Two for me:
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The moment you feel tipsy it’s time to ease down. You have a stomach full of booze that’s going to make you more drunk even if you stop immediately.
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If you think people are good, you’re probably right and if you think people are bad, you’re probably right.
People are good IMO.
I work in an environment that can have some tight timeline, high stress moments. People often deal with this with a kind of controlled panic- “Hi. This thing is not working.” “Fuck, this is not working, quick, try that thing! Argh! Not working either! Oh no, shits fucked. Shit… Ok, try the other thing! Fuck, call Gary, they might know what to do!”
Then I worked with a person who had this totally different approach. When shit hit the fan, they just super calmly looked around, and said “That’s a bit boring.” Just that phrase shifted my whole perspective on the industry. Just treat the problem as a minor annoyance, and you’ll see that it’s rarely worth getting panicked about.
The other thing they taught me- no matter how urgent it is, never run. Running makes it look like we fucked up. And we don’t fuck up, we just have the next thing that needs to be fixed.
I get the approach here, but unfortunately, this is impressively hard to do without a (fiscal) safety net.
I agree that it is wise to push out panic-inducing thoughts; mindfulness and all that. That’s not always possible when professional failure equates unemployment and the possible crippling poverty that follows. In my experience, employers do a garbage job at pointing out where the guardrails are, and what the bar is for dismissal, going as far as refusing to put anyone on a PIP before letting them go. Many people are in countless pressure-cookers like this, perpetually on the edge of their seats if they’re paying any attention at all.
From all that I take this advice to boil down to: Practice mindfulness, ease, and inner-peace, especially when the shit hits the fan. You can’t control the consequences, but you’ll recover better if you keep your head.
Fake calm to be calm. Nice.
Yeah, that could go badly… If people think you’re not taking their emergency seriously, and it turns out it’s not a quick fix, they’re probably not going to be very happy
I do find redirecting them calmly to be even more helpful. Just don’t let their panick infect you, and start working the problem normally
That usually calms people down instantly, because it skips the part where they have to convince you there’s a problem, instead you just skipped to giving them what they actually want