By RUTH MANTELL

Your workload has increased, so have your boss’s expectations. But scaling back could mean losing a job.

Talk about stress.

Paul Baard, an organizational and motivational psychologist at Fordham University’s graduate business school in New York, knows just how stressful a work environment can get. He has consulted with athletes in the high-stakes, high-pressure world of professional sports.

What secret has he passed along to those clients? When you are in a slump, you can still contribute by encouraging your teammates.

Rather than burdening a team with distracting self-doubt and pity, try to help others, he advises. “In order to remain self-motivated, research has found that the innate psychological need for competence must be satisfied,” Mr. Baard says. “This drive pertains not only to the ability to do a job but to achieve something through it—to have impact, to contribute. A way an employee can expand opportunities to satisfy this need is to help her team succeed by encouraging others, even if her direct contributions are limited.”

Age, occupation and family circumstances, among other factors, can all play a part in how workers respond to different stressors. But experts say there are steps that can help you take control of your happiness at work this year.

Find meaning in your tasks. Commitment to a goal beyond self-promotion can help a worker manage stress levels, says John Weaver, a psychologist at Psychology For Business, a Brookfield, Wis.-based employment consultancy.

Several years ago, Mr. Weaver consulted for a long-term-care facility in Wisconsin that had flooded. Because of the water damage, the residents and employees had been forced to move into an already occupied facility. Employees felt cramped and annoyed, he says, and pettiness abounded.

To help the workers regain a positive attitude, Mr. Weaver asked each person this question: Why do you do this work?

“People don’t work in nursing because it pays so much or it’s glamorous or it’s easy,” he says. “As they heard the question you could see their attitude change. They could see the reasons why they needed to work together, to put aside difficulties and compromise, and residents were treated better.”

Remembering why you are in a business can help you manage stress, Mr. Weaver says.

While working on his dissertation, Rick Best, now a health-services scientist for Lockheed Martin, researched stress among nurses who work with veterans, a group that faces high demands with low resources. One might have expected elevated levels of burnout. But there were high levels of satisfaction.

“The meaning they got from their job was high,” says Mr. Best. “They went into the profession of nursing to help people. As a consequence, they derived much meaning from what they were doing, and they were better able to handle stress.”

Reduce your expectations. Given how much energy employees devote to their job, there can be quite a few expectations wrapped up in work. Workers often look to employers for career, socialization, and personal and intellectual growth opportunities.

“With so many expectations, it’s no wonder that work can’t meet all of that. So we get disappointed, but I don’t know that work could fulfill all those things,” says Ken Pinnock, associate director of employee relations and services at the University of Denver.

Due to so many layoffs in the last few years, many have lost friends and colleagues, and have realized that job security, taken for granted at times, is gone. There have also been cuts when it comes to extras, such as educational opportunities, celebrations and room for career advancement.

There can be an element of loss when employees realize that the workplace has changed. However, personal and professional goals can still be pursued without an employer’s support.

“The way back from this is to try to gain perspective about work, realizing that we are still ultimately in charge of our careers and work, and we don’t have to turn to our employers to develop ourselves, or look to them to be responsible for us,” Mr. Pinnock says.

Look at “challenges,” not “problems.” Rather than perceiving problems at work, look at them as challenges.

“The people who approach work as an opportunity to learn are much more satisfied with their jobs and performance, and find themselves eager to take on new challenges,” Mr. Weaver says. “They aren’t trying to prove that they are the smartest. They are more likely to learn from their own experiences and mistakes.”

Setting intermediate goals can also help workers derive a sense of accomplishment, and keep pace with longer-term targets, Mr. Best says.

Write to Ruth Mantell at ruth.mantell@dowjones.com

Por JONATHAN HOUSE

MADRID (EFE Dow Jones)–El mercado laboral en España se deterioró mucho en el cuarto trimestre del pasado año, por lo que el número total de desempleados en el país subió a 5,4 millones, dijo el jueves el ministro de Hacienda, Cristóbal Montoro, en una comparecencia ante una comisión del Congreso.

