They Don't Teach Corporate in College (46 page)

Look for humor in the situation.
Having a good laugh can counteract the effects of stress and restore your sense of perspective and your ability to think clearly. It's been proven that when one is happy, the body recovers more quickly from the biological arousal of upsetting emotions. Use whatever humor floats your boat—corny, silly, dry, satirical—as long as it makes you crack a smile.

Be good to your body.
Regular exercise and relaxation techniques (such as stretching, meditating, or yoga) are great ways to reduce negativity and get back on track. Eating reasonable portions of healthy foods can also increase your overall well-being while you are recovering from your setback.

Commit yourself to a new project.
New goals and projects provide fresh perspective and a sorely needed dose of enthusiasm. You'll be motivated to work harder, and will probably be too busy to think much about your setback.

Experiencing a setback doesn't have to be a bad thing. Gail Sheehy, author of
Pathfinders
, who spent years studying what makes happy people tick, offers this gem of optimism: The earlier we fail at something and our egos crack, the sooner we see that we won't die from it. We realize that our identities will build, show blemishes, suffer injuries, and repair themselves…again and again. Therefore, the best thing that can happen to most people is to fail a little, early in life. As we age and collect more years of experience working, the things that seem like mountains now will become smaller and smaller until they barely register as blips on the radar screen. Fortunately, this means our setbacks won't always be so traumatizing.

We have a new CEO, and our entire organization is being overturned as we speak. The worst part is that he's talking about moving corporate headquarters to another state! I don't know what I'm going
to be doing or where I'm going to be doing it, and the waiting is killing me. I haven't slept through the night since I found out about this, and I always feel like I'm on the verge of getting sick. I've lived in Colorado all my life, and everything I've ever known is here. I don't know what I'll do if I have to move.

Blair, 26, Colorado

The business world wouldn't be the fun place it is without the tribal ritual known as the reorganization (a.k.a. re-org). A re-org usually follows when new management takes over or existing management decides to change the way the company does business. What does it potentially mean to you? Oh, nothing much—except a new job, a new boss, new coworkers, and maybe even a new place to live. Re-orgs don't happen in every company, and they don't always affect everyone in the organization. Depending on management objectives, one division might be restructured while the rest are left untouched. Some companies, however, make re-org an annual event. Regardless of how the current organization is functioning, they insist that change is good and that it can't hurt to stir things up a little. Some also see regular re-orgs as an efficient way to shift talent around to best suit the company's needs.

Human beings are not big fans of change, so it shouldn't surprise anyone that the majority of employees don't like re-orgs. And life being the way it is, re-orgs tend to happen when you're cruising along in your job and everything is going just swell. They'll often strike for no discernable reason, and you'll be left to pick up the pieces of your career. When you're a driven twenty-something on the move, an unsolicited change in the landscape you've learned to navigate can be extremely frustrating. You may feel as though all of your recent achievements are for naught. Realize that re-orgs aren't personal. Organizations are huge machines, and it's likely your upper management didn't consider how the restructuring would affect you individually.

Re-orgs are tough on everyone involved, and how you conduct yourself in the aftermath says a lot about you as an employee. If you think about it, you have two choices: (1) you can leave the company, or (2) you can stay and add value to the new organization. If you choose the latter option, it's critical that you are perceived as flexible, capable, and supportive of the company's direction. When the rug has been pulled out from underneath you and you are thrust into an unfamiliar work situation, it's tempting to develop a bad attitude and express your displeasure to those around you. If there is ever a time to remember your professional persona, it's now. Re-orgs mean new faces, lots
of first impressions, and extra scrutiny from senior managers watching to see how the staff is adjusting to the changes. Feel yourself slipping? Use the survival strategies I talked about in
Chapter 6
(such as banishing the
shoulds
and taking care of your body) for a boost of positive energy.

If you know a re-org is coming, but you don't have the details, the best thing you can do is anticipate the change and prepare for it as best as you can. Allow yourself to get used to the idea of a new work situation gradually, and begin to think about new opportunities that could arise as a result of the re-org. Consider how you will deal with the worst-case scenario and create a plan of attack for getting through it. Once that's done, recognize that the situation is out of your control and forget about it for the time being. Worrying will not increase the likelihood of a favorable outcome. Instead, you'll most likely drive yourself nuts in the process.

Learning to roll with the punches is especially valuable when it comes to surviving re-orgs. Think about it this way: If you were in a sinking ship a few miles from the shore, would you just sit in the hull and complain? Would you wring your hands in despair and jump over the side? I think not. You would put on a life jacket and swim your heart out!

Benjamin Franklin once said that nothing is certain except death and taxes. We might agree with him on paper, but job uncertainty still scares us, and in the last several years there's been more than enough of it to go around.

It's not good for our health either. In 2008, researchers at the University of Michigan found that uncertainty can actually be worse for us than outright bad news. The study followed 3,000 employed people younger than age 60, and divided the subjects between those who were worried about losing their jobs and those who were not so concerned.

Based on participant self-reports, the researchers discovered that people who felt chronically insecure about their jobs experienced poorer health overall and were more depressed than those who had actually lost their jobs or had even faced a serious or life-threatening illnesses!

You can cope productively with general job uncertainty the same way you would cope with an anticipated re-org, including putting out-of-your-control circumstances out of your mind, and creating a plan to manage the worst-case scenario. Here are a few other tips:

Meditate daily.
The tried-and-true method is slow, deep breathing, in through the nose and out through the mouth. Doing this as well as trying to relax each part of your body one at a time has been proven to lessen the stress response.

Stay off blogs and message boards.
Hypochondriacs are notorious for fueling their anxiety about whether they have a disease by scouring online health sites at all hours of the day and night. There is a psychological principle known as confirmation bias, which claims that people who are already worrying about something will value negative information they find over neutral or positive information. Don't fall into this trap.

Talk to someone objective.
Find a friend or family member who understands your situation and can help you get a realistic grasp of how likely the uncertain event is to occur. Do keep in mind, though, that sometimes too much reassurance from too many people can make anxiety worse.

When I was 26, I was promoted into a position that I was not ready for. I knew I didn't have enough experience to manage a multinational team of 200, but my supervisor was keen to have me in the role so I didn't feel I could say no. Besides, how can a brilliant promotion be a bad thing? Well, unfortunately, it can. I was completely lost and failed to meet any of my annual objectives. I would tell my younger self to consider whether the promotion was right for me at that time, and to ask my supervisor for more training so that I could be fully prepared for the role in a year or two.