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How I stay calm, by people with very stressful jobs
- visakanv 13y agoTL;DR: Football manager: Be careful about your information diet. Stop bringing everything home. And... alcohol? =\ Headteacher: Policy of being calm and non-confrontational. (But how?) Runs, which is therapeutic. Spends 5 minutes reflecting every day. Concilator (?): Represent the best side of both sides of the conflict. Seek common ground. If there's anger in the room, it's not me: "people are angry because they're not in control. I'm in control." Also, gardening. Diver: 1 month work, 2 months off. Watches Game of Thrones and Breaking Bad. Swims and surfs on his time off. TV Guest Booker: Be organized, treat it like a game. Always another show tomorrow, don't get too precious about it. A&E consultant: Yikes, his life is the toughest. Have people around you who can share the burden. Focus on what you love, rather than the burden. Changed hospital to something that's a 12 minute walk away, allowing him to play with his son more. Cites it as hugely beneficial.
- Einstalbert 13y agoAh yes, the Diver philosophy. Let me get right on that. Anyone else want to work a fourth of the year?
- joezydeco 13y ago"A CDC report in 1998 estimated that the occupational fatality rate for commercial divers was forty times the national average for all workers, at an annual rate of 180 deaths per 100,000 employed divers." Yeah, I'll keep the desk job, thanks.
- mseebach 13y ago40 x a very low number is still a very low number.
- walshemj 13y agoAnd you have forgotten the possibility of long term health issues you cant do this sort of work until you are 65. Plus the habit of the choppers servicing the rigs/north see crashing at an alarming rate. Oh and there is the black swan type events like piper alpha.
- lostlogin 13y agoSurprisingly, logging is way more dangerous than that here in NZ. 334 deaths per 100,000. This is a scandal here which is slowing rising to prominence. http://m.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10829833 http://m.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=...
- colanderman 13y agoI'd love to. I'd have so much time for personal projects and otherwise enjoying the life I'm working for.
- PhasmaFelis 13y agoIt sounds great until you get to the part where the 1 month of work is spent living in a 2.5x7m box with 11 other dudes. I'm pretty sure that's smaller than my living room.
- read 13y agoWhat popped out for me was different: - A cool trick by the headteacher is to be available: to be at the school gate at the start and end of every day. - Wisdom by the conciliator: stress is created when people aren't in control. - Diver: reads; and being tired helps restore calm. - TV guest booker: people have their own demons, which have a habit of appearing when they're faced with going on live TV. And then... experience teaches you that taking a philosophical approach is best. - If you were to read only one story, don't miss the A&E consultant's: I'm having conversations with people that they will probably never have with any other human being, and that's a great privilege. There's also a striking parallel in something he said: the stress in A&E is about me not having control. So I think it's important to have a hobby where you do have complete control. If programming is a hobby where you do have complete control, what does it say about the people it attracts?
- Sparkky 13y agoAs a hobby you have complete control, as a professional in a large team, you have very little control. I think that more mirrors why so many people who program professionally get so much satisfaction by hobby projects or taking time off to work on their own project.
- JshWright 13y ago>There's also a striking parallel in something he said: the stress in A&E is about me not having control. So I think it's important to have a hobby where you do have complete control. If programming is a hobby where you do have complete control, what does it say about the people it attracts? I'm a firefighter/paramedic. He's exactly right that the most stress you'll ever feel is taking care of a critically ill or injured person and feeling like you're "behind" the call. I'm also a full time developer (and part-time sysadmin). The two disciplines have a lot more in common than you might think. Debugging is debugging, it's just that the stakes are a bit higher in the back of the rig. Financial reality means I get paid to use vim and save lives for free (well, less than free, I paid ~$6k in tuition to get my paramedic certification). I love my day job (I work for Silent Circle with some of the coolest and smartest people I've ever met), but I do hope that someday I get to flip which skill I get paid for full-time.
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- gaius 13y agoSaturation diver: risk of death A&E doctor: risk of someone else's death TV booker: risk of a guest not showing up Doesn't really compare, does it?
- route66 13y agoNot from an outside view I would say. But when we are talking about the subjective perception of stress, it might as well be that the stress as perceived by the diver or the A&E consultant is not proportionally higher.
- visakanv 13y agoYeah, it's morbid-funny to take the TV booker's advice and apply it to the diver and doctor. "Don't get too precious about it."
- walshemj 13y agoDoctors and other medical professionals are known for having a morbid sense of humor - for example some of the humor in MASH.
- ZirconCode 13y agohttp://psychcentral.com/news/2012/06/13/minor-stressful-events-can-cause-major-emotional-reactions/40060.html http://psychcentral.com/news/2012/06/13/minor-stressful-even... "mildly stressful situations can affect our perceptions in the same way as life-threatening ones" The article is a bit foggy, but I think it gets the point across.
