Well, once I reached 55 years of age and 32 years of service with the company, that gave me more, ah, "freedom" to say exactly what I feel like saying in a work situation. Once you are retirement eligible with full benefits your career becomes more of a "job du jour" and things get a whole lot less stressful.

When I was a younger employee, I found it useful to become a "guru" in a few areas so that others came to me for advice and guidance. That greatly helped my attitude about myself, and with others always coming to you as their goto person, you feel more secure in your job and things just don't seem to stress you out so much.