Second-hand stress has become a commonly recognized issue in the workplace and life in general (with an interesting parallel with second-hand smoke). Many papers are written on the subject even in the Harvard Business Review (‘Make Yourself Immune to Secondhand Stress‘).
Emotional contagion in the workplace results in the dissemination of stress in the office: “if someone in your visual field is anxious and highly expressive — either verbally or non-verbally — there’s a high likelihood you’ll experience those emotions as well, negatively impacting your brain’s performance“. The HBR paper even goes as far that one can be influenced by sight, sounds and even smell!
The recommendation to fight second-hand stress is simple. It involves quite some self-awareness, and building defenses (counter-acting stress episodes with compensating thoughts and situations, and defending oneself against the spread by resolutely taking some distance from the events at hand).
Be aware about the negative effects of second-hand stress! Build your defense system and minimize the impact of any residual second-hand stress on yourself. Remember, in most cases it’s not worth it!
