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May 2021
30m 31s

The Essentials: Dealing with Stress

Harvard Business Review
About this episode

Stress affects everyone, but we all express and experience it differently. Hearing how a nurse practitioner responds to the various stressors of her job reveals how stress works at a fundamental level. Workplace well-being researcher Mandy O’Neill says that we’re more likely to feel stressed when there is an imbalance between the threat we’re facing and the resources we have to prevent damage or danger. When the current threat feels greater than our available resources, we become — understandably — mentally and emotionally strained.

The two of them join Amy B to discuss the constant challenge of managing stress, as well as actions that help control tension and anxiety — or, even better, the stressors themselves.

Guests:

Sarah Rose Lamport is a nurse practitioner.

Olivia (Mandy) O’Neill is an associate professor of management in the George Mason University School of Business and a senior scientist at the university’s Center for the Advancement of Well-Being.

Resources:

Sign up for the Women at Work newsletter.

Email us: womenatwork@hbr.org

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