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How to stop being the scared little girl (or boy) in the workplace
Overcoming fear in the workplace
I was in the middle of several multi-national campaign strategies for four separate products, and looking to find myself an assistant, when my phone flashed up with a message. Instantly, I became the panicked little 22 year old girl I had once been. I paused, put my phone back down, and carried on with my branding materials and strategy documents. In the old days, I would have dropped everything to do the task I’d been asked to do. Not now. But the thudding in my chest was there. The panic. The dread. The message wasn’t anything rude or frightening: just asking me to put together something quickly for an old client. Honestly, it was so below my pay-grade it shouldn’t have bothered me at all. Part of me smiled at the fact this person still saw me as so low-level. But all the anxiety about getting something wrong, catastrophising, and worrying about what he thought came flooding back.
I was exhausted by it. Even the memory of that anxiety was exhausting.
A big thing you’ll learn, young ladies and gents, is that you will get better at working the more you work. Just dealing with stuff. Okay sure, this colleague is being unfair. So what? What difference does it really make? Are you going to waste energy on this? Okay sure, maybe he…
