I NEED A MASSAGE

Houston named No. 1 most stressful city for workers in U.S. in new report

Stressed out woman looking at her laptop

Work life in H-Town is hard.

Feeling totally stressed about work? Fellow Houstonians feel the pain.

In a new report from LLC.org, Houston was designated the most stressful city to work in. In fact, not one — but five — Texas cities made the top 10 most stressful cities for workers. Ouch.

LLC.org’s analysis looked at eight different categories such as average commute time, average weekly hours worked, income growth rate, and more. Each of the 170-plus cities researched in the report have a population of at least 150,000 people – which adds up to a lot of stressed out folks nationwide.

Houston earned its most stressful city ranking due to its nearly 53-minute average round trip daily commute, not to mention that one in three people in the city are on the road before 7 am every morning. To top it off, Houston’s percentage of workers without health insurance is 30.4 percent, which is significantly higher than the national average of 10.5 percent. (That’s a lot to be stressed about.)

Just after Houston is Arlington (No. 2) and Dallas (No. 3). While Arlington earns its second most stressful city rank for its 39.9 hour average daily work week, Dallas ranked ninth for the longest work week out of all cities in the analysis. The average Dallas laborer works 40.2 hours a week, which is greater than the 38.7 hour national average. At least Dallas’ average commute is a little lower than Houston and Arlington – at 51.4 minutes round trip.

Rounding out the top five are Memphis, Tennessee (No. 4) and Las Vegas, Nevada (No. 5) with Corpus Christi taking the No. 6 spot. Other Texas cities that made the list include Fort Worth (No. 8), San Antonio (No. 12), Garland (No. 13), Brownsville (No. 15), El Paso (No. 22) and Irving (No. 26).

The top 10 most stressful cities for workers are:

No. 1: Houston
No. 2: Arlington, Texas
No. 3: Dallas
No 4: Memphis, Tennessee
No. 5: Las Vegas
No. 6: Corpus Christi, Texas
No. 7: Fayetteville, North Carolina
No. 8: Fort Worth, Texas
No. 9: Moreno Valley, California
No. 10: Modesto, California

In an examination of the least stressful cities for workers, not a single Texas city made the top 10. Madison, Wisconsin earned the ranking of least stressful city to work in. It must be nice to have a 36.6-hour average workweek and short average round trip commute of 37.4 minutes. If only...

The full report can be found at llc.org.

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H-E-Buzz

H-E-B delights Texas travelers with airport vending machine pop-ups

Austin-Bergstrom Airport/ Instagram

H-E-B says it will bring surprise Texas travelers with more holiday pop-ups.

New H-E-B stores seem to be getting bigger and bigger, but its newest locations is taking the opposite track. The beloved San Antonio grocery store is surprising holiday travelers with tiny vending machine pop-ups, offering free swag at Texas' major airports, including Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport on December 14 and Hobby Airport on December 16.

The Texas staple first surprised travelers at the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (AUS) on December 10 with a tiny vending machine pop-up. Delighted visitors were given a “H-E-B boarding pass,” redeemable for some of the store’s most coveted merch. Among the finds stocked were cushy concha slippers, Cafe Olé coffee, and the ever-popular flour tortilla blanket.

“No store does what? More!” wrote the airport in an Instagram post. “Our passengers were obsessed!”

Already cherished by Texans for its prized pre-made foods and its “Texas FEMA” efforts through its in-house disaster response team, H-E-B has become a viral sensation in 2025. In June, TikToker Anna the Colossal Titan racked up hundreds of thousands of views for a video showing her smuggling 200 H-E-B tortillas in her backpack.

@annathecolossaltitan goodmorning austin #happyinternationalbaggettersday ♬ Easy - Commodores

In October, the grocer made more headlines by releasing a collection of heavy metal-themed t-shirts in collaboration with Nashville graphic artist Connor Dwyer. The limited drop of 1,000 shirts sold out in seconds.

According to H-E-B’s Instagram reels, the company has not finished spreading holiday cheer. It says Lone Star travelers should be on the lookout for more airport pop-ups soon. Homesick Texans who aren’t lucky enough to stumble on a kiosk can always purchase swag like shopping cart ornaments, Creamy Creations puzzles, and mystery box keychains through the brand shop.

Houston is not the only stop on the holiday pop-up tour. The H-E-B team will be at the following Texas airports, with the fun kicking off between 11:30 am to noon on the selected dates:

Friday, December 12: San Antonio International Airport
Sunday, December 14: Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport
Tuesday, December 16: Houston's William P. Hobby Airport
Thursday, December 18: Dallas Fort Worth Airport
Friday, December 19: Dallas Love Field Airport

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