Dear Andrea:

My boss is one of the top executives at our company and although I think he's a great guy, he's driving me crazy! He travels back and forth across the country and around the world, from meeting to meeting, from one crisis to another and averages 16 hour work days. He's so stressed, he can't even see it. When I point out to him that this stress is getting to him he says, "I'm tough, I can handle it." He's not handling it because when I see him, he is full of anxiety and demanding and makes mistakes he never used to make. He doesn't sleep and his back hurts him. He says the company needs him to do all these things. He won't listen to me so I told him I was writing you. He agreed to at least hear what you have to say

--Stressed out from Boss

Dear Stressed Out:

Your boss is heading down a dangerous path. He may be a tough guy, but it sounds like he's at a point where he's not helping the company anymore. Instead, he may be performing below par. After a while of being at such high levels of stress, you actually lower your mental acuity and start making mistakes, losing your perspective and doing the things you do well, not very well.

Stress is part of life. Anything that causes change in your routine or your health is stressful. But it sounds as if your boss is overstressed by exhibiting such symptoms as aches and pains, anxiety and problems sleeping.

Pushing your body too hard can contribute to this (working 16-hour days), according to Drs. Steve Burns and Wayne Nickens. "Sooner or later, the energy drain on your system will cause the body to fall behind in its repair work," they say. There won't be enough time or energy for his body to fix broken cells or replace used up brain neurotransmitters and he will "run out of gas." Then permanent damage can occur.

Long distance air travel to different time zones is hard on the body. All of your body rhythms (temperature, stress fighting hormones and sleep cycles) go out of synch with your body clock when you rapidly move to a local time zone more than three to four hours different than what you're accustomed to, the doctors say.

Your boss should avoid this type of travel to give his body time to repair itself. If he insists on flying around the world, he should try to wait at least three weeks between trips.

If he keeps this pace up he won't be any good to the company. For now, I'd urge him to see a physician to get a thorough examination. If he wants to continue to contribute effectively, he needs to change the pace of his job, get more rest and exercise. With his travel schedule, his eating habits probably also need to be cleaned up.

He needs to stop trying to be a tough guy, read the warning signs and reduce his stress load, or he'll eventually pay the price.

Our society already is. The effects of overstress cost our society at least 60 billion dollars a year, the doctors say, through lost productivity, medical care for the complications of overstress, job accidents and traffic fatalities. We are not physically prepared to handle the rapid pace of change that we're experiencing--and will increase. The only solution is to learn to recognize and deal with stress by reducing your obligations, setting boundaries and learning to say "no" more often.

© by Andrea Kay