En base al tamaño de la población activa de España en el tercer trimestre, esto se traduciría en una tasa de desempleo del 23,3%, más del doble que la media de la eurozona. Cerca del 10% de los trabajadores de la eurozona se encontraban desempleados en noviembre, según datos publicados este mes por Eurostat.

El Instituto Nacional de Estadística español publicará los datos de desempleo del cuarto trimestre el viernes.

La creciente tasa de desempleo es una muestra más del rápido deterioro de la economía española en los últimos meses. El Banco de España dijo esta semana que el Producto Interno Bruto del país probablemente se contrajo un 0,3% en el cuarto trimestre del año respecto al tercero porque el agravamiento de la crisis de deuda soberana de Europa minó la confianza y ahogó el flujo del crédito.

El INE publicará la primera estimación oficial del PIB del cuarto trimestre el 30 de enero.

By LANCE ESPLUND

New York

The difficult job of any museum renovation is to balance the old with the new—to jettison what is unnecessary, outmoded and ineffectual; to conserve and enhance the permanent collection; and to improve exhibition space, all while retaining what is essential to that institution’s identity. And identity, a combination of body and soul, refers to a museum’s mission, as well as to its physical plant. Legacy matters. Before an institution embarks on a costly and, often, irreversible makeover, it is vital that it has a comprehensive sense of self.

Newer and bigger aren’t always better. Maintaining historical continuity is as important as updating one’s image and establishing a fresh start. To understand just how far astray an institution can go in the name of modernization and expansion, one need only consider the recent botched redesigns of New York’s Morgan Library & Museum and Brooklyn Museum.

These difficulties are compounded when the institution is as unique and multifaceted as the member-run National Academy Museum & School, which reopened in September at the heart of Manhattan’s museum mile after a 15-month, $3.5 million renovation.

Established in 1825, the multipurpose NAM is an expanding honorary association of peer-elected artists and architects, and is home to an art school and museum within an interconnected complex of Beaux Arts townhouses. Like most academies, the NAM is slow, if not averse, to change. It has typically evolved generationally—which, in art-world time, might as well be geologically.

Until recent decades, the NAM, bucking trends, has generally held firm to its position as an institution devoted primarily to educating and showing contemporary American figurative artists. And the NAM’s outsider/insider self-image has allowed its museum to mount major exhibitions of master painters such as Louis Michel Eilshemius and Jean Hélion—important artists ignored by mainstream New York powerhouses such as the Guggenheim Museum, the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

But the NAM school, clinging to notions of drawing and painting that were as academic in the 19th century as they are now (concerned more, that is, with producing illustrative likenesses than with creating form, movement and life on canvas), has a confused sense of what it means to uphold and further artistic tradition.

It was not until 1980 that the figurative-or-bust NAM recognized abstract artists. And ever since then, the institution has been engaged in an uncharacteristic and self-conscious game of catch-up. Lately, the academy has altered its course considerably—if not irrationally—betraying a sense of desperation. Seemingly chasing trends and attempting to appear up-to-date, the NAM has embraced video and installation art, as well as photography. And it has inducted contemporary art stars whose work is at odds with the academy’s mission. It is well to remember, also, that the NAM, suffering financially, is still under probationary sanction by the American Association of Art Museum Directors for wrongfully deaccessioning two of its Hudson River School paintings in 2008.

Considering all of this upheaval, one might think that the NAM, choosing now of all times to renovate, is not only off-course but in danger of foundering. But that seems not to be the case for this plucky, inimitable institution, which appears to be taking serious stock of itself in the 21st century.

For the most part, the academy’s renovation, overseen by Jane Stageberg of the architecture firm Bade Stageberg Cox, feels seamless, almost handless, as if many of the changes were cosmetic. Galleries have been modernized, subtly shifting the 19th-century atmosphere of the interior spaces to that of the sleek white cube. Doors, walls, dark paneling, wainscoting, picture molding and fireplaces have been covered or removed here and there. Most notably, the stately former Huntington Library has been converted into a versatile assembly hall better suited to conferences, films, lectures and exhibitions.

