HBR Special IssueDA
N^ H
ER
RIC
K/
GE
TT
Y^ I
MA
GE
S
inhabit an increasingly zigzag
world, the best curve you
can throw the competition is
your ability to leap from one
learning curve to the next.This article was cowritten
with Juan Carlos Méndez-
García, managing director of
8020world. Born in Colombia,
he has lived and worked in Asia,
Europe, and the United States.
Méndez-García holds an MBA
from MIT Sloan School of Man-
agement, a master’s in systems
engineering, and a bachelor’s in
electrical engineering.
Originally published on HBR.org
September 3, 2012
HBR Reprint H009BJWhitney Johnson is one of
50 leading business thinkers
in the world, as named by
Thinkers50, and an expert at
helping high-growth orga-
nizations build high-growth
individuals. She is the author
of the award-winning Disrupt
Yourself: Putting the Power
of Disruptive Innovation to
Work (Bibliomotion, 2015) and
Build an A-Team: Play to Their
Strengths and Lead Them Up
the Learning Curve (Harvard
Business Review Press, 2018),
and host of the weekly Disrupt
Yourself podcast.STRESSED. ANXIOUS. Ex-
hausted. Drained. This is how
many employees feel at work
due to stressors like longer
work hours, more-frequent
hassles, the need to do more
with fewer resources, and
so on. Such work stress has
been shown to induce anxiety
and anger, unethical behav-
ior, poor decision making,
and chronic exhaustion and
burnout—which all impair
personal and organizational
performance.Typically people try to
deal with this stress in two
ways. One is to simply buckle
down and power through—to
focus on getting the stress-
ful work done. Professional
workers often have a bias
for action and want to fi nd a
solution quickly. They pride
themselves on being tough
people who can keep working
despite feeling stressed and
fatigued.
The other common tactic
is to retreat—to temporarilydisconnect from work and
get away from the stressful
environment. Research on
workday breaks has grown
rapidly in the past few years,
fi nding that relaxing and
engaging breaks can improve
emotions and boost energy at
work. This helps explain why
so-called relaxation facilities,
such as nap rooms, workout
centers, and entertainment
zones, are becoming popu-
lar off erings at companies
in knowledge-intensive
industries.
Unfortunately, both
grinding through and getting
away have potential pitfalls.
Research has long established
that we humans have limits
in handling heavy workloads,
which restrict our ability
to always grind through.
Continuing to exert eff ort
while stressed and fatigued
will simply tax us and lead
to depletion and impaired
performance. And while a re-
prieve from work can provide
temporary relief, it does not
address the underlying prob-
lems that cause stress in the
fi rst place. When we return
from a break, we not only face
the same issues but may also
experience additional guilt
and anxiety.
So what else can em-
ployees do to temper the ill
eff ects of stress? Our research
suggests a third option:
focusing on learning. This can- To Cope with
Stress, Try Learning
Something New
→ by CHEN ZHANG, CHRISTOPHER G. MYERS,
and DAVID M. MAYERHOW TO LEARN
QUICK TAKES