As I was working in New York in the late 90s, a vice president of my former company walked into my office clutching a brown paper bag, which she breathed into frantically trying to relieve intense job stress. How pathetic, I thought, as I watched the bag inflate and contract, all the while secretly plotting my own escape to a job where employees were happier.

These scenarios of workers driven over the edge were plentiful near the end of the dot-com era. Indeed, people began to bail in droves from fast-track jobs in both startups and big companies to find work more conducive to passionate living. Despite huge bonuses and perks such as massage therapists on site, employees finally said, "it's no longer about money, I want to have a life," says Christina Maslach, a University of California at Berkeley psychology professor who specializes in job burnout and stress.

Which, of course, leads to the core question: Is it possible to have a happy life if you hate your job -- or the work is dull enough to sleepwalk through?

The answer is one that psychologists continue to debate and research as job trends and lifestyles change. Experts say some individuals are capable of finding happiness by strictly walling off their work from family, friends, hobbies and the like. But, increasingly, a corporate lifestyle affected by such factors as 24/7 technology and global timetables puts so much pressure on employees that job stress and unhappiness eventually creeps into other areas of life.