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Nearly three-fourths of workers report being stressed out at the job, according to a survey.

 Stressed out at work? Take a number.

Nearly three-fourths (73 percent) of American workers are stressed out by at least one thing at work, according to Everest College’s 2012 Work Stress Survey conducted by Harris Interactive.

You know what gets on people’s last nerve the most?

CNBC.com: America’s most stressful jobs

You guessed it: not getting paid enough. Some 11 percent of those surveyed cited pay as their biggest source of stress, followed by annoying co-workers (10 percent), commuting (9 percent), unreasonable workload (9 percent) and working in a job that isn’t their chosen career (8 percent).

“[A] moderately improving economic landscape and lower unemployment numbers have not yet eased anxiety in the workplace, and Americans are still, more than ever, concerned about their job situation,” said John Swartz, the regional director of career services at Everest College.

Other sources of stress included poor work-life balance (5 percent), lack of opportunity for advancement (5 percent) and the boss (4 percent).

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If you have any questions about whether or not you’re stressed out, here are a few tell-tale signs, according to Psychology Today: You’re less patient and sympathetic listening to other people’s problems, you ask more “closed-end questions” to discourage dialogue, your dedication to exercise, diet, and friendship is waning, you feel trapped, you give people a lot of “Yes, but” answers to their suggestions and — Gasp! This one is the most horrifying to us here at the Pony blog — you’ve lost your sense of humor.

Workplace-advice site Work911.com offers these additional signs: You can achieve a "Runner's High" by sitting up. The sun is too loud. You can see individual air molecules vibrating. TV infomercials entertain you.

Women are definitely more stressed about money than men: 14 percent of women in the work-stress survey cited pay as their top stressor, compared to 8 percent of the men.

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Call it economic optimism, freak-out fatigue or whatever you want, but one of the most fascinating results from the survey is that the fear of losing a job is subsiding. The number of people who cited fear of being fired or laid off as a top source of stress dropped to 4 percent in this year’s survey from 9 percent last year.

You know what really bugs Tesla Martinez, president of the consulting firm Terra Nova Insights?

Talking about how stressed you are!

“Stressing that you’re stressed will only leave you that way,” Martinez said. “Folks who bum-rush their colleagues with naysaying or unload all their challenges versus taking a step back and realizing the grass isn’t always greener. This can drain positive energy levels from their peers and drive colleagues a little loopy!”

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And while we’re at it, it’s also maddening when people talk about how busy they are all the time, said Tony Schor, president of consulting firm Investor Awareness.

“I do not like it when people spend a lot of time talking to co-workers complaining about how they are soooooo busy,” Schor said. “My feeling is if one is soooo busy, then they should not be talking about it and just go do the work required!”

So what about that other 26 percent in the work-stress survey — those people who said nothing at work stresses them out? Who are these magically unstressed people? Surely even the Sugar Plum Fairy finds something stressful about her job.

Not surprisingly, more than a third of those no-stress people (37 percent) were those who had a household income of more than $100,000. More men than women said they had no stress, and there was a direct correlation with age — the older people get, the less stressed they are on the job, Swartz said.

So, the bad news is that we’re getting older. The good news is, you’ll be less stressed about it.

Whatever you do, don’t talk about it. And if the sun gets too loud or you start losing your sense of humor — call for help!

ImageFinder via Forbes.com

More than half of those surveyed said they will be working while on vacation.

A growing number of employers are giving workers paid vacation time these days. The only thing is, many of you don’t understand what vacation is all about.

Vacation means taking time away from work, relaxing and recharging. That means, not working.

Unfortunately, more than half of U.S. workers plan on working during their vacations this year including everything from checking emails to doing actual work tasks.

A poll released this week by software company TeamViewer and conducted by Harris Interactive in May, found that 52 percent of those surveyed will be working while on vacation, up from 46 percent the previous year.

Here’s how the workaholic’s vacation/work schedule breaks down, according to the survey:

• Reading work-related emails – 30 percent
• Receiving work-related phone calls – 23 percent
• Wanting access to a document on my home computer – 19 percent
• Receive work-related text messages – 18 percent
• Wanting access to a document on my work computer – 13 percent
• Being asked to do work by a boss, client or colleague – 13 percent.

The worst gender for this vacation offense are men with 56 percent saying they were more likely to work, compared to 47 percent among women.

