Is Your Job Stressful? Add a Little Harmony
Every job has stress. Some stress is due to the nature of the
job, some stress we apply to ourselves, and some stress is
caused by those around us, be it demanding bosses, unreasonable
customers or unproductive and scheming co-workers.
Malcolm S. Forbes once said, "If you have a job without any
aggravations, you don't have a job."
So if workplace stress is a given, then how we handle this
stress has a large impact on how well we perform and how much we
enjoy our job.
The fact is that living and working with others is not always
easy. You don't have to like the people you work with, but you
do need to be able to co-exist and co-operate with them. You can
start by remembering that everyone has their place and the more
harmony you can bring to the situation the more enjoyable it
will be for everyone.
Why not try bringing a little harmony to the workplace by
imagining your job as being a member of a choir. In a choir some
people sing too loud, others too softly and some out of tune,
but we're all still part of the same choir. If you sing louder
to compete with the loud singers or sing so softly that you are
not heard or sing out of tune just to fit in, then you do
nothing to help the choir-you don't add anything to the harmony.
You can't change how another sings, you can only do the best
that you can and hope that others follow your lead.
The Roman philosopher Sallust said, "Harmony makes small things
grow, lack of it makes great things decay."
Wise words, indeed. Whatever you do, don't add to the
disharmony, this will only make matters worse and drag the choir
further out of tune.
Your performance should be based on how well you perform, and
not the performance of others. The more harmony there is in a
choir the better it sounds. The more harmony we can create at
work the less stressful our job becomes. Don't let someone else
singing off key ruin your song.