The signs are unmistakable. He’s sitting in the corner of Tully’s, tie askew, hair all over the place and an ashtray full of half smoked cigarettes on the table in front of him. It looks like he has been up all night working but I know it’s not the case, because at the same time each day, he drags himself out of the coffee shop to the office building across the street for the start of another day. I see him so often I have even come up with a name for him, “stress-man.” He is just waiting for stress to happen.
Just thinking about what he must be going through to look like he does in the early morning hours of each day made me think of the first time I met Taishi three months ago. He was typical of the overworked, hard drinking salaryman. He was only 33 years old and had been on the same “panic” train, as he called it, for the past eight years. He had to go out drinking at least 3-4 times a week with demanding customers, worked with the same boss and colleagues doing the same monotonous job everyday.

Little things were beginning to set him off, the odd shove by another passenger on the “panic” train, continuous complaints over minor issues from his customers and a lack of enthusiasm and team effort from his work colleagues.

He began to worry constantly about all the small things going on in his life, he found himself shoving back when on the “panic” train, he ignored customer complaints and showed his colleagues the same lack of team spirit he received from them, resulting in a poor work performance review.

I gave Taishi some very simple advice which I call “Basic Techniques in Analyzing Worry.”

Get all the facts – Write down exactly what it is you are worrying about. Simply by writing it all down will help you to look at your problems differently.
Analyze the facts – Think about the possible responses or solutions to each of the facts.  And don’t forget to think about ramifications of each option. Write them down as well.
Arrive at a decision – Decide on what would be the best possible solution and action. Weigh your options and chose a direction.
Act on the decision – Begin to immediately act on your decisions. This will give you control of all your stressful situations. You will find it amazing how your built-up stress will begin to slip away when you simply begin moving in a new direction, and importantly, a direction you set for yourself.

As a result of analyzing his stress, the first thing Taishi did was to leave his job. This move brought on even more stress in the short term but with a clear direction in sight and a strong determination to make a change for the better, Taishi is now working in a job he thoroughly enjoys, closer to home and at a company with a well defined work-life balance policy in place.

As I watched “stress-man” shuffle off to work, I thought that sometimes we can worry ourselves sick over something and it will end up being fine, sometimes not. Many times we just need to make a firm decision about something and then let it go. Here are a few more strategies that are worth putting into practice as a means to relieve workplace stress and worry.

Live in “day-tight compartments.“ If you feel overwhelmed by pressure and anxiety, take it easy. Live life one minute at a time. Deal with each situation as it arises and try not to dwell extensively about tomorrow. The main thing is to get through the moment.

Cooperate with the inevitable. Face the truth. It is amazing how quickly we can accept almost any situation – if we have to – and adjust ourselves to it and forget about it. Throughout life, we are going to come across a lot of tough situations where there is absolutely nothing we can do about it. We have a choice; that is, either accept them as inevitable and adjust ourselves accordingly or we can try fighting against what nature has thrown our way and end up stressed out as a result.
Don’t try to saw sawdust. A guest speaker at a college graduating class asked: “How many of you have ever sawed wood? Let’s see your hands.” Most of them had. Then he inquired: “How many of you have ever sawed sawdust?” No hands went up. “Of course, you can’t saw sawdust!” the guest speaker exclaimed. “It’s already sawed. And it’s the same with the past. When you start worrying about things that are over and done with, you are merely trying to saw sawdust.”

Latest 15 of 24 Total Comments Show All

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  DeepAir65 at 10:08 PM JST - 14th May

  what causes me stress is this new web site - I can't go back and edit my previous post!!!! Only the first two words should have been a quote the rest was me...

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  Easy50 at 11:18 PM JST - 14th May

  "Stress" is kind of relative, dont you think? I mean, look at the stress a NY City or Philadelphia cop faces every day. Maybe a different kind of stress, but this article seems to focus on some really mundane examples of "stress." And what's with the 3-4 times a week dinking thing? That would pickle the liver and hurt you a lot faster than the "stress" of working a boring job.

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  kawabe3 at 03:20 AM JST - 15th May

  I started reading this article, knowing what's coming. As I expected, there was nothing particularly surprising in the article, yet it was very refleshing for sure.

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  outofmydepth at 08:21 AM JST - 15th May

  as can be seen by the breakdown of families, school classrooms and just the general physical/mental health of the Japanese - what is needed here is face-time with family and friends. i do not count going drinking, playing golf, dipping in a hot spring with workmates as any kind of relaxation. hey you guys and gals who think you need to be on the job 24-7 - your families NEED you and there would be a whole lot less stress if you just read a book to, played catchball with or even a video game with your family.

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  papasmurfinjapan at 09:29 AM JST - 15th May

  tkoind2 sums up my thoughts on this matter well.

  Now I run the risk of getting too personal here, but I was recently "forced to resign" (verbally abused and harrassed by the boss until I agreed to quit) by the company I have worked for for 8 years. My crime? - "Not doing enough overtime".

  When the boss demanded I work more overtime like my dedicated (yet frightfully inefficient) Japanese collegues, I replied that I had child-rearing responsibilities in the evening and will go home to spend time with my family when I don't have urgent work that needs to be finished that evening. He didn't my upsetting of the company "wa" too well.

