The woman sitting at the desk opposite me is so stressed, all the time, it's incredible.

[Spidermama]

She sits there huffing and puffing and saying really incredibly stressed out things ALL THE TIME.
I'm freelance so not here that often, thank God, but I don't know how the others stand it.

At first I felt sorry for her and engaged in her rants and tried to calm her. Now I've noticed it's a permenant state she's in, I'm just amazed anyone can be that stressed all the time and still be alive.

I want to go home.

[juneybean]

She's not called Ruth is she! LOL we had a woman like this where we work, it was very demoralising for everyone in the office

[motherinferior]

Be very supportive and suggest solutions. I used to work with someone like this. It was the most passive-aggressive effective way of shutting her up.

"Oh, I have so much to do, yet all this annual leave stacking up.."

"Well, X, why don't you book a block of two weeks off in about four months' time, so you can plan properly for it?"

Clearly the wrong response - she wanted me to sympathise with her martyrdom, not suggest ways out of it .

[Spidermama]

Good plan MI.

[mynameisruth]

Oh feck that's not me is it

[RhinestoneCowgirl]

I had to work with someone like that on a project - blardy irritating. All she wanted to do was sit and moan over coffee about how busy and stressed she was.

[RhinestoneCowgirl]

I had to work with someone like that on a project - blardy irritating. All she wanted to do was sit and moan over coffee about how busy and stressed she was.

[RhinestoneCowgirl]

oops - not so irritating that I had to post twice obv...

[Spidermama]

Yes that's what this woman does. Moans about her workload and how put upon she is. The thing is she's been in a state of high sttess about it for years so everyone has completely lost any sympathy so she pitches the moaning higher, throws in the odd amazing tantrum and some tears in order to try to get attention.

You see people shrinking behind their screens. It's almost like a form of bullying. People don't know how to handle her.

[Ihavelayers]

My sister is like this it gets me down a lot.
She inflicts her mood on everyone else and makes her own little problems everyone else's .
Does my head in so I feel for you .

[Ihavelayers]

My sister is like this it gets me down a lot.
She inflicts her mood on everyone else and makes her own little problems everyone else's .
Does my head in so I feel for you .

[Ripeberry]

Sounds like my Mum.
When i was younger, i could only have a good day if my Mum was in a good mood.
If she saw me being happy she would shout or say something nasty to bring me down to earth.
One evening when i was 17yrs old, i had a ride on my moped and came in quite happy and she accused me of being on drugs!
Now i understand why she was like that, it had to do with her Manic Depression.
But all my like my Mum's moods governed my life and now due to medication and dementia she has NO emotions at all.
Maybe the OP should get her colleague a stress ball and if that fails get a tin for her with a label saying "10p for each sigh and 20p for each moan", that should stop her

[cyteen]

IME people who moan all the time about how stressed they are and how much work they've got on would have much less work on if they just shut the fuck up for a few hours and got on with it.

[Spidermama]

Aw ripeberry. It sounds like you might benefit from a peak at the 'We took you to Stately Homes' threads, if you haven't already.

[Ripeberry]

Its OK spidermama, it just means that i empathise a bit too much with other people and get really upset when there is bad news on TV or anything like that.
In a way i'm glad my Mum does not have any emotions anymore as it's taken a lot of pressure off me.