There may come a time in a person’s working life when significant negative changes in your workplace make you begin to question if it’s worth staying where you are, and if you do stay, how you will ever get through it.
1. Focus on the work itself. Sometimes, bad workplace politics or interpersonal drama can result in your self-confidence at work being ruined. Maybe you were chewed out by a petty boss, or maybe you were demoted or had your hours (or pay) cut. Whatever the case, the best way to begin to move forward again is to simply focus on your work. Ignore gossip and rumors, stay on task, and don’t waste time. Not only are you demonstrating to the business that you’re a valuable commodity, you’re reminding yourself of the same thing.
Obviously, if you’ve suffered a truly devastating setback at your job, you should begin to search for work elsewhere, where your talents and experience will be better appreciated. However, you should also stay focused on work, so that there’s no way your business can say anything bad about your performance to the new employer.
If the humiliation you’re enduring is abusive in nature, look out for number one: keep an incident log and get in touch with outside authorities immediately. You have the right to work without being harassed (sexually or otherwise) by other members of the workforce. Bring them down so that others won’t have to suffer like you did.
2. Separate your strengths and your weaknesses. Do what you can to work where you perform most strongly on the job. Never lose sight of the fact that you have strengths that are important and useful to the business and your career. At the same time, acknowledge your weaknesses and try to improve them. As long as you stay focused, you can make some headway, which should increase your workplace confidence significantly.
3. Lean on your co-workers. Chances are, you get along at least fairly well with your co-workers. Ask them what they think you’re good at to get a picture of how other people at work view your talents and proficiencies. Use their words to build your confidence by focusing on what they say your strongest talents are. The good impression you’ll make on them won’t hurt, either.
4. Keep a panoramic view. Instead of getting caught up in the heat of the moment when someone seems to be insulting or dismissive of you, try to think about why they might be speaking that way. Get away from the notion that it’s always something you did, and take things like stress and ego into account. Again, by allowing more of the blame for a bad situation to fall on the shoulders of others involved in making it, you can take a healthy lesson from your mistakes without feeling crushed by them.
