Olivia: Jackson, I have a confession. My work calendar looks like a perfectly organized, color-coded masterpiece. My internal state? It’s more like a dumpster fire in a hurricane. I think I might have a bad case of what our book today calls the 'Duck Syndrome'. Jackson: Oh, I know that feeling. On the surface, you're gliding gracefully across the pond, but underneath, your feet are paddling so fast they might just fly off. It’s the official posture of the modern professional, isn't it? Olivia: It absolutely is. And it’s the central, brilliant metaphor in the book we’re diving into today: Anxiety at Work: 8 Strategies to Help Teams Build Resilience, Handle Uncertainty, and Get Stuff Done, by Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton. Jackson: A title that feels like it was written specifically for, well, everyone right now. What’s the story behind this book? It feels incredibly timely. Olivia: It’s more than timely; it’s personal. What makes this book so powerful is the story behind its creation. One of the authors, Adrian Gostick, was actually inspired to write it by his own son, Anthony, who co-authored it and has dealt with anxiety for much of his life. It’s not just business theory from a distance; it’s rooted in a very real, human experience of navigating a world that seems to demand perfection. Jackson: Wow, that adds a whole other layer of meaning. It’s not just a leadership guide; it’s a conversation started from a place of genuine care. So, let's start with this 'Duck Syndrome'. What does it look like when it shows up to the office? Olivia: It looks like your most competent, reliable, and seemingly calm colleague. The one who never misses a deadline, who always says 'yes' to another project. But beneath that serene surface, they are struggling, often silently, with overwhelming pressure and anxiety. Jackson: And I imagine that silence is the most dangerous part. If no one knows you're struggling, no one can help. Olivia: Precisely. The book is filled with stories, but one in particular is just haunting. It’s about a young woman named Chloe, and it perfectly illustrates the tragic outcome of unaddressed anxiety.

Jackson: Okay, I’m bracing myself. Tell me about Chloe. Olivia: Chloe was the ideal hire. A recent college grad with a near-perfect GPA, smart, personable. She lands a coveted job at a high-pressure investment bank in Seattle. On paper, she’s a success story in the making. Jackson: I can already feel the 'but' coming. Olivia: A big one. From day one, she feels completely out of her element. She’s surrounded by people who seem to effortlessly grasp the complex work, while she’s working twice as hard just to keep her head above water. She starts doubting herself, comparing her frantic paddling to everyone else's graceful gliding. Jackson: The classic imposter syndrome, but supercharged by the environment. Olivia: Exactly. It gets to a point where she musters the courage to speak to her manager. She says, "I'm feeling really overwhelmed." And her manager, likely busy and stressed himself, gives her a casual, dismissive response. Something along the lines of, "You'll get the hang of it. Just keep pushing." Jackson: Oh, that’s a gut punch. It’s the corporate equivalent of "just calm down." It’s the most invalidating thing you can hear. Olivia: It was the breaking point. For Chloe, that dismissal confirmed her worst fear: that she was the problem, that she was failing. Her anxiety spiraled. She started having panic attacks on her way to work. She’d sit in her car, unable to get out. The dread became so consuming that she started daydreaming about just disappearing. Jackson: And did she? Olivia: She did. One Monday, she just didn't show up. No call, no email. She ghosted her job. Her manager was frustrated, confused. He thought he’d hired a star, and she just vanished. He completely missed the signs. He saw a calm duck, not a person who was drowning. Jackson: That's devastating. And it’s so common. We hear about ghosting all the time, but we frame it as a problem of flaky employees, not as a potential symptom of a workplace in crisis. What are the real costs here? It’s not just one empty desk, right? Olivia: Not even close. The book lays out some staggering data. Workplace stress isn't just making people unhappy; it's a public health crisis. One study from Harvard and Stanford linked it to over 120,000 deaths a year in the U.S. alone. And the economic cost of stress is estimated to be over $300 billion annually from lost productivity, errors, and healthcare. Jackson: Three hundred billion dollars. That’s not a rounding error. That’s a fundamental breakdown in how we work. So what's the antidote? What should that manager have done differently when Chloe said, "I'm overwhelmed"? Olivia: The first step is to listen. Not just to hear the words, but to understand the emotion behind them. Instead of dismissing her, he could have asked, "Tell me more about what's feeling overwhelming. What's the biggest challenge right now? How can we adjust your workload to set you up for success?" Jackson: So, curiosity instead of platitudes. Olivia: Yes. And clarity. A lot of anxiety comes from uncertainty. Am I doing a good job? What are the real priorities? The book argues that managers have a critical role in providing that clarity, in balancing workloads, and in showing genuine empathy. It’s about creating a safe space where an employee can say "I'm struggling" and be met with support, not judgment. Jackson: It sounds like the manager’s job is shifting from being a taskmaster to being a… well, a human being who looks after other human beings. Olivia: That’s the core message. And a huge part of that is helping people manage the primary source of anxiety for so many: the feeling of being completely, utterly overloaded.

