Authentic Living newsletter welcomes Ann Unruh, MA as a co-author on this article, which is an outgrowth of our Another Bad Day at Work Seminar. Ann is a career strategist with over 20 years experience helping people make career transitions.

Another Bad Day at Work?  by Ann Unruh, MA and Mary DuParri, MA, LPC

Many things can cause a bad day at work.  Big things like being treated badly by others or not being recognized for your achievements or small things like a broken copier can trigger a bad day.  Whatever causes your bad days, instead of just slogging through another one, try these four steps so you can stop coping and start thriving. 

Identify the particular stressors that trigger you. Exactly who is it or what is it that is upsetting you and spoiling your day? Recognizing the people or things that upset you can help you avoid the stressors if possible, or at least can keep you from being blind-sided by them.  Identifying the problem can help you narrow it to one specific area rather than thinking everything is awful.

Prepare in advance.  Once you identify the problem, you can gear up to address it in the way athletes gear up to reach a goal.  Anything from rehearsing what to say when confronted by a difficult coworker to fixing meals ahead of time for particularly demanding days can move you from upset to active.  Doing something about a problem always feels better than doing nothing. 

Choose how (or whether) to respond to triggering situations or people.  You can decide whether to get involved with workplace dramas or not.  You can choose to participate in a coworker’s meltdown or not.  You can practice responses that allow you to convey understanding without jumping in or taking over:  “I’m sorry to hear about that,” or “I hope that works out okay for you.”  You can also take a look at your own expectations because sometimes a bad day comes from the unrealistic hope that an unchangeable situation will change.

Find ways to recover from a bad day at work. Instead of taking the bad mood home and then having a bad evening, you can create a reservoir of things that restore you.  Shifting gears – either to relaxation or to something-high energy like exercise or a sport – can significantly boost your mood.  Having a variety of things that restore you, like a chat with a friend, a tasty meal, ten minutes alone on the deck or a good book or movie can help rejuvenate you.  Your life perspective becomes more than just your work perspective and a bad day lasts only a few hours rather than all day and all evening.

All jobs have ups and downs. If you find yourself facing difficult times at work try to incorporate these ideas into your work and home life. Bad days at work can often be altered by changing your approach and trying new ways of thinking and acting in your work environment.

Finally, if you consistently have bad days at work, you may need to consider whether you are in the right job, with the right company, whether you need more training or whether you are burnt out and need to look toward a new career.  We can only endure bad days at work so long before our moods begin to impact our families, our relationships and our self-confidence.  Bad days at work often become more tolerable when we start looking into options and making plans for the future we desire.  

 

 

© by Ann Unruh, MA and Mary DuParri, MA, LPC.  We encourage sharing of this newsletter  in whole or in part if copyright and attribution are always included.  You may contact Ann Unruh at www.annunruh.com or Ann@annunruh.com.

 

 

 

 

 

[ Home ] [ Up ] [ Already Missing You ] [ Another Bad Day at Work ] [ Assertiveness Is More Than Learning Skills ] [ Beach Imagery by Mary DuParri ] [ Becoming Quiet ] [ Can Talking To Someone Really Help? ] [ Career ] [ Compliments Work Better Than Criticism ] [ Fine Tuning Your Parenting Style ] [ Helping Children With Relationships ] [ How Can I Get You To Trust Me Again? ] [ The Language of Connection ] [ Managing Transitions ] [ On Being Mr. Miyagi ] [ Parts of Self Are Really Trying To Help ] [ Relationships ] [ Ten Tips For Getting What You Want From Life ] [ Therapy To Open Your Heart ]