Throughout the museum, spaces, less stuffy and mazelike, flow more smoothly. And most, but not all, of the galleries retain their walnut paneling. Other galleries, resurfaced with white full-height hanging walls, can accommodate larger paintings. New noninvasive track-lighting has been installed. And heavy window treatments are gone, allowing natural light to illuminate—seemingly cleanse—dark, musty corners.

The schoolrooms feel refreshed. And in the new museum lobby off Fifth Avenue, the gift shop has been removed. Its entranceway leads more easily into the galleries and historic rotunda, and the ceiling, handsomely redesigned (along with the NAM’s banners and signage) by Pentagram, is engraved with the names of all of the 1,995 academy members dating back to 1826.

To keep alive the connection between old and new, a range of six uneven, temporary exhibitions (all through Dec. 31) have been mounted. They include salon-style hangings of portraits from the early 19th century to today in “The Artist Revealed: A Panorama of Great Artist Portraits”; 100 American paintings (1820s to the 1970s) from the NAM’s permanent collection of more than 7,000 pictures in “An American Collection”; as well as three shows featuring works of representational and abstract painting, architecture and sculpture by contemporary and postwar academicians; and the full-dress, late-career retrospective “Will Barnet at 100.” Mr. Barnet has alternately pursued biomorphic-shaped figuration and abstraction. Oddly enough, inspired by Native-American and early Modernist art, he shines best as an abstract painter.

These exhibitions, along with the renovation, reveal the scrappy nature of the NAM. And there continue to be mismatches and tradeoffs. Decorum and proportions matter. Some of the academy’s intimate, old-fashioned charm has been sterilized, sacrificed. Some galleries—though airier, better lit and more picture-friendly—are slightly smaller and constricted, as if the walls are encroaching. But the new NAM is also more conducive to its primary functions of museum and school.

The NAM may feel less like a home, but it is seemingly much more able, at least physically, to handle the increasing demands of its evolving mission. Thanks to the redesign, its body appears ready. What matters more—and is yet to be seen—is the state and evolution of its soul.

Mr. Esplund writes about art for the Journal.

MILLBROOK, N.Y. $4.2 million

A 6,500-square-foot house with four bedrooms and four baths, on 45 acres 90 miles north of Manhattan

DETAILS: This lodge-style home has views of the Catskill Mountains. The property also has a barn, a guest studio and a pond. Estimated property taxes for 2011 are $29,000.

CHLORINE COUNT: An indoor pool room has beamed cathedral ceilings and slate floors. There’s an indoor and outdoor shower.

BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS: Babette’s Kitchen, 3 miles away, bakes a frittata, muffins and croissants daily.

FRIDAY’S FORECAST: Partly cloudy, high 50 degrees.

SOURCE:Adam Hade, Houlihan Lawrence, a Christie’s International Real Estate affiliate, 914-804-1754, ahade@houlihanlawrence.com

Juliet Chung on Lunch Break show us homes with indoor pools, around $4 million, in Millbrook, N.Y., Austin, Texas, and Paradise Valley, Ariz.

AUSTIN, Texas $4 million

A 5,200-square-foot lakefront house with four bedrooms and 4½ baths, on nearly four acres

DETAILS: This modern home, built in 1952 and restored in 1999, fronts Lake Travis. There’s a dock that can be accessed via a tram on the property. 2011 property taxes are about $36,000.

CHLORINE COUNT: The pool room has two glass walls—one is made of sliding glass doors—and a screened-in roof. It looks onto the lake.

breakfast of champions: Java Dive Organic Bistro, 1½ miles away, offers omelettes and breakfast tacos.

FRIDAY’S FORECAST: Sunny, high 71 degrees.

SOURCE:Eric Moreland, Moreland Properties, 512-924-8442, eric@moreland.com; Realtor.com

PARADISE VALLEY, Ariz. $3.8 million

A 7,900-square-foot house with five bedrooms and seven baths, on 1.6 acres

DETAILS: This Tuscan-style mountaintop home is in a gated neighborhood and has multiple terraces. There are two elevators. Property taxes for 2012 are estimated at $14,000.

