Who's The Boss?

Ms. Stress-y Pants

For Ms. Stress-y Pants, everything is a major ordeal: filling out her timesheet, planning a meeting, deciding which restaurant to order lunch from—you name it. Though you can't control her actions, you can control your reactions, says human resources expert Cy Wakeman, author of Reality-Based Leadership. Ask her calmly whether you can help. If she's too flustered to accept your assistance, then try to explain that she's making the situation seem more stressful than it is. Wakeman recommends asking her if she can just give you the facts about the situation. Hopefully she'll start to see that the reality of what's going on isn't as bad as she's making it out to be. But if it seems like you can't add immediate value to her problem-solving or that she might boil over any minute, then simply walk away and move on with your day.

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