Part of keeping the peace in a work environment is knowing when you’re off-cycle. That is, when the intensity of your work isn’t in sync with your colleagues.

For instance: you’re headed into a week of vacation while others are scrambling to finalize year-end reports.

Or: your mid-day break starts just when the office gets flooded with urgent requests.

Or: you’re minutes from a submission deadline while your colleagues are enjoying a laugh about a movie they recently watched.

Or: you’re trying to get a shipment out the door at the same time someone is socializing their new puppy.

(There are parallel experiences with households and families.)

When we’re on either side of the stress-level equation, it’s important to have some sensitivity to those operating in a different mode. Not that we should suffer silently, or celebrate secretly. But we can try to have awareness of our neighbor’s headspace.

We won’t always be in sync. We won’t always be in the weeds together. But it helps to have a sense of the temperature in your teammate’s corner.