Attitude

Julie recently went through a layoff and told me that she now feels like she isn’t good enough anymore.

Brad had a manager who kept telling him he was making mistakes.

It is extremely difficult to overcome situations like this at work and not let it get to you. You need to truly reflect if it’s the right role for you or if it’s just not the right environment. The key thing is to not carry these difficulties with you into a new role.

Oftentimes layoffs occur when an entire department is no longer needed or maybe you were too expensive. This has nothing to do with your performance. You are not the problem.

We’ve all had less than supportive managers. Let’s face it, managers are not created equally and many are underprepared to be in the role. There are some who will always critique your work because they think they’re making you better that way. It’s possible they’re right and it does need to be done better, but their delivery of the situation is done poorly.

Your attitude towards the feedback is up to you. Do you immediately jump to thinking they’re wrong or do you ask yourself if there’s something you could do better next time? We all have room to improve.

Your attitude towards yourself is also up to you. As long as you’re trying and you believe it’s something you can do, others will support you. You are worthy of respect. You deserve good opportunities. You matter. Believe in yourself.

Your attitude towards others is admittedly a loaded topic. In general, take the approach of leading with kindness. Maybe they’re having a hard time in another area of their life. Maybe they’re seeing a situation from a different viewpoint you haven’t considered. When you ask yourself if you’re leading with kindness, it will reframe the situation and allow you to approach it differently. Sometimes you just need to grant yourself peace of mind.

When you realize that things can be worse, you start to appreciate what you have more. A title doesn’t matter as much as your happiness doing the job. Technical difficulties happen. The number of PTO days offered might not be better somewhere else.

Understand what’s important to you and show up happy to have it. Happiness is contagious and leads to good luck.