When I was trained as a magician years ago, I will never forget something one of my instructors told his group of students. “If you’re ever so nervous to get on stage that you feel like your blood pressure is sky-rocketing or you feel like you’re going to throw up before you perform, you need to find another occupation.” I don’t know why, but that has always stuck with me.
Unfortunately, I know people who have high blood pressure thinking about going to work. Or sometimes they get sick to their stomach because their nerves are so bad thinking about facing their boss when they get to work. I asked my husband if he ever had a bad boss and he immediately commented on the “Jerk Boss."
This happened to be at a retail store when he was a teenager (many years ago) and the store no longer exists at all. Even the building is gone. He said that the boss was always very sarcastic and cynical to everyone. He even remembers sacking groceries one late night and at 10:40 p.m. the boss said out loud, “You might as well go home, you’re worthless.” On many occasions he would reprimand employees out loud in front of customers and co-workers.
So, what do you do when your boss is a jerk versus a joy? Here are four options:
Grit your teeth and go in survival mode,
Ask if you can talk to the boss in private and tell him or her how you feel,
Infect those above you with your positive attitude, pray for them, smile really big, or
Start looking for another job.
There is always a reason why people act the way they do. I’m not making excuses for them; I’m just saying that you never know what might be going on in their personal life or if they had negative circumstances that molded them into who they are today. Overall, never allow the negative actions of a person you work with to determine the quality of your day.