Thriving Successfully in a Hostile Workplace

Have you ever been in that workplace where nothing you do seems to be inline irrespective of the fact that you’re following instructions closely? Do you have that boss who’s never satisfied with what you do even when you do it according to his guidelines? Are you in that job where you’ve been scolded for both what you ought to do and what you’re not responsible for? A job where there’s hostility all around from both co-workers and bosses.

Hostility has several effects on both employees and employers. It can make you feel afraid of going to work or even make you quit your job. It can reduce your self esteem, take away your happiness and job satisfaction, reduce your productivity, make you transfer the aggression to others and generally impact your life negatively.

Hostility can come in various ways including in; belittling your opinion, spreading rumors behind your back, holding you or your work up to a ridicule, sending unfairly negative information about you to a higher level in the company, refusal to provide the resources you need for work, verbal abuse, failure to respond to your calls or memos among other actions that can be taken against you.

Experiencing these ill treatments in your workplace? Here are some tips that can help you still enjoy your job and career and cope with hostility at work;

Do Your Work to the Best of Your ability:

Doing this entails you have to research your position to gain more knowledge and understand how things are done, ask questions about your job for better clarifications. Study your job and bring up ideas on what you think can be done better. Share your idea with a colleague you can trust and get multiple opinions. If you’re in a position to implement, do it after you’re convinced it will be beneficial to your job and organization.

You can also arrange to meet with those who occupy the same position you do in another organization and ask about how they do certain things and get advice. For example, as a dietician or nurse at a hospital, you can ask your colleagues, the other health professional especially the doctor on the better ways to care for a patient with a peculiar health need.

Once you establish this relationship, maintain and utilize it because it will keep you at the top of your game.

Be Wise

“…Wisdom is profitable to direct”, Eccl 10:10. Being wise is not just about knowing your job to your finger tips. It is also not about out smarting or deceiving other people. It’s not about toying with people’s emotions or playing on someone’s intelligence. Rather wisdom is about knowing what, how and the right time to do things having put a lot of other circumstances into consideration. It is knowing what to say, when to say it and how to say it. 

According to Wikipedia, “Wisdom is the ability to think and act using knowledge, experience, understanding, common sense and insight.

If you find yourself in such a workplace, you need to brace yourself with wisdom to be able to perform your responsibility while relating with co-workers. It will direct you to what to do or say and vice versa.

Be relaxed

Always be relaxed and calm. Even when you’re being shouted on or insulted, always keep your cool and be relaxed. It’s also possible to be calm and quiet because at this point, you’re experiencing a high level of the flight/fight hormone, and an anger bomb just waiting to explode. However, keep it under control and just be quiet, calm and relaxed. In my experience, I’ve observed that once you’re relaxed, your opponent is weakened by silence and your relaxed mood, you are also able to hold yourself from saying things you might regret in the future.

Just listen to everything that has to be said and if you have an explanation to give, meet the person privately and offer your explanation. You may ask “what if they refuse to calm down and listen to you?” calm down and listen to them. Afterwards return to your duty post and still maintain a relaxed and calm mood continuing with your work. 

However, most important thing is to always ensure you are not lacking in your role. Once you are carrying out your responsibilities aright and optimally, you’re always in a safer position. In extreme cases where a query is served, answer it with a relaxed mind and apologize because by reading your response to the query your mood can be detected. 

See situations and circumstances as avenues to learn.

There’s always a weird situation in a toxic workplace. It is either you’re being ridiculed for doing something in a certain way or being talked down on or even being tackled for not doing something that is not your role or given roles you know nothing about. It’s all an opportunity to learn something new. You’ll definitely be unhappy, that’s human. But have your mind set on learning something new. You can be a receptionist asked to double as a waiter in a professional luncheon. Learn from where ever you are.

Recently, a lot of people study different courses in the University but end up doing something else which they may even enjoy better. You have to know that they are able to do this because they did not overlook the opportunity to learn. Such lessons learnt can also be something to fall back on in difficult times when there may or may not be any available alternative.

“Be a lifelong student. The more you learn, the more you earn and the more self confidence you will have”, Brian Tracy.

Maintain a Professional Relationship

Your co-workers must not be your friends. Get your money and go home. Maintain a relationship to the extent that allows your work with your co-workers to thrive and be carried out optimally and to the standard and desire of your organization. 

Maintain a good working relationship which entails teamwork, respect, trust and communication. This makes your job and career more productive and successful respectively. Understand how your co-worker thinks and work with them based on your understanding of their attitude.

Be Positive

This is the most important of all the actions to undertake when you find yourself in a toxic workplace. When you’re insulted, see it as being called upon to do more. When ridiculed, see it as a push to achieve more or an indirect way of saying “you can do better”. When people talk behind your back, it means there’s something about you that is worth talking about. When you don’t have all you need to work, use all you have and make an impression that says you’re unstoppable. 

Having a positive mindset means that you consider the positive side to everything. You have to maintain a positive mindset because it reflects on your work output, it guarantees you a successful career while making you creative and innovative. It gives you the opportunity to expand your horizon; see others in a positive light, make and leave a positive impression of yourself even after you change to another job. “Train your mind to see the good in everything” the happiness of your life depends on the quality of your thoughts”. 

Be positive minded by also making excuses for other people. Developing a positive mindset is the key to thriving successfully in a hostile workplace, if you’re positive you will see opportunities instead of obstacles. Always know that where you are is a passage way to where you’re going.

Stress Management in Workplace

 Jot down the sources of your stress and how you have been handling it. Through this you can gain insight on what you can do better.

 There’s always that one person at work that you can trust, talk about your stressors to get their opinion on how to handle your stress better.

 Set a boundary between your life and work. For example, attend to work related issues only on workdays and during work hours so you can have a life outside work.

 Exercise regularly to release stress-relieving hormones, endorphins. Walk around even in the office when you feel stressed.

 Get adequate sleep at night about 8hours of sleep to relieve stress and improve performance according to studies.

 Meditate to ease anxiety, reduce blood pressure and improve sleep.

 Deep breathing exercise when stressed aids relief of stress.

These things are not very easy to do but they are habits that when you form and start with one, you see yourself develop the strength to go on. You also begin to enjoy your work and live happy and healthy.

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What can make you quit a hostile workplace? Kindly leave your comment in the comment section. Thank you!