We’ve all been in that tough spot where work is suddenly making us unhappy. Afraid of going in to work, upset on the way home, worrying about how to handle the situation… You can feel down, lose self-confidence and it can affect other areas of your life.
But though the times may seem tough, they will definitely allow you to grow and get to know yourself better. Here are 5 tips to help pull through the rough patch and come out stronger on the other side.
1. Remind yourself that this will not go on forever! It may feel like a never-ending pit of doom but it’s only a bad period. It will end, and you will come out of it with many learnings. This is what work experience means and though it can be the hard way to learn, there are positive sides to it too. Yes, really.
2. At all times, try to learn from your experience. It will help you feel stronger and allow you to feel that you can face the situation.
If you’ve had a bad day, take some time to reflect on it. What went wrong and how could it have been different? What could you and what could others have done differently? Answering these questions will help you determine what it is that’s not working for you in the current environment.
You can then start trying to better yourself by working on weakness you have identified in yourself, or vowing not replicate bad attitudes you may have seen. This will help you grow as a professional.
3. Praise yourself for hanging in there. It takes dedication and resilience to keep going back to a bad work situation. You may feel like you’re not coping very well but the mere fact that you have been holding out is a sign that you are strong!
When you decide to keep going back because you like what you do and you won’t be deterred by a bad environment, it’s a sign of resilience. Obviously don’t be stubborn and keeping throwing yourself back into a really bad situation, if it’s too bad get out. But it’s important to recognize that not everyone can stick through it like you. Again, this is a professional competency.
4. Observe observe observe. It may not seem like the most obvious thing to do when going through a rough patch, but by observing the environment in which you find yourself, you will start to learn a lot about work, being a professional, how to handle working relationships and much more.
Take the time to look around and evaluate the situation in which you find yourself. What is working and what is not? What would you like to change if you had the possibility to do so? Making these observations will also help you in the long run, be it once you’ve come out of the rough patch or at a new job.
5. Stick together with your colleagues. You may feel like you are alone living a hellish situation, but I guarantee that at least one other colleague in your office is also going through a bad patch. You may not share the same issues, you don’t have to share the intimate details of what is wrong either. But if you can find one or several people who may also feel a bit low, it can help to stick together and share your concerns, have someone who can reassure you and be each other’s moral support. At times, it can be as easy as having a laugh over sharing a silly YouTube video, but it will help boost your morale and make you feel more comfortable about coming to work if you have an inner support circle.
Emma Brooks 