What effective and appropriate approach would he be wise to use when coping with minor frustrations like hang-ups on a conveyor belt or loudmouthed coworkers?

Minor irritations like that will always happen at the workplace. They are just part of the job.

The best way to NOT become frustrated is to approach your responsibilities as though that's just part of the job description. In reality, most job descriptions don't bother stating that you need to just "get along" with other people, but it's always an implied requirement. So it's best to just develop an attitude of "I don't care", where other people are concerned. Yes, they SHOULD do things differently, but they don't, so ... "I don't care."

As for the conveyor system, it would be nice if they worked a little better, but there are a number of factors that contribute to that particular problem:

• How the system was designed and installed.
• How the system is maintained.
• How people USE the system (meaning that SOMETIMES people either put too much on the conveyor or just put things on wrong)

Again, if you don't have the authority to fix it, you have to develop the attitude that "I don't care", but NEVER say it out loud. It sounds bad to a supervisor when he hears employees say something like that.