It's Hip to Be Stressed

"It's chic to be stressed," says Leslie Reisner, a Los Angeles psychologist and corporate trainer specializing in stress. "Not only do many of us want the stress in our lives, we want more stress than the next guy. It's the new way of keeping up with the Joneses."

You know the script. If you mention you worked until 10 p.m., your co-worker ups the ante to 10:30. If you are up to your neck in e-mail, she's up to her eyeballs. If you are tied in knots, someone else's knots are bigger, tighter, knottier.

The rat race has a new finish line. It's not who gets there first, but who's the most hassled along the way.

Tyler Hill, a 30-year-old graphic designer for a Seattle dotcom, recently overheard such a duel in the cafeteria at work. "One guy was telling this other guy that he was about to go on vacation, and how it had been a while since he'd taken one. And the other guy says: 'Well, I've been here four years and I've been so incredibly busy I've never been able to take a vacation.'"