  Where overtime is compulsory, paid-vacation a luxury afforded to very few, and "work-life balance" really means "work is your life", there is little wonder that everyone is on the edge. The sad thing is, most people are too busy working to sit down and actually contemplate how crazy this whole system is. They learn freedom as university students, then are brainwashed into this misguided, destructive corporate culture where company comes before family, from which most never escape. Taishi here is one of the few lucky ones.

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  tkoind2 at 09:31 AM JST - 15th May

  Easy50. Stress is stress. And you are right is is subjective. But for a working guy here who thinks his world depends upon his job, stress is as life and death for him as it is for the Phili cop. Everyone experiences his or her world as the center of what they understand. His stress is as real and soul consuming as a soldier in Iraq, a cop in NY or someone in Myanmar. Even if from the outside it may look trivial to another person. Psychology just doesn't work on a relativistic footing.

  And yes there are laws. But laws are pointless if they are not backed with real world consequences for violating them. The worker who pushes back does get replaced and has no recourse. If he or she did have solid recourse, they would not be replaced. My point is that we need to have laws that protect worker's rights and have very sharp teeth to bite companies who ignore or violate them. Like France. Just because we are not there today, does not mean we cannot be there some other day. It just takes having normal working class people to demand it and votes and pressure on the government to make it happen.

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  DeepAir65 at 09:50 AM JST - 15th May

  My point is that we need to have laws that protect worker's rights and have very sharp teeth to bite companies who ignore or violate them. Like France

  Probably not like France as they are finally realising that the 28 hour working week is making them uncompetative

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  electric2004 at 12:49 PM JST - 15th May

  GW:

  Stress versus holidays. At the place in Japan where I work:

  20 holidays per year plus 7 days summer holiday plus 5 days winter holiday. In total 32 days.

  Before I had worked in Germany (the example you gave). There I had "only" 30 days of holiday per year. Funny, isn't it? And in Germany, most overtime was unpaid, here in Japan, it is paid.

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  papasmurfinjapan at 01:49 PM JST - 15th May

  20 holidays per year plus 7 days summer holiday plus 5 days winter holiday. In total 32 days.

  I think that is the exception, not the norm, especially for small-medium sized businesses that employ the a fair chunk of Japan's workforce and who do whatever they damn well please because they know no-one is going to step up and fight for worker rights.

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  lou3993 at 03:21 PM JST - 15th May

  Easy50, True the notion of "stress" is relevant. Different jobs create different types of stress and people are all unique in their stress tolerance levels. But I think the mundane types of stress are the worst kind as they lead to depression and lack of real time productivity. This is slowly changing but the Japanese have the culture of "a job for life" this again is just another avalanche in the road to low productivity and depression for the basic salary man.

  The drinking parties or Nomikai culture is deeply embedded in the idea of a good salary man. If you don`t go you get a reputation as unsociable. If you do go it is customary to always have the first Kanpai with a beer.

  On the holiday thing, tkoind2 has hit the nail on the head with holidays in Japanese companies. We get enough, but actually using them is a whole different ball game. One of the first things I was told that for promotion purposes the company looks at how many holidays have been taken in the past. (very logical...NOT)

  The OT thing is ridiculous but unless workers laws are implemented by some sort of higher power than just the company then there is no hope of change. But as we are so fondly told, if you want to get ahead and stand out you have to make work the priority. If that means staying until 11pm at night and starting at 8am then do it!!

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  Sarge at 03:35 PM JST - 15th May

  Heck, all you need to do to deal with stress in the office or anywhere else is to indulge in a McDonald's Matcha-Oreo Cookie McFlurry!

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  rjdsr at 10:17 PM JST - 15th May

  You can't have night without day. we hear so much talk of "gambaro" and "suck it up" because workers in Japan simply do more complaining about their situations than anywhere else in the world. I've worked all over the world and never heard so much constant complaining from workers who aren't really doing much of anything to begin with and often don't get clear expectations from their bosses. Mix that with an unwillingness to take proactive problem solving approaches and that's what we keep hearing "gambaro"

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  capone at 04:32 PM JST - 16th May

  buncha crybabies in japan...just go to work, be PRODUCTIVE FOR A CHANGE, and then go home...make your own 'life-work balance' (a lame phrase if ever there was one) because you know the company won't

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  KitsuneYoukai at 03:57 PM JST - 17th May

  More balancing life/work policies in Japanese industry will do everyone a great deal of service. Also, not being forced to or made to feel like they "have to" go out however many times a week to drink all night with colleagues; will help as well. Theres stress in that to when you want to go home relax or spend time with family or just do nothing but instead you are pressured to go drinking. That would drive me crazy since I value my alone time when I want it. There are many countries that have more vacation and time off than I've ever known. The other hardest working culture is the US. I know many foreigners that work at the company I work for that say we do not get enough time off and they are not used to that. All we do is work. When they talk about what they are used to I'm in awe.

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  fingerless at 06:05 PM JST - 20th May

  I think what jobs in Japan lack more than anywhere else in the world is a sense of responsibility. Most people in the west motivate themselves for their jobs because they believe that what they are doing is the best way to get the result they aim for. In Japan it usually comes down to completing a task that someone else set for you which is not very motivating and thus stressful.

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