] "People who are high in hardiness enjoy ongoing changes
] and difficulties," said Dr. Salvatore R. Maddi, a
] professor of psychology at the University of California,
] Irvine, and the author of a forthcoming book, "Resilience
] at Work." "They find themselves more involved in their
] work when it gets tougher and more complicated. They tend
] to think of stress as a normal part of life, rather than
] as something that's unfair.''

[ I definitely identify with the above, but I am strongly sensitive something they mention later in the article, which is control. I enjoy and work better under compressed timelines or when the product is mission critical, as long as I have the ability to control the project and my environment. If the stress is coming from the need for the work to get done, that's awesome. But when there's also stress being generated by a lack of appropriate tools, interruption by unrelated or menial tasks, someone elses shitty code, etc., my ability to cope rapidly degrades. Being forced to deal with frustrating circumstances that are beyond my control has always been the best way to send me into panic attack mode -- i tend to want to lock the door and scrap everything for a restart, which at the root is a way of establishing complete control over the product. If restarting isn't possible, i have a very hard time resigning myself to the crappy situation. Unfortunately for me, few things are created in a vacuum, so I tend to experience frustration of this sort on a fairly regular basis.

How do other people classify themselves? -k]

Sick of Work: Cracking Under the Pressure? It's Just the Opposite, for Some