"The Not-So-Fine Art of Losing Your Shit"
I just read this article after seeing it liked off an industry newsletter: "What You Could Gain By Losing Your Mind" by Erika Napoletano. Essentially it chronicles the lead up to and results from a talk she gave in Boston, "The Not-So-Fine Art of Losing Your Shit" in which she went confessional on a packed house about being fed up with her life and business and her overall dissatisfaction despite having so many good things in her life. Leading up to it was the realization that we often suppress our natural instinct to burst out with our negative feelings when we're overwhelmed, and the results from actually dropping this realization in a confessional fashion to a large crowd was actually pretty positive - she felt better having vented constructively, and people saw her honesty about her fallibility as sympathetically human - many signed up to follow her blog. So, Yahtzee, on both personal and professional fronts.
As of about 1 1/2 to 2 years ago, I could have really used this article to generally make myself feel better about how my previous job was driving me crazy. Fortunately (or un), I was able to vent on a fairly regular basis to my coworkers, and sometimes to my managers, about these issues, in somewhat dramatic terms (like feeling like this head-banging zombie-thing you encounter in Dead Space - how I didn't post a record of that exchange here excapes me!). But, even with that opportunity, it didn't take enough of the edge off the overwhelming frustration I was experiencing, and I sometimes felt like I was on the verge of screaming "FUCK THIS SHIT FOREVER!!!" at least then someone would have noticed how bad it had gotten. I know I wasn't exactly in a high-powered job, but when someone like me, who usually walks aroung with a song in her heart and a tray of cookies in her hand, gets THAT fed up with the status quo, it ought to show the extent to which the stress and strain has negatively affected the overall organization and the morale of even its most cheerful members. If we, as people and as employees, do as the author describes herself as doing - "...when I'm on the verge of losing it, I’ve discovered a knack for covering it all up in a protective outer coating of 'Hey, I’m cool! Let’s get stuff done!' " we are sending an inaccurate message to those around us.
As valuable as a strong front is, there are times it must be dropped in favor of truth - and also in favor of really getting things done, because often being overwhelmed means needing help from others - help you won't get if you keep pretending everything's cool.
As of about 1 1/2 to 2 years ago, I could have really used this article to generally make myself feel better about how my previous job was driving me crazy. Fortunately (or un), I was able to vent on a fairly regular basis to my coworkers, and sometimes to my managers, about these issues, in somewhat dramatic terms (like feeling like this head-banging zombie-thing you encounter in Dead Space - how I didn't post a record of that exchange here excapes me!). But, even with that opportunity, it didn't take enough of the edge off the overwhelming frustration I was experiencing, and I sometimes felt like I was on the verge of screaming "FUCK THIS SHIT FOREVER!!!" at least then someone would have noticed how bad it had gotten. I know I wasn't exactly in a high-powered job, but when someone like me, who usually walks aroung with a song in her heart and a tray of cookies in her hand, gets THAT fed up with the status quo, it ought to show the extent to which the stress and strain has negatively affected the overall organization and the morale of even its most cheerful members. If we, as people and as employees, do as the author describes herself as doing - "...when I'm on the verge of losing it, I’ve discovered a knack for covering it all up in a protective outer coating of 'Hey, I’m cool! Let’s get stuff done!' " we are sending an inaccurate message to those around us.
As valuable as a strong front is, there are times it must be dropped in favor of truth - and also in favor of really getting things done, because often being overwhelmed means needing help from others - help you won't get if you keep pretending everything's cool.