Jackson: Right, the feeling that the to-do list is not just a list, but a monster that grows two new heads every time you chop one off. Olivia: Exactly. And the book offers a fascinating mental model for this, and it comes from one of the most high-stress environments imaginable: Navy SEAL training. Jackson: Okay, you have my attention. From investment banking to Navy SEALs. This book covers some ground. Olivia: It does, and for good reason. The authors tell the story of 'Hell Week,' the infamous five-day ordeal that SEAL recruits must endure. They get about four hours of sleep for the entire week. They are constantly cold, wet, and pushed to their absolute physical and mental limits. Jackson: Sounds like my last product launch, minus the four hours of sleep. Olivia: (laughs) It’s a crucible designed to see who breaks. And researchers studying the recruits noticed two distinct archetypes in how they coped. They called them 'Optimizers' and 'Taskers'. Jackson: Optimizer sounds like the good one. I’m an optimizer! I optimize my calendar, my workflow, my coffee order… Olivia: You’d think so, but you’d be wrong. The Optimizers were the ones who were constantly thinking about the big picture. They’d be slogging through a freezing mud crawl at 2 AM on Tuesday, but in their minds, they were already worrying about the 10-mile ocean swim on Thursday. They were trying to manage the entire, monolithic horror of Hell Week all at once. Jackson: And that sounds… exhausting. Olivia: It was fatal to their chances. The Optimizers were, overwhelmingly, the ones who quit. Their minds burned out from the sheer cognitive load of trying to process all that future pain and effort. Jackson: So who succeeded? The Taskers? Olivia: The Taskers. They had a radically different approach. They took this impossibly huge challenge and broke it into tiny, manageable chunks. Their entire world became the immediate task in front of them. Their mantra was, "Just get to the next meal." Or "Just finish this one-hour drill." They focused on the task, and then, crucially, they allowed their minds to rest in the brief moments between tasks. It was a simple, powerful cycle: task, rest. Task, rest. Jackson: They weren't trying to conquer the week; they were just trying to survive the next five minutes. Olivia: Precisely. They broke the monolithic thing into chunks. And that’s the secret. The book argues that in the workplace, we often try to be Optimizers. We look at a massive project or a packed quarter and get paralyzed by the sheer scale of it. The anxiety shuts us down. Jackson: Okay, that's an incredible story. But most of us aren't in Hell Week. We're in 'Email Hell Week'. How does a 'Tasker' mindset work when the tasks never stop coming and there's no 'next meal' to look forward to, just another meeting? Olivia: It’s about applying the same principle. Instead of looking at your 300 unread emails, you say, "I'm going to spend the next 25 minutes answering only the most critical five." Instead of "I have to finish this entire report," it's "I'm going to write the introduction, and that's it." You create artificial finish lines. Jackson: So you're manufacturing your own 'task, rest' cycles. Olivia: Yes, and you're working with your manager to do it. The book emphasizes that leaders need to help their teams create these clear roadmaps. What is the most critical task today? What can wait until tomorrow? By helping people prioritize and focus on the immediate chunk of work, you reduce the cognitive overload that fuels anxiety. You turn an impossible mountain into a series of small, climbable hills. Jackson: Breaking down tasks helps with individual anxiety, but what about the anxiety that comes from the environment itself? From feeling like you don't belong, or that you're being judged for who you are? That feels like a different kind of mountain altogether. Olivia: It is. And it's a mountain that no individual can climb alone. That's where the book's message gets even more profound. It moves from self-management to collective responsibility.

