Through the Looking Glass

Perspectives

Author

Jessica Wolf
April 17, 2025

I spoke with Gema who told me about the less than ideal onboarding experience she’d had when starting a new role. “I was afraid I wouldn’t be paid on time. I couldn’t enter time off. I didn’t even know who my coworkers are.”

I also spoke with Tony who was working independently for the first time. “Trying to figure out taxes, benefits, contracts, and finding clients is way more work than I anticipated.”

There is no doubt that both of these situations are challenging depending on your perspective. A person has to train themselves to reframe their mindset. It’s often those who can find the positive in a situation that will thrive.

Reframing your mindset and finding a different perspective is easier when you’ve had a variety of different experiences. This is why people will commonly say the knowledge comes with time. However, there are plenty of experienced people who cannot do this.

Advice for Gema:

  1. Remember why you were excited to join this organization.

  2. These are temporary challenges that will be resolved. Are people willing to help or are you left on your own to navigate the situation? Is there even one person you can ask?

  3. Imagine you were in a situation like Tony’s not having the stability you have right now. Would you be able to handle that or is yours a better scenario for you?

Advice for Tony:

  1. Find someone who has been working independently for a while and can help you navigate this situation as a mentor.

  2. Read. Read about templates, tools, and advice. Read what other people in your situation are doing. You don’t have to recreate the wheel.

  3. Decide if you want to leverage a staffing partner to help with some of the challenges you’re facing, but know that they might speak on your behalf and leverage rates that are not in your favor. This is where #1 and #2 are also beneficial so you can avoid some pitfalls of using the wrong staffing partner.

  4. Remember why you’re doing this in the first place. Would you rather be part of a larger organization with a structure and team like Gema?

How do you start retraining your brain to find a different perspective?

  1. Understand your initial, default response. Why are you upset or frustrated by a situation?

  2. Become curious. Ask yourself, “How might someone else view this?” or “What would I say to a friend in this situation?”

  3. Play devil’s advocate with yourself. Most people don’t have bad intentions.

  4. Surround yourself with different perspectives whether it’s people who are different from yourself, books, podcasts, or other forms of interaction.

There are always multiple approaches to the same situation. We all have unconscious bias based on previous experiences and we all get upset sometimes. The important thing is to remain calm and try to understand your feelings before responding negatively to a situation.

What situations are coming to mind as you read this? Are you wishing you had considered a different perspective in that moment?

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