A Simple Tool for Matching Stress to the Size of the Problem
Is your angry client a glitch or a catastrophe? Here's a tool to help you tell
Welcome to The Psychology of Thriving at Work! This publication is dedicated to enhancing your career well-being and satisfaction with science-based tips and career coaching tools. The gal behind the pen is Lydia Fogo Johnson, MS, ACC, a holistic career coach, organizational psychology consultant, neurospicy mom, and matrescence expert. Subscribe for free to receive articles in your inbox, or upgrade for premium benefits.
I’m betting you’ve done incredibly hard things that take incredible willpower, self-control, dedication, effort, planning, grit, and energy. You’ve climbed the corporate ladder, cultivated multiple deep relationships, and maybe you’ve even successfully wrestled screaming toddlers into car seats.
But, friend, in our high-stress world, sometimes it’s easy to forget that not everything is an incredibly hard thing. That makes sense! You’re so used to fighting 100 fires at work and home that sometimes everything feels like an equally giant, world-ending fire.
Luckily, there’s a handy tool that can help us regain our sanity and perspective: The Catastrophe Scale. The best part? It was made for kids… so it’ll help you and your kids!
How the Catastrophe Scale Works
There are many different versions, but the one I’m familiar with comes from the internet’s favorite pre-k teacher, @iam.mrluke:
(The amazing Mr. Luke himself. Go check out his TikTok & Instagram!)
His scale has 5 categories, from least worrisome to worst: Glitch, little problem, medium problem, big problem, and catastrophe.
Glitches are just little bumps in your day— things you can solve by yourself or shrug off after a bit of time has passed.
In contrast, catastrophes are giant, life and health-threatening or altering events—hopefully, you’ve never experienced one at work!
That angry client? It's probably just a small to medium problem—something you have to take action and solve, but not threatening or a true emergency (despite their vocal opinion otherwise).
So simple, but so helpful, right?
(If you like this, you can read an article about using this with kids… or you… here)
Your Quick Tip Tuesday Homework
For the next week, practice labeling every problem that comes your way into the above categories. Also, rate your stress level on a scale of 1-10. You might consider making a morning phone alert to remind you and keeping a log in a journal or favorite note app.
Bonus: In addition to tracking the scale of the problem, practice labeling whose problem it is. Is it your problem or someone elses problem? You can choose to care or support someone elses problem… but it is helpful to remember it is theirs, not yours. You’re just lending a helping hand!
The goal? To raise awareness of how stress levels fluctuate throughout the day, what problems trigger the most stress, and whether there are any situations in which we can dial down our stress because it turns out it’s just a little glitch we were treating as a big problem!
Give it a try, and let me know how it goes.
👋Nice to meet you; I’m Lydia Fogo Johnson, MS. I’m a holistic career and burnout coach helping women and moms design fulfilling, sustainable careers so they can thrive at work and home. On Substack, my writing focuses on career fulfillment, workplace well-being, mental health, stress/burnout recovery and prevention, work/life balance, working while mothering, and career pivots.
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I really love this scale idea. Thanks for the references. When I was overwhelmed as a working mom, I used to take a deep breath and say to myself, “no one is coding, no one is dying, no one is bleeding profusely” Isn’t that really sick? But it worked for me. Sort of a catastrophe scale.
Great resource! Thank you for sharing.