Are you frustrated at work?

Everyone gets some frustrations at work from time to time.

Of course like everything else, some people get more frustrations than others.Some experience much bigger frustrations than others.

But, we all face frustrations from time to time. I have had my own share sometimes. Along the way, I have learnt how to deal with them better.

The best teachers were my mentors. When I have big frustrations, I turn to my mentors to help me out. It turns out that if I dealt with the frustrations on my own, I may not have done as well as I did with the help of the mentors.

Without the mentors, when one is frustrated, he or she is likely to act and decide out of emotions. A good mentor will help you to remain calm and to deal with the frustrations in a more objective and in a wiser manner. Therefore, the first step to take with frustrations is to try and involve your mentor— especially in cases of big frustrations.

This also explains why is it important not just to have a mentor but to have a good mentor who is mature, well experienced and calm. A mentor that can give you good guidance. Not a mentor that when you share frustrations then he or she gets even more shocked and frustrated. A good mentor should be able to tell you the opposite of your big feelings without fear.

The one temptation that often comes to the mind of a frustrated employee is to slow down on work. Typically, if the employee used to work very hard—coming early to work and knocking off in the night long after the official time, he or she will now want to only work during the normal working period.

A frustrated employee sees no reason to come to work before official time or to work beyond the official time. Even the pace of work, the output and the passion for work will all be impacted. This is the normal temptation that everyone experiences when frustrated.

I remember one day, several years ago, my boss did something that frustrated me. I had been working really hard— usually 10 to 14 hours per day plus at least half a day at the weekend. The day I was really frustrated, I knocked off at the normal time.

In the night, I was planning to go to work the next day like most people did—which was some minutes after the normal office time, against the trend I had of arriving in the office at least 30 minutes before normal time. I wanted to slow down my work rate. Then came the other thought. “What will I achieve with this change? I am really thinking that I am punishing my boss or my work?”

Sense started to come back to me. I then abandoned my emotional ideas of slowing down work. The reason was that I realised that in the end, I was going to badly affect my own career. I had been developing my career well and was growing at a good pace.

How I reacted to this frustration was going to determine whether that career growth was going to be sustained or curtailed. I chose to sustain the growth of my career and development of my skills.

It was not an easy decision though. I had to swallow my pride, kill my ego and suppress my emotions.

That is what we all need to do when frustrated. This is a very important part of dealing with frustrations at work. If you do not master this solution, frustrations will badly impact your career growth.

In short, let not your frustrations change the way you work. The maximum you can do with frustrations is to have a discussion with your boss or the human resources manager so that they can help you to have a conducive environment where you thrive.

At the minimum, remember to involve your mentor so that you are able to make sober, objective and wise decisions on how to deal with the frustrations that you are experiencing.

All the best as you deal with frustrations at work!