Don’t let a bad mood at work affect your job
Samantha Brickton says she and her cohorts in the recruiting department in an Atlanta-based recruiting firm have a phrase they use when someone’s in a bad mood at work. “‘Regina Time,’” says Brickton, 37, explaining that Regina, a former college roommate she lived with at the University of Western Michigan, used to get upset with the other students she lived with on a “daily basis,” according to Brickton, and would storm out of the apartment. “We called it ‘Regina Time,’ like she had to go freak-out for a while and then would come back and act like nothing happened. I told someone about it at work and it just became a thing here, too.”
Although she admits she’s a little callous about describing her former roommate, Brickton admits that Regina may have been on to something. “I think sometimes bad things happen when you’re at work and instead of trying to sit there and fight through it, it’s OK just to take a walk around the building or go for a drive to cool off,” she says. “I’m learning that I sometimes need to remove myself from the scene to get my head together.”
Inside and outside influences
While problems that occur during the workday are often enough to send angry employees to the brink, John Albert, a social worker in Miami, Florida, says that people often get angry over things that happen outside the office and are inevitably forced to carry that dark cloud with them around the office. “How many times do we get into an argument with our partner at work, usually via text, and that argument sets us off on a bad path for the rest of the day?” asks Albert. “Or what about bad news that’s financial, like being rejected for a mortgage, or seeing $10 in your checking account with payday still a week away?”
Albert, who specializes in dealing with family and workplace conflict, says workers who know their mood negatively impacts their work need to develop their coping skills. “Your mood affects your relationship with your peers, with clients and with your boss,” Albert says. “It can impact how you work, what you work on and how much effort you put into your day-to-day responsibilities. And when your company is dealing with results, your behavior may have a direct negative impact on your performance, which will hurt your company’s bottom line, so it’s best to deal with your anger head-on.”
Looking within
When things go badly at work, sometimes the easiest thing to do is to remove yourself from your present situation. Nicole Vallick, a marketing specialist in Austin, Texas, says most times, she can seek comfort in music. “I pop my earbuds in and keep to myself for an hour or so, and I really dig into my work,” she says. “I think that isolating myself, at least mentally, pays big dividends. I’m not falling behind in my work or causing a scene. I’m just centering myself with some music to keep things moving forward.”
Vallick says that within her department, employees with earbuds on are automatically assumed to be in a do-not-disturb zone. “If you’re busting your butt to finish a project, you either work from home or make yourself off-limits at work, but since we’re in an open office, it’s kind of hard to get away. So you can escape a bit by putting some music on and people generally respect that.”
Brickton says she puts on a 10- to 15-minute meditation podcast, focusing on nothing more than her breathing in an effort to get her mind back to normal. “It’s harder sometimes more than others, depending on the situation, but I think I’ve trained myself to focus on one thing, like my breathing, to keep me from focusing on everything else.”
Outside assistance
Albert says that self-generated actions like meditation can certainly help a person relax, but he cautions against using any method exclusively, especially one that, by design, focuses on an isolated effort. “I think meditation is amazing and can have benefits for all of us, whether we’re dealing with a bad situation or not, but I know that people can’t rely on it to solve problems that will still exist when the meditation session ends,” he says. “We can’t live our lives in a meditative state, especially at work, so it pays to have some strategies in place to help us maintain our balance.”
Vallick agrees. “I think the stigma of asking for help died two generations ago, says the 32-year-old mother of two. “I found a therapist who lets me Facetime her during the day. It’s amazing how a quick conversation with her can help me maintain my focus.”