And the one group that can’t seem to get a break is single working Americans, who expect to be asked to do work by the boss more often than their married counterparts, 15 percent versus 6 percent.  

For many workers, the decision to keep working through R&R times, is about making sure jobs are secure and going above what’s expected in order to impress employers.

But that can be a recipe for disaster and may ultimately hurt your job performance.

"Rest and renewal ultimately increase our ability to be productive, it is essential to completely unplug when on vacation," said Susan Steinbrecher, a business consultant and author of "KENSHO: A Modern Awakening, Instigating Change in an Era of Global Renewal."

"Most people don’t take renewal seriously," she continued. "I believe our connected, always on, 24/7 society has lost the ability to recharge and renew without distractions. The minute you check an email or voice message while on holiday, you’re likely to get sucked right back in."

Some employers seem to realize the importance of vacation for their workers. The number of employers offering vacation benefits is actually on the rise.

Today, about 94 percent of employers offer paid vacation days to workers. And now, more than half of organizations provide paid time off as part of all-encompassing packages of days off, including vacation days, sick days, etc., compared to 42 percent in 2009, according to a report released in June by the Society for Human Resource Management.

And some firms are actually trying out unlimited vacation policies.

Alas, many workers still aren’t taking their vacation days seriously, or should I say, un-seriously.

"Today’s work environment of intense time pressures and limited resources means we are all required to put in extra effort, energy and time – which can create a lot of stress," Steinbrecher maintained. "This 'do more with less' work ethic means that if we don’t completely disengage when on vacation, we’re not fully recharging or refueling."

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By Kimberly Hayes Taylor
msnbc.com contributor

When our colleagues don’t invite us to lunch, gossip about us, are condescending or otherwise rude to us at work, the impact can be so intense that we take our problems home, affecting our families and partners who in turn may also take the stress to their workplaces, a new Baylor University study reports.

“I didn’t expect to have such strong findings in this study. The research shows if we are treated poorly at work, we see the world as a less bright place and it’s hard to shake it off,” says study author Merideth Ferguson, assistant professor of management and entrepreneurship at the Baylor University Hankamer School of Business whose research was published online in the Journal of Organizational Behavior. “When this happens daily or chronically, it eats away at people’s self-esteem and they are less optimistic about their lives and the future.”

A stressed employee often shares work frustrations with their spouse or partner, and the partner feels desperate to fix it, Ferguson says. But that’s unrealistic, and the feelings of helplessness can build more stress. Additionally, she explains, the stressed and distracted worker may neglect family responsibilities and the ongoing issue also can affect marital satisfaction.

“This phenomenon jumps workplaces,” she says. “It goes from the workplace to the home to another workplace.”

James Powell, 36, of Detroit, understands how deeply work incivility can impact a happy home. About five years ago, as he vied for an executive-level position at a national retailer, a co-worker competing for the same position spread rumors Powell was breaching company policy and shirking his duties. He became depressed when he couldn’t figure out how to stop the jokes and gossip.

“I was consumed with work; it was my life,” he says. “I came home and complained about work every day. After a while, everybody -  my wife, sisters and the rest of my family got so tired of it, they started telling me to shut up. My wife was telling me to just quit and asking how I could let people treat me that way. It really affected her.”

He says his world came crashing down soon after a holiday party, where the co-worker and others teased his wife, saying she was too pretty to be with him. He says she internalized the stress and jokes, and their marriage started breaking down. As a result, she began missing work and having problems on her job. The couple separated and eventually divorced. He got the promotion, but the work problems remained so intense that he resigned his position.

“I’m still suffering from it,” he acknowledges.

Ferguson suggests employees facing work incivility contact the human resources department, seek help from an employee assistance program or get outside counseling to help manage work-related stress. She also advises finding ways to avoid taking the stress home.

“Counseling sometimes helps you keep from stressing your family,” she says. “Exercise, go out with friends who are not co-workers, then go home to your family and be relaxed. It’s a trial and error thing; you have to find what works for you.”
Unfortunately, says Ferguson, who is working on a similar study on supervisor abuse, being treated poorly at work may lead to a decision to cut ties with your employer.

“You may have to consider when it’s time to leave,” she says. “If the culture on your job supports incivility, it doesn’t help to go to HR.”

Managers, take note: That reorganization or other big change you're planning may well end up stressing your employees out.

