Dealing with Stress from Work: Rationals

How do you deal with work-related stress? Each personality type has different stressors and copes in different ways. Better understanding of your own stressors and coping mechanisms can help you reduce the tension and anxiety work stress often creates.

Since Rationals search for knowledge, competence, and eternal truths, when these needs are blocked, they become stressed. When Rationals experience great stress, they experience thoughts that tell them either that they must act or think in a particular way or that they must not act or think in a particular way. The outside observer sees the Rational as driven by compulsions or prohibitions.

The Fieldmarshal is driven to lead. They want things to be logical, to be recognized for their accomplishments and to be respected for their visionary ideas. Sometimes they are forced to be harsh with others to accomplish their goals. If their harshness triggers high emotionalism from workers and rumblings of disrespect, they can become hypersensitive to their own feelings and have outbursts of emotion. When high stress is triggered, they can become ritualistic in their behavior in an effort to control both the outside world and their inner emotions. It can help to talk to a trusted person whose counsel can help bring back balance. Also silent support from others along with the resolution of the crisis will restore equilibrium. Says Joan, "I have the entire responsibility for my area's non-profit organization. When contributions shrunk, I had to cut back on some programs. Some people hated me for my decisions. My second-in-command quietly backed me up and asked me why I was brushing my teeth so often. I hadn't realized it. It was as if I wanted to brush my bad words and their bad words away. Now people are used to the cut-backs and the grumbling has mostly stopped -- so has the excessive teeth brushing."

The Mastermind sees situations from their own unique perspective and they enjoy finding new solutions to complex problems. They are driven to implement their ideas whether or not others can see their vision for improvement. If they are given no support, they dig in their heels and work all the harder to achieve their vision. Stress comes when they are forced to deal with too many unexpected events or if they are forced to be too extraverted for too long. The stress manifests itself by obsessive thoughts on external data and feelings of the world being against them. They can recover if they are given time to be alone, get their tasks rebalanced and have time to pursue their visionary solutions. It's best if others do not try to give them advice or suggestions. Says Vince, "I can see ways to make information more accurate with less effort which will greatly benefit the organization. Unfortunately, most people can't see what I see until I actually can give them a working model. Luckily my current boss has faith in my visions and gives me some free reign. He doesn't ask me to account for all of my time and gives me a heads-up when a specific deadline is coming up. This is so much better than my last boss who pressured me all of the time that I became less effective and wanted to withdraw from everyone."

The Inventor is always imagining something new and bounces their ideas off willing listeners. They are usually very positive and often laugh off anything negative. But if excessive negativity comes their way and/or they become physically exhausted, their fluid imagination works overtime and obsesses about problems. They can withdraw and sleep a lot while their mind deals with the issues. In the worst case they can become phobic and lose their friendly social abilities. It's best if they can walk away from their problems for awhile and let their brain rest. Meditation often helps. Quiet support from others for their physical needs can help. Says Nathan, "I'm basically a positive person, but every so often I just crash. I feel exhausted and sleep a lot. I usually come out of it in 2-3 days. When long weekends occur, I don't want a list of chores to do. I need real recovery time. Getting extra rest and doing something playful helps me get back to my normal self."

The Architect prides themselves on their objectivity and ability to impartially analyze and organize thoughts. They enjoy tough critiques that help them to hone the exactitude of their thoughts. What they don't like is strong emotional expression directed at them and being denied the alone time that they need. If this goes on too long, they become highly stressed and may emphasize their logical thinking to the extreme. They become overly sensitive to relationships with others and can lash out emotionally. To achieve their normal state again, they need to be left alone and not asked about their feelings. They also need reduced responsibilities until they recover. Says Tina, "I'm the one they go to when they have a really complex problem that needs solving. Last year I was pressured by my new boss to do too many things and solve too many problems. He even swore at me when I couldn't get results back to him quickly enough. I learned long ago that I can't function under that kind of behavior. So I took two days off and then went to see my old boss who had been promoted. I now report directly to him and have more independence and more peace."

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