Stress-free Career

New Scientist reveals how to keep your hair and ditch your high blood pressure without emigrating to a Pacific island.
This feature is a part of the New Scientist Careers Guide 2007, available for free download.

1. Create a good space

A freezing office or an ill-placed coffee machine will probably cause less stress than a psychotic boss or an inhumane workload, but even if the working environment only accounts for a small slice of your daily stress. Take an open-plan office. This trade-off between privacy and a need for interaction can be just as important in a lab.


2. Raise your status

Are you the secretary? Working in the post room? The technician in a lab full of big shots? Beware: having lower status can shorten your life.

What can you do about stress caused by low status and lack of control? Well obviously if you were in a position to choose, you’d have complete control over all aspects of your working life. So-called “stress” in the top ranks is different from the frank lack of control experienced by underlings. But in the meantime, here are some things you can try:
1. Negotiate your hours, control over your working hours and days off makes less stress.
2. Educate Yourself: Those with a master’s had an 8.5 per cent risk of death.
3. Develop team rituals - Working as a team is essential to taking control

They found that stressed employees were much more likely to develop what’s known as “metabolic syndrome”, a constellation of characteristics such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol and high fasting glucose levels, which together increase the likelihood of heart problems. It seems that prolonged exposure to work stress directly affects the autonomic nervous system, raising levels of the stress hormones cortisol and adrenalin. These findings, the researchers say, provide a plausible explanation for how psychosocial stress at work can cause heart disease.

3. Be social
Hang out at the water cooler. Lunch with your supervisor. Booze it up together after work. Confide.
No matter how monotonous your job or how close you are to being laid off, social support from work colleagues will help lower your stress levels. But make sure do not do over.

4. Don't be too social
Being sociable is great, but sociability to the point of not getting anything done is stressful. The day often follows this kind of pattern: you’re intent on getting the data crunched, but in the cracks between replying to “urgent” emails, trading gossip with your neighbour and attending a string of impromptu meetings, there’s just no time.

5. Learn to switch off
Being able to forget about work after hours is good for you. So-called “psychological detachment” from the office has been associated with less fatigue, more positive mood and fewer days off work. If that’s true, though, why do so many people keep a BlackBerry or a cellphone in their pocket?

6. Modern stress-busting
Even with the perfect office, great colleagues and a harmonious home life, the demands of work can cause stress. Some people try yoga, deep breathing or lunchtime walks. But what if you need something a little more powerful to alleviate your angst?

You’re never more relaxed than when you’re asleep, and a nap may soon be as easy to buy as a haircut. In New York, for instance, MetroNaps will sell you 15 minutes of shut-eye for just $14. You can tuck yourself into a “pod” and doze until a gentle shaking and raising of the lights rouses you.