Are your colleagues pretending to be stressed in order to enhance their reputation at work? 

So-called ‘stress bragging’ is an office trend whereby people tell others just how stressed they are in order to enhance their reputation among colleagues. 

For some, it might seem like little more than an irritating distraction from actual work but HR expert Caroline Reidy said it can have a hugely negative impact on a workplace. 

“I think there’s a little bit of needing to say it so that you can justify how busy and valued you are,” she told Newstalk Breakfast. 

“Everybody’s busy - but maybe it’s just a bit of a reminder to think about, are we setting that franticness in the culture and the environment if we’re overplaying how busy and stressed we are all of the time? 

“A close relation to stress when it overspills is that anxiety that we’re trying to avoid where people then get into that spiral of not sleeping and being totally stressed in an unhealthy way. 

“So, I think there’s a balance that we accept everybody’s busy but maybe not overegging it so that we’re adding to that frantic culture.” 

Stressed woman at desk. Image: Kateryna Onyshchuk / Alamy Stock Photo

Ms Reidy said it is “without doubt” particularly unhelpful if a manager begins to engage in ‘stress bragging’. 

“So, we don’t want this stress piece to be, ‘I’m so busy and I’m so stressed’, so nearly everybody feels, ‘Well if my manager is saying it, my colleagues are saying it, well I need to be stressed and feeling that franticness as well,’” she said.

“We know people perform much better in the cool, calm, collected type of environment where… their workload is manageable etc.”

People arguing in a work setting. Image: Panther Media GmbH / Alamy Stock Photo

For those tempted to engage in ‘stress bragging’, Ms Reidy urged people to resist the temptation if possible. 

“We need to be a lot more mindful of the impact that that has on others,” she said. 

“Particularly newbies coming into the work environment; you’re setting [that tone] of franticness instead of that cool, calm, collected [tone] and encouraging people to be organised and get better at managing that overall time of productivity.”

A recent report by the Stepstone Group, there is a strong link between workplace stress and burnout. 

Main image: Stressed at work. Picture by: Pexels