Why "stress bragging" can annoy your co-workers and hurt your career

Constantly announcing to co-workers how swamped you are at the office isn't likely to impress your colleagues — in fact, it may have the opposite effect, new research shows. 

"Stress bragging" or "busy bragging" about your overflowing plate often leads to resentment from peers, a study from the University of Georgia (UGA) shows. It also tends to make boasters appear less competent at their job, the researchers found.

"This is a behavior we've all seen, and we all might be guilty of at some point," Jessica Rodell, a professor of management at UGA's Terry College of Business and the study's lead author, told UGA Today, an online newspaper geared to the university. "When I was wondering about why people do this, I thought maybe we are talking about our stress because we want to prove we're good enough. We found out that often backfires."