That makes sense intuitively, and now here’s proof.

Researcher Michael S. Dahl looked at the medical histories of nearly 93,000 Danish employees at more than 1,500 of the largest companies in that country. He found that when companies made organizational changes, the company’s employees had a significantly higher risk of developing stress conditions such as insomnia, anxiety and depression that required prescription medication.

“In general, I find that change increases the probability of heightened stress for employees,” Dahl wrote in an article published in the February issue of Management Science.

That was especially true at companies undergoing several broad changes at the same time, he found.

For the study, Dahl looked at the Danish employees over an eight-year period between 1995 and 2003. He found that there was an increase in employees taking prescription medication to treat stress-related conditions at both companies with lots of organizational change and those without much change, reflecting an overall increase in that type of drug usage.

Still, at the companies where there was lots of change, a larger proportion of employees received one or more prescriptions for stress-related conditions.

Dahl, a professor at Aalborg University in Denmark, noted that stress can hurt productivity and work satisfaction – something that shouldn’t come as a surprise to stressed out workers.

Tip of the hat to the Harvard Business Review’s The Daily Stat for first reporting the study.

Who knew that peering into people's ears could be so relaxing?

With an eight-hour workday, steady job growth and an average annual salary of roughly $63,000, audiologists must be living the good life. These health-care workers, who identify and treat hearing disorders, have the least-stressful work days, according to a new report that ranked the stress level of salaried careers.  

Careers in the health-care industry take up half of the top 10 least-stressful job rankings.

Commercial airline pilots, who deal with frequently changing schedules and ever-present jet lag, are at the other end of the stress scale.

The report , compiled by jobs website CareerCast, ranked the stress level of 200 salaried careers by assigning a numerical value to factors that invoked stress, and whether or not that factor was central to the job being evaluated, Reuters reports.

"Professions that involve low stress have very little danger and minimal physical demands," CareerCast publisher Tony Lee told Reuters.

The least-stressful careers:

1. Audiologist
2. Dietitian
3. Software engineer
4. Computer programmer
5. Dental hygienist

Most-stressful careers:

1. Airline pilot
2. Public relations officer
3. Corporate executive (senior)
4. Photojournalist
5. Newscaster

Look around your office: Chances are at least one in three of your co-workers is stressed out.

An American Psychological Association survey released earlier this month found that 36 percent of workers regularly experience stress at work.

Money was a big stress factor, with nearly half of those surveyed saying a low salary has a big impact on their work stress.

Other common reasons included lack of opportunities to advance, a heavy workload, unrealistic job expectations and long hours.

It’s no secret that the recession and its aftermath have forced many Americans lucky enough to have a job to work harder, in some cases for less pay. Now that the economy is improving and the job market is loosening up a bit, some workers may feel like they have had enough.

About one-third of those surveyed said they intend to find a new job within the next year.

The study of about 1,500 U.S. workers was conducted by Harris Interactive in January and February.

Tip of the hat to The Daily Finance, which reported on this survey earlier this week.

It appears the economy can really stress a country out.

A new Gallup poll finds that the most stressful day of 2010 for Americans was Dec. 1, the day after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said he was concerned the economy wasn’t growing fast enough to reduce the unemployment rate.

That was also the day after Congress allowed federal unemployment benefit extensions to expire.

The benefits were later reinstated under a compromise between the Obama administration and congressional Republicans.

About 18 percent of Americans said they were stressed out Dec. 1, compared with 11 percent on the average day. Gallup said it’s the third year in a row that the most stressful day of the year coincided with bad economic news.

The polling company cautions that it’s impossible to definitively determine the causes of a high-stress day, but they often occur on or close to high-profile negative news stories. The country’s relative stress and happiness was measured using its Gallup-Healthways Well Being Index, which is based on interviews of about 1,000 U.S. adults each day.

In 2009, the most stressful day was Jan. 29, the day after the House passed a huge economic stimulus bill, shortly after President Barack Obama took office.

For 2010, Gallup said other stressful days included Sept. 27, when the Midwest was hit with severe flooding, and Oct. 12, the final day of preparation to rescue trapped Chilean miners.

On the whole, however, the Gallup poll found that Americans were slightly happier in 2010 than in 2009.

The happiest day of 2010? That would be Christmas, when 65 percent of Americans said they were happy. Other happy days included Mother’s Day and the Sunday before Labor Day.