I would like this thread to be kind of a sharing space for ways that people deal with their own frustrations with bosses and coworkers. If anyone wants to share their problem and whatever coping mechanism they use, please feel free!

I have some tactics that I use with a small degree of effectiveness, but I still have trouble when it comes to feeling less stressed in the workplace.

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So, I have a small office at work. I work right next to all of the copy machines, so the noise level during the day quickly drives me insane and I don't always have the option of keeping my office door closed to block the noise out. That noise makes me want to jump out of the nearest window. It is so loud that it will interrupt whatever I was just doing. I absolutely hate it. I did buy nicer headphones that do help quite a bit during the day, but there are days where I would just like to work in silence, so it does get frustrating.

I also work with a lot of frustrating people. I think my main problem is the company culture. Everyone is very competitive, but I feel that most people I deal with directly are woefully underequipped for their jobs. I get frustrated because my role was specifically created to address their technical problems, but because of the competitive culture, everyone wants to be the hero who figures out the problem first, so things that really are better suited for me to do are rarely brought to me when they should. This means that by the time I do get the project, it is now an emergency and I have a tight deadline only because other people waited way too long to come to me. I have tried to be proactive, but everyone is so freaking secretive that they don't share anything with anyone.

I also have the problem of not being a patient person from the outset, so I have been working on it, but it's hard when I am dealing with people who suck at communicating. They will explain things poorly, get confused halfway through sentences, and when I ask for clarification, they're totally lost. I have tried to ask them to sketch an idea out for me or let me build an example and they can tell me if I'm getting warmer or cooler, and it does help a little, but it is very time consuming, especially when I have tight deadlines.

Deadlines are not usually communicated to me either, which adds to my frustration. And as an aside, many people in my office misuse technical terms and it just makes me crazy. When they do that, it can get muddled what they mean because I use those same technical terms correctly, but our usage of the same words is completely different. It absolutely drives me crazy.

So some of it is my own mindset/personality and some is actually on my coworkers, but they aren't changing. I can tell them how I'd like them to do things til I'm blue in the face, but the reality is, they are going to continue to misuse common technical terms (and confuse other technical staff) and they're going to be bad at communication in general. I would like to be able to handle the frustration at the office better. Deep breaths and mindfulness don't really work when you're constantly pumping music in your ears to drown out the noisy copy machines. I can't typically leave the office either. At other jobs, I would take a walk around the building to regain my sanity, but here, that isn't usually an option.