- nnq 13y agoIt does compare. People have a MIN and a MAX level of stress, and unfortunately they usually calibrate these to the most stressful situation they usually encounter: the TV booker will feel the same level of stress when a guest is not showing up that the diver feels when he knows something went wrong and he's probably going to die. The key is realizing that unfortunately this is your natural tendency, to set you MAX to the most stressful situation you usually encounter and to work against this natural tendency: just image how much worse things could actually be, think that you or your loved one or your children could die or be severely mutilated and incapacitated for life today in a mundane car accident that will not even reach the news. Go even further next: meditate a bit on how big the world is and how many horrible things are in that could really hurt you and the ones you love, and then go even further, think about how big and dangerous the universe is and how small and powerless you are and how many cosmical catastrophes could negate our civilization's entire existence. This will make you feel worse, but it will help you calibrate your MAX to a more appropriate level and help you a enjoy a stress-free life. Next time you feel stressed to death, try googling some accidents stats, some deaths from cancers stats and maybe some violent crime stats (if you're in the USA). Then meditate a bit on the scale of things: ( this might help: http://htwins.net/scale2/ http://htwins.net/scale2/ ), and trust me, it will really do you good! ...unfortunately the article misses this advice entirely.
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- papaf 13y agoA short 7 minute documentary that shows saturation diving: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcSduoKj6KU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcSduoKj6KU
- joelanman 13y agocompletely fascinating - another one here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3BWSMrgi3I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3BWSMrgi3I
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- nickthemagicman 13y agoIt looks a lot like being an astronaut, except instead of PhDs from MIT running the show, you have Bob from South Philly whose favorite food is a cheeseburger with donuts for a bun.
- JshWright 13y agoI wouldn't be surprised if Bob has an easier time making the right call without second-guessing himself when things go sideways. In the case of activities like saturation diving (or in my case, firefighting), experience matters a hell of a lot more than all the PhDs in the world. After hundreds of dives (be it in smoke or water) you've seen just about everything that can go wrong, and you're in a much better position to break the chain of events leading up to a disaster.
- rquantz 13y agoDo you think astronauts (or people making decisions on the ground) have a tendency to make the wrong call when things go sideways? They train exhaustively for just about any possible emergency, and if they can't train the panic out of you, you do not go to space. You can argue about the hubris involved in the Columbia or Challenger disasters, but in the heat of the moment, I would trust the person who has trained their entire life and was selected from a pool of thousands for their supreme skills, talent, and temperament. These are not nervous nelly academics we're talking about here.
- chris_wot 13y agoI would not be drinking to de-stress, as per the football manager.
- walshemj 13y agoYes but this is the UK where having a pint at lunch doesn't mean your a full fledged alcoholic. I remember a course at be where the course leader also did the "dealing with staff with serious problems course" he commented it was the ones with a couple of vodka bottle hidden at work when you know they had a real problem.
- icantthinkofone 13y agoI own some fast food restaurants and, for a short time, managed them directly, hands-on. During rushes, especially when shorthanded, you feel you are being crushed by disappointed customers filing in the door, and there's nothing you can do to make things better at that moment. When I realized that, I also found my answer. I can't make things better so I will only concentrate on what is in front of me and do the best I can; and the rush will end soon. Everything I do, I do with personal pride, so when things go bad, it hits home. I also realized that most things aren't running as bad as you think they are cause you know how things are supposed to work but your customer only sees the result of your efforts. When doing rote things under pressure, it helps to hum random notes.
- coherentpony 13y ago> I have been known to find the answer in the bottom of a pint pot. Spoken like a true Englishman.
- GigabyteCoin 13y agoWhen I began reading about the football coach Chris Wilder who is almost dead-last in his league and totally calm about it... I immediately thought of Bob Knight. Best known as the head coach of the Indiana Hoosiers basketball team from 1971-2000. He retired as the winningest NCAA Division I mens coach of all time. The NCAA Div I mens basketball league is arguably one of the most difficult to maneuver and most diverse sports leagues in the entire world. He was certainly not known for being "calm" [0]. All I'm saying is that "being calm has it's place". Perhaps Chris Wilder could be wildly successful on the football pitch if he left his calm demeanor at the door? [0] http://youtu.be/7Qxu5cvW-ds?t=1m20s http://youtu.be/7Qxu5cvW-ds?t=1m20s
- DaleHarries 13y agoThis is a very moot article. I would like to see how a CEO who wakes at 4am, goes to bed at 11pm copes with the stress of life.
- rquantz 13y agoBy deteriorating physically, mentally, and socially.
- becauseGoogle 13y agoThe diver is the only one with any claim to honest stress, among these particular examples. Catastrophic decompression is not to be trifled with.