“The holidays,” says Dr. Steven Berglas, a psychiatrist, executive coach, consultant and author, “are depressing.”
I called Berglas to talk about holiday stress because, after all, ’tis the season, and because our cover story, “A Season on the Brink” (Page 62) by Senior Writer Meridith Levinson, focuses on the stress department stores have been under as they’ve tried (and, for the past few years, failed) to meet the holiday-season profit goals upon which their whole year’s success depends.
But Berglas asserted that stress is a misnomer for what we experience over the holidays.
“It’s not about stress,” he told me. “Some New York Times writer once called it holiday stress, and we’ve been running around talking about stress ever since. The truth is, we’re not stressed; we’re depressed. And for good reason. It’s a depressing season.” (Berglas makes his CIO debut on Page 42 with “Serenity Found,” a column about …