Today My Mood Is:

Lately, I've noticed an abundance of signs hanging around desks at work that say "Today my mood is:" ...and then there are a bunch of cartoon faces or sayings with a variety of expressions, and a movable frame that allows you to showcase your mood for the day. Maybe these little signs have been lurking around the office for years but I've just recently taken note, and it seriously seems like there's been a hatching.

I've also noticed that an overwhelming majority of people who have this sign hanging around their workspace also have the frame displaying their mood as "STRESSED!!"

For example, the person who sits outside my office proclaims on her cartoon face that she is "stressed." I know, for a fact, that she spends an hour in the morning eating breakfast, an hour ordering lunch for everyone in her department, she takes another hour at her desk to eat lunch and invites 3 others to squeeze into the cube with her, lots of time in the bathroom in the afternoon -- no surprise (btw, she announces she's going there ... that's how I know), then she spends time in the afternoon cooking popcorn for herself and sharing it with others (and it smells, by the way). My guess is, she doesn't have stress -- she has indigestion. If she's stressed it's over being "found out" that she doesn't do any work ... it can't possibly be her job that she isn't doing that's causing her stress.

Why is it so hard for people to say they are busy and still admit that they like their job? I'm not saying there's no such thing as job stress, but a little pressure and a required sense of urgency shouldn't be driving everyone, en masse, to the rooftops. I wonder if it's really true that sooo many people are completely stressed by their job, where they spend 40plus hours a week? I'd love to conduct a little experiment -- how much of this stress could be alleviated by approaching the day with a different attitude? You know, "busy" and "intense" don't have to be bad or stressful ... they are challenges, an exercise for the brain. Sometimes I think people have a strange addiction to feeling stressed at work, like it makes us feel our contributions are huge and we're always pushing ourselves to our greatest capacity.

I am going to challenge the notion of the chronically stressed workforce and say we probably manufacture most of our own stress. Furthermore, with a different attitude I think most would be better equipped to handle busy-ness and long "to do" lists. I mean, what's good about constantly feeling like you're living and working under some sort of duress ... so put upon you must express yourself through a scraggly cartoon face hanging on the wall? I also hear it in conversation: "How's it going today" Response .. "ughhhhhh." How about "busy, but not bad?" Personally, I think all of this outpouring of "stress" is really unhealthy and nothing more than a swamp of negativity.

Let's face it folks, work is ... well, work. We get paid to do it, maybe not as much as we like or as much as we think we should, but we're all at our jobs by choice. Maybe it's not an attractive choice to be somewhere (or nowhere) else, but we are there by choice. We can choose to leave or we can choose to find another job. Staying is also a choice. Complaining is also a choice. Why not suck it up .... don't just be a martyr and tryyyyyy to make the best of it, but try to truly enjoy it. If you can't, maybe you need to choose something else. This whole schtick of always being completely frazzled is really exhausting and unbecoming. And it's infectious, like a cancer. It's a big fun-sucker.

Am I weird for saying I actually like my job? In my opinion, my job is hard (brain taxing, not physically taxing), it's always busy, I have a lot of responsibility, and I have to travel sometimes when I don't want to. But truth be told, I wouldn't have it any other way. I don't need a passive aggressive cartoon to hang on my wall to elicit sympathy from others ... others who will comiserate endlessly with woeful tales of "how bad things are."

We don't have it bad. Sick, dying, homeless, poor people have it bad. People with mental illnesses have it bad. People in crisis have it bad. But having to show up and work somewhere everyday shouldn't automatically send us all to the brink of a nervous breakdown.

So if you've got one of those little doodads hanging in your workspace, check out where your frame is hanging and consider that you may actually be something other than stressed ... and if you are, keep it to yourself. Better yet, come up with a plan to get un-stressed. Next time somebody asks you "how it's going", consider some positive response ... something other than "ughhhh " or "I'm stressed" or "terrible." You, my friend, could be Mr. or Miz. Sunshine around the office ... and I say that is much better than being a frazzled out cartoon face who spreads misery.

OK, now you can tell me to go fug myself if you want, but you can't rattle me ... my cartoon face is wearing a smile.