Keeping One's Emotions at Check in the Workplace

For surviving the ups and downs at the workplace, keeping one's emotions at check is an essential skill. Many a times people loose control over their feelings and take actions for which they keep on blaming themselves for a long, long time. One might even be very unfortunate in certain situations where some of the actions could cause immense, irreparable damage to one's career.

Some situations which can cause one to blow the lid off are described below. However, these are also the situations where one should keep one's emotions in check. Life is not what happens in the workplace but also a lot that happens outside it. Forgetting this fact can lead one to think and act short term and hence cause self-damage.

• One's manager's manager plants a member in one's team. This could be due to the fact that the "plant" is known or has an earlier relation with one's manager's manager or one's manager's manager is neither really a professional nor a believer of the concepts of meritocracy and competency. Sometimes it would difficult to comprehend the reason and rhyme for the desperation to get the "plant" inserted into a team since in most cases there is generally no rhyme or reason. In such cases one needs to be smart to manage the "plant" by one's manager's manager.
• One's reporting manager is placed using artificial structure. This could be due to the fact that one's manager is a trusted solider of one's manager's manager. In such cases trust and relation wins hands down over talent, competency, etc. In such cases one's reporting manager has no technical expertise but still is the manager because of poor organizational design. One should probably move on to another organization as there is a glass ceiling that would come in the way of one's growth should one decide to stay in that organization.
• One's manager's manager has a very hands-off approach to management. He or she doesn't review the execution with the kind of seriousness and rigor as would be an effective approach to manage the business operations. In such situations one should present the data and information in a smart manner so as not to ruffle the feathers of one's manager's manager.