Every situation and every day is a chance and a lesson for us to get better at controlling our emotions. It's a life-long lesson. Understanding what triggers your emotions will help you in better handling of emotions. Controlling your emotions at the workplace is a challenge, especially when it comes to young people. They will always find it hard to handle emotions well in their workplace. With little effort from your side, you can quickly get through without any hassle. Let's understand the causes of workplace emotions and how effectively we can handle them.
Is 'controlling your emotions at the workplace' the right approach?
Understand the point that emotions do have something to convey. With the right approach, it can give you positive outcomes. When it comes to your workplace or business, positively handling the emotions is the right approach instead of bottling/controlling it. Unmanaged emotions will reflect in your work even without your knowledge.
Main Things that Trigger Emotions & Make you Lose Control at your workplace
Be aware of certain workplace situations that can trigger a wide range of emotions in you and make you lose control. Recognize them and take care of them. They are:
Unrecognized efforts:
It's a downer, especially for young new talents in the workplace. It's not just for young people; it's for everyone in the office. Unrecognized or Undermined true-efforts in the workplace can trigger a range of emotions like being late to meetings on purpose, bad presentations, becoming less-responsible, finger-pointing, and many things. Address it, talk to your team, take it up with your superiors instead of acting out.
Insecurities:
Office-rumors, Pay-reduce, new team-head, or about workforce-downsizing can bring insecurities. Workplace insecurities can make you very emotional and can affect your work performance. Prepare yourself to handle, and don't worry.
Overthinking:
Please Stop Overthinking. It happens in the workplace; it's common, but every time you see yourself in the state of overthinking, put a lid immediately. Overthinking can trigger a wide range of emotions, including anger and fear. It will affect your work, your team, and your mental health. Why overthink? Workplaces are always prone to changes of any kind.
Undeserved credits:
Ever felt like 'I deserve this promotion and not him/her ' or 'I should be the one on the site' or 'I am fully qualified for this and not them' or 'I deserve this pay-rise and not him/her.' It's common, and it's natural. Don't get emotional immediately and act. Try to reason the issue with your superiors and understand what they are trying to convey. Analyze in what way they are better than you and settle it.
Job challenges:
New changes, Handling team members/co-workers, big projects, and responsibilities are common job challenges that one faces every day. It can be emotionally draining sometimes. Channel it in the right way, and you could get better results from your team and from you too.
Anger:
It's the most common workplace emotion that will make you vulnerable. If you want your unwanted emotions under control, then control your anger. It's the main root. Anger can also be triggered due to genuine reasons like being purposefully-critical about your work, finding faults, undermining your efforts, and such. Address the issue in a better way and not with anger.
Bad days at work:
You have two choices. You can either learn from bad days/experience or lose control of your emotions and act out. The choice is yours. Bad days are part of your work, accept it. It happens even for big CEO's too.
Unable to take criticisms:
If you're focused on your career, then you need to take your criticism well. Good criticism helps to grow forward and sharpen skill sets. If it's genuine criticism, take it and improve yourself. But, it's not your fault when your superiors are not mature enough to convey the criticism in the right way. It is not the right way to express any criticism badly in-front of colleagues.
Rude people at work:
Rude-boss, bad team-head, un-supportive/non-cooperative team members, rude customers, cynical/sarcastic colleagues are all part-and-parcel of your workplace. Don't let them get to you emotionally.
Workplace bullying:
Workplace bullying takes a toll on a person's self-respect. It will either make them to act out or shut-themselves down for the rest. Don't allow any of the above. It will make you lose control of your mind and emotions. Don't do it & don't be a part of it.
20 best steps to controlling your Emotions and Handling them Well in Workplace
Knowing what triggers your emotions will give you a better understanding of handling and controlling your emotions in your workplace in a much better way. Here are some of the best ways to control your emotions in the workplace.
Express instead of controlling:
Bottling up your emotions makes it difficult for you to concentrate on your work.
Never turn your emotions into verbal aggressiveness:
Instead, get out of the place or excuse yourself for a glass of water or stay put for a couple of moments and then proceed.
When it comes to Anger:
Express your concern in a toned-down way – 'Can you say why you acted out, I felt bad' is a better way instead of holding bitterness against the person for insulting you.
Address Privately:
Always address your issues privately, even if it's with the person who offended you.
Don't Go Personal:
Express your concern about how they made you feel bad or insulted but at any cost, avoid personal remarks or personal level attacks. It's not good and will not do any good.
Unwanted emotions:
It can be due to overthinking, meeting deadlines, any anguish or jealousy over a fellow mate or unexpressed anger can take a toll on your workplace performance.
Put some effort into addressing the emotions:
Understand, 'what makes you angry? What triggers your emotions? What's wrong with your approach? Or is it genuinely your mistake?' at the end of the day. It's an excellent way to manage your workplace emotions well.
Try to acknowledge your emotions:
If you're in denial, you cannot improve yourself.
Address Bad-Behaviors of your co-workers:
It should be addressed but not through emotional quotient. Tone down a bit and talk. Convey how they offended you and address the situation.
Channel your efforts:
Channel your efforts into improving yourself instead of competing with other people at work.
Challenging start:
The workplace can be difficult and challenging at the beginning of your career. Prepare yourself, learn on the go, but don't stress over in mastering everything.
Balance your emotions:
Your co-workers, bosses, and challenging situations in the workplace will mold you over time. It will help you balance your emotions well. Do what's right and always handle emotions in a toned downed manner.
Your emotions affect your Team:
Your bad emotions will reflect on your work quality and can disturb your team.
Unmanaged Anger:
It's a troublemaker. Unexpressed anger can bring sarcastic tones to you, give a sense of jealousy, and even goes to the extent of demeaning other people's work. Please, address the anger issues through a better way of expressing it.
The constant thought of 'feeling low-of-yourself':
It should be dealt with. It will affect your mental health.
Don't involve yourself in workplace bullying:
It's not right. Don't do it, and don't be a part of it even for fun.
Develop Empathy:
After all, your office is filled with people like you and people who go through everyday life like you.
Good Health:
Lifestyle with good food, enough physical activity, enough sleep, compassion, empathy are essential for your overall health, which can reflect on how well you take situations and how well you control your emotions.
Good emotional support from your friends & family:
You will be able to better tackle workplace difficulties.
Never take your office troubles home.
The workplace is where you spend most of your time next to home. It's within your reach to make it a better place. A little effort on trying to understanding what triggers your emotions at the end of the day is a good start. The next thing is all about positively channeling your emotions. We hope that, especially to young talents who are about to kick-start their careers, the ideas we shared here would be of much help. A good workplace can aspire the better in you!