversations in everyday interactions and evolving resources over time based on employee feedback.

“Talk about sleep and talk about stories around your own personal experience with mental health, whether it’s something like, you didn’t sleep well last night because you were awake until 3 in the morning,” Domann said. “It’s those opportunities to make sure that everyone can see the modeling and behavior, and [say], ‘Oh, gosh, I’m not alone.’”

Visit The American Institute of Stress

Original post HW Brew

ByMikaela Cohen

Photo by Jack Sparrow