Every office employee has experienced workplace frustration at some stage. Whether the cause was another employee or a particular session, your frustration at work shouldn’t lead to unhappiness or dissatisfaction. Sure, it might seem tempting to let out your best scream or smash your computer to bits, but the reality is that you’re dealing with similar problems everyone faces daily. Learning a few useful tips on how to cope with frustration can allow you to overcome these difficulties and enjoy a happier working life, for you and your colleagues.
In your personal life, your reaction to frustration situations might be to let out your anger immediately or to sit quietly for a while and stew over the situation. However, at work, these types of behaviours can be harmful to your professional reputation. So, the next time you’re rejected for a sale, or your computer unexpectedly shuts down, don’t give the first person you see a spray of your foulest language. The option to leave the office and go for a long contemplative walk is also not on the table. Instead, try using these easy tips to manage frustration in the workplace.
Work-life balance
Maintaining a healthy work-life balance and ensuring you’re getting enough time outside of the office helps you clear your head and gives you things to look forward to outside of work.
Be proactive
Be proactive and take direct action to rectify the source of your frustration by proposing new initiatives or systems to streamline your work and improve the working environment.
Talk about your problems
It is essential you share your sources of frustration with your colleagues, and most importantly your manager. There’s no need to belly-ache, but if your colleagues and manager are unaware of your sources of frustration, there’s nothing they can do to address them.
Have a relationship with your colleagues outside of work
Enjoying a healthy social life with your work colleagues can make it easier to approach them about causes of frustration in the office.
Theory into practice
I recently had an experience, which at the time, had the potential to be incredibly frustrating. When attempting to connect a call with a long-term customer they were unable to hear anything I was saying, and we had to disconnect the call. Being a one-off incident, I thought it was a bit weird but left it at that. I carried on with my work-day for a while with no problems, until eventually, I bumped into the same issue. This time I was mid-conversation with a customer, and it cost me a sale! As frustrating as it was at the time, I’ve since learnt from the situation.
By being proactive, I now avoid any unnecessary tech problems. Whenever I sense there is any issue with a device I take on a more proactive approach. I immediately stop using it and send a request to the IT team to check out the problem. The IT services team are too good not to put to use, and chances are if they can’t fix the problem I’d have no hope. Booking a request only takes a few seconds, and avoids a situation where I’m rummaging around under my desk, trying to figure out which cord goes where!
Remember, frustrating situations at the office are just a part of working life. Take a few deep breaths and stay positive, proactive and energetic. Maintain energy about yourself that your colleagues will feel and bounce off and apply it to every tricky situation you come across.
If you’re interested in becoming a part of a workplace with celebrated workplace culture, check out the current openings at HTG.
Morgan Saunders