CHLORINE COUNT: The pool room makes up the lower level of the home. It has several sets of sliding glass doors, a wet bar and a bath.

breakfast of champions: Le Grande Orange Grocery, four miles away, makes its own English muffins.

FRIDAY’S FORECAST: Mostly sunny, high 79 degrees.

SOURCE:Tracy Fitzgerald, Realty Executives, 480-560-7000, tracy@troonproperties.com; Realtor.com

—Juliet Chung

By DIANA RANSOM

What’s warm, fuzzy and the perfect recession-era pitchman for everything from iPhones to laptops to credit cards? If you ask some of the country’s big advertisers, the answer would be: the entrepreneur.

Trying to tap into the popular belief that entrepreneurs are somehow more authentic — and more innovative — than big corporations, a handful of the country’s highest-profile employers are tapping small businesses as spokesmodels.

Dell‘s new “Take Your Own Path” print, online and billboard campaign features 40 entrepreneurs in eight countries. American Express‘ “Anthem” campaign, which ran through early October, featured six small business owners in a television advertisement and a series of vignettes that ran on AmEx’s OPEN web forum. Also in the mix: Intel which gave five entrepreneurs the chance to describe their business in videos and online questionnaires at an Intel micro-site.

“Coming out of troubling economic periods, small businesses usually reignite the economy,” says Deb Curtis, the vice president for global advertising at American Express who helped develop the company’s “Anthem” campaign. “We partnered with businesses that knew how to reinvent themselves,” she says.

AT&T produced a 30-second commercial that featured Blake Mycoskie, the founder of TOMS Shoes.

Spotlighting their own customer base not only generates heaps of free publicity for all participants, it can also firm up loyalties, and increase business by extension — if small entrepreneurs do well, they give business to larger firms. The big companies get points with consumers just for acknowledging entrepreneurs. “It’s like innovation by association,” says Paul Kurnit, a clinical marketing professor at Pace University in New York. The big firms don’t have to do anything innovative; in fact, during a recession, they are often doing the opposite — pulling funding for research and development and marketing.

AT&T recently produced a 30-second commercial that featured Blake Mycoskie, the founder of TOMS Shoes, a Venice, Calif.-based shoe maker that donates shoes to needy children. In the spot, Mycoskie shows how he uses the AT&T network in his travels. Just after it first aired nationally in April 2009 during the Masters Golf Tournament, the commercial received so much attention on Twitter and YouTube that AT&T decided to make a special, 60-second version, which premiered on American Idol.

TOMS Shoes benefited, too. “Our daily online traffic has nearly tripled; blog mentions about TOMS have more than doubled; and we’ve attracted a growing number of supporters on Facebook, MySpace and Twitter,” says Mycoskie. Informally, he adds that during public appearances he typically asks his audience whether or not they’ve heard of TOMS Shoes. About 25% of audiences had heard of his company before the spots ran. Now that number is closer to 80%, he says. “There can be no doubt that AT&T is responsible for this increased exposure,” Mycoskie says.

Warren Brown, the founder of Cake Love, a regional chain of sweets shops based in Washington, D.C., had a similar experience. The attorney turned entrepreneur, was doubly featured in campaigns from American Express and Dell. Those appearances both boosted online cake sales, and his ego. “Someone was acknowledging in the midst of this terrible season that we can make it through this,” says Brown. “I was happy to participate.”

And of course, using little-known entrepreneurs in marketing materials can cost a lot less than celebrities—namely, nothing at all. Like A-listers Tina Fey, Martin Scorsese, and Ellen DeGeneres, Chris Zane is a spokes model for American Express. The difference: Zane, the founder of Zane’s Cycles in Branford, Conn., worked for free. While American Express declined to discuss the cost of the ad in which Zane was featured, the shop owner says spotlighting small business people is a safe bet. “Unlike celebrities, entrepreneurs are generally trying to play it straight,” he says. “The entrepreneur isn’t going to embarrass the brand. They can trust that their investment isn’t going to go to waste.”

Write to Diana Ransom at dransom@smartmoney.com