Jackson: So this is where we zoom out from our own to-do list and look at the team around us. Olivia: Exactly. And the book makes a powerful point that this anxiety isn't felt equally. For marginalized groups—women, people of color, LGBTQ+ individuals—the workplace can be a minefield of microaggressions, bias, and the constant, exhausting pressure of being an 'other'. Their 'Duck Syndrome' has an entirely different weight to it. Jackson: It’s not just about workload; it’s about identity. Olivia: It is. And that’s where allyship becomes non-negotiable for any leader who is serious about tackling anxiety. The book tells this incredible story about Evelyn Walter, an HR leader at the manufacturing giant Cummins. Jackson: Okay, set the scene. Olivia: The story takes place in 2020, right after the murder of George Floyd and the rise of the Black Lives Matter protests. The world is in turmoil. Evelyn, who is a white woman, is watching the news and feeling this deep sense of helplessness, but also a responsibility to her Black colleagues. She knows a corporate email isn't going to cut it. Jackson: Right, because those often feel so hollow. "We stand in solidarity..." and then nothing changes. Olivia: She wanted to do something deeply human. So she gets approval to access the home addresses of every Black employee on her staff. And on a Saturday morning, she sits down at her kitchen table and writes dozens of personal, handwritten notes. Jackson: Handwritten? Wow. Olivia: In each note, she didn't offer solutions or platitudes. She just said, essentially, "I see you. I'm thinking of you and your family during this painful time. I am here for you. What can I do to support you?" She was just offering her presence and her support, as one human to another. Jackson: That gives me chills. That's so much more meaningful than a corporate DEI statement. It's about seeing the individual, not the demographic. Olivia: It is. And the response was overwhelming. One employee, a woman named Mercedes, wrote back and said how much it meant to her, how it made her feel seen in a way she hadn't before. It was a small act with a massive impact. That’s what real allyship looks like. It’s not a performance; it’s a connection. Jackson: So what can leaders learn from that? We can't all send handwritten notes for every situation. Olivia: Of course not. But the principle is what matters. The book outlines four key actions of an ally: Listen up, Sponsor, Stand up, and Advocate. Listening is what Evelyn did—seeking to understand without judgment. Sponsoring is actively promoting the work of marginalized colleagues. Standing up is intervening when you see bias. And advocating is using your influence to create opportunities for others. Jackson: It’s a shift from passive non-racism to active anti-racism, or from passive support to active allyship. It’s a verb, not a noun. Olivia: That's the perfect way to put it. It's an ongoing practice. And it's the only way to transform a culture of exclusion, which is a massive source of anxiety, into a culture of genuine connection and belonging.

Jackson: When you put it all together, it paints a really clear picture. It starts with seeing the problem—the Duck Syndrome. Then it’s about giving people the tools to manage their own boat, like the Tasker mindset. And finally, it’s about calming the waters for everyone, which is the work of allyship. Olivia: That’s a beautiful summary. It’s a three-part solution: recognizing the hidden struggle, adopting a mindset to manage the internal chaos, and then actively practicing allyship to build a culture of genuine human connection. It’s a journey from awareness to action. Jackson: The book has received a lot of praise for being so practical and research-backed, but I think its real power comes from that human-centered approach we've been talking about. It’s not just about making employees more productive; it’s about making their lives better. Olivia: Absolutely. The authors argue that the most important thing a leader can do is genuinely care. When people feel seen, valued, and supported, their anxiety lessens, and they can bring their whole, authentic selves to work. Jackson: It makes you wonder, who on your team is the 'duck'? Who seems calm on the surface but might be paddling furiously underneath? It’s a powerful question for any of us to ask, whether we're a leader or a colleague. Olivia: It really is. And maybe the first step is just to start a conversation. To check in with someone, not with a "how are you?" that expects a "fine," but with a genuine "how are you really doing?" Jackson: I love that. We'd love to hear your thoughts on this. What's one small thing you can do this week to be a better ally or to check in on a potential 'duck' on your team? Share your ideas with the Aibrary community. We can all learn from each other. Olivia: This is Aibrary, signing off.