Personal Stress Solutions: Case Studies: Ben's Dog

Personal Stress Solutions: Case Studies: Ben's Dog

Stock jumps after company president resolves personal stress

Ben’s company wasn’t doing well. Productivity was down, profits were off, and stock prices were sliding downhill. As is often the case, it all began in the executive suite with Ben and his board of directors. Ben was known for his temper throughout the company. His tantrums filtered down to the lowest levels of management and could set the company tone for several days following. It wasn’t a nice place to work. Key employees were leaving, and those left behind were looking for a way out.

His temper was costing Ben in other areas, too. Things weren’t going well with the family and his blood pressure was dangerously high. His physician thought Ben needed to get stress under control and referred him to Stress Directions’ services. Ben would have no part of it. Until the night his dog bit him.

Here’s what happened. Ben’s BIG problem was traffic. He lived outside the city in an exclusive suburb, worked downtown, drove to work every morning, and drove home every night. When he left home in the morning, he was generally in good spirits and felt fine. By the time he had driven a mile from home, he would enter the congested stream of traffic that would have him chafing at delays and cursing and screaming at his fellow commuters for the next hour. By the time he walked in the front door at work, usually after finding someone parked in his spot, he could be a wildman. Everyone ran for cover.

People stayed out of his way and no one questioned his decisions even when they were dead wrong. As the day wore on, Ben’s mood would improve, people would quit creeping around, and sometimes a little productive work would get accomplished. At the end of the day, however, Ben would be back in the meat grinder of commuter traffic with those same @#$%^&*! Idiots he fought on his way in to work. By the time he’d get home, he’d be as bad as when he arrived at the office that morning.

That’s what happened the night his dog bit him. His black Lab, Bing, bounced out to meet him when he pulled into the driveway. Ben, short-tempered as usual, "nudged" him out of the way with the side of his foot. Bing, taking a cue from his master, nipped Ben and tore his pant leg. Ben’s wife and children further infuriated Ben by cheering Bing for having saved the household from "Godzilla." Then he started laughing as he got a glimpse of himself as the "terrible tempered Mister Bang."

The Stress Navigator Workshop helped Ben to see the areas of stress in his life and gave him suggestions on how to deal with them more effectively. His counselor and he worked out the specifics about what Ben could do to get those damaging stress levels down to manageable proportions.

He was able to get on top of the lion’s share of his stress simply by changing his schedule to miss the rush hour traffic by coming in to work and going home an hour later. He and his counselor mopped up the smaller bits and pieces that were causing stress in his life.

A year later, he saw measurable results: his company got back on track, their stock took a big jump, and Ben’s blood pressure had dropped to a healthier level. Eventually, he was able to discontinue his antihypertensive medication and was able to reverse his company’s downward slide started by his reactions to the stress in his life.

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