photo credit: DaveBleasdale

According to a recent survey, 40% of professionals are considering going in search of a new job when they get back from their summer vacation. They’re battle weary after months of slogging it out in positions where their promotion prospects are disappearing, their bosses aren’t living espoused company values, and their bonuses are being cut.

It’s not surprising news. I’m hearing all the time from clients and friends just how much they want to quit. I’ve written elsewhere about being careful about not rushing to escape.

But how do you know when it really is time to go? Here are 7 signs that indicate the end is, indeed, in sight.

• You dislike what you’re doing. You’ve got to the point where you’re more than just bored, or not enjoying what you do. It’s becoming an active hatred. You can feel it sitting on you like a lead weight on your heart. It’s affecting your whole outlook on life.
• You feel no connection with your boss or colleagues. If you ever trusted your boss, that’s gone never to return. And, there’s no-one at work you can really call your friend.
• You’d really rather stay in bed. You’re struggling to get up in the morning, and it’s an effort to get yourself together for your day.
• You can never get on top of your workload. No matter how hard you try, you never feel that you’re getting on top of things. You might just about get there when the goal posts change again and you’re back to square one.
• You’re constantly ill. Despite whatever you do to de-stress, you’ve always got some kind of minor health problem going on. Whether it’s a cold, flu, whatever, you also notice these things becoming more difficult to shrug off and recover from.
• You’re living for weekends and holidays. The benefits of them, however, last only a few days before you feel that you’ve never been away.
• You’ve tried your damnedest to make things better. You’re a pro. You’ve read all the advice in this and other blogs about how to hack your career and you’ve applied it all religiously. Without success. You’re done with trying.

Sometimes the best thing to do is walk away. Some companies are just not for you. Don’t waste your energy and make yourself chronically ill trying to force fit yourself to a scenario that was never for you.

Sure, there are pragmatic considerations around how you get yourself out, what you subsequently do, and how you finance yourself in the process. It may take you time, but if it’s right to go, do yourself a favor and make that a firm decision. That’s step one. The rest will follow. And you’ll wonder why you slogged it out for so long!

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The other day I was doing a thorough review of the analytics of my site with Marketing Coach, Jim Connolly.

We discovered an interesting thing.

Lots of people are reading my stuff at 2am.

There could be two reasons for this:

Either you’re so passionate about what you’re doing that you’re burning the candle on social media searches. Or some problem is keeping you awake, enticing you online in search of solutions.

My writing and outlook on life can be very upbeat. Sometimes I struggle to get across that I know what it’s like to see no solution to your problems. But the truth is I’ve been there myself in spades. Which means I’m not just well equipped, but also delighted to support you find your way through whatever challenges you’re currently facing.

You’re unlikely to disclose what’s going on for you on a post comment. But I just want you to know that I love getting emails and calls out of the blue from people who have read the blog and just want to reach out confidentially.

So, if there’s something you’d like help with, email me on christine (at) adifferentkindofwork.com, or pick the phone up to me on +44 (0) 7767 244977.

I look forward to hearing from you.

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Their hearts tell them they’d love to buy in to the New Work Pioneer ethos.

But to a greater or lesser degree the fear of becoming the proverbial bag lady brings them back to doing what they know how to in this situation: get on the market and hustle for another of the same kind of job.

They can pay attention to this “doing what you love” stuff in the future. When things are sorted. When they feel more secure and stable.

You know how it is.

And with more redundancies looming here in the UK, at least in the public sector, even just getting more of the same is not the cakewalk it once was. Here are a few tips for staying street-savvy, without giving your soul over to the whims of the economy.

1. Don’t panic

   Easier to say than to do, perhaps. But, seriously, panic drives you to take action and make decisions that you may regret later. That’s because, when we’re anxious, we’re cut off from the most confident, resourceful parts of ourselves.

   So, first things first, do what you need to in order to nail down key concerns.

   The biggest one is usually money. Face this fear head-on, and early on. Figure out what you need and what you want, budget and keep a tight reign on things. If you need to talk to banks about refinancing or having mortgage payment holidays or whatever, do it proactively.

   Knowing that you’re in control of your money, rather than it being in control of you will give you personal and psychological breathing space.

2. Listen to your heart and your head

   It’s tempting to let your head rule at times when work is tricky. It can definitely help you figure things out and do things cleverly. But it won’t always take account of your intuitions or feelings. They need attention too.

   What do you really, really want to do in this situation? What opportunities do you see that your logical mind wants you to ignore? What does your gut tell you about interviews you’ve gone for, or not? What if you paid attention? Where would that take you?

   Now, how might you use your mind to logic the next steps?

3. Focus on what you can do

   There’s a lot of “can’t” around at the moment. Can’t work. Can’t afford. Can’t progress. What if you shift your attention off of these things and onto where you can direct your energy ?

   Networking is a pretty obvious one. You can do this on or offline. And, since things seem to be changing around you anyway, what do you have to lose by pushing the barriers and experimenting with new networks or new media that you haven’t tried before?

   Updating your skills is another. As, indeed, is taking them in a completely different direction again. Money doesn’t need to be an obstacle. There’s a ton of resource online and either free or relatively inexpensive.

   If you’re looking for a similar job, get yourself the smartest CV and the best support you can buy to position yourself well in a crowded market. Julie Walraven is a fabulous resource on both fronts.

   And if you really do want to use this opportunity for bigger change, find yourself a coach that understands this space and invest in your own transformation.

4. Be pragmatic

   I’m seeing folks take months right now to find work they are happy with. It all depends on what level you’re at, how much you’re earning, and how much networking you’re prepared to do for yourself.

   Meantime, you may still want to put cash in the bank.

   I’m counselling people to take a long term view of things now, separating out what they need to do to earn the money to support themselves, from finding work that they will be happy with ongoing.

   That could look like choosing to take a job that you know is a compromise of some sort for you in the short term, but using it as leverage for future endeavour.

   Or taking interim contracts, if you can find them, to tide you over.

   The trick comes in making these decisions consciously and tactically. You do not need to imagine that a short term solution defines you. It doesn’t. It just keeps your spirit alive in the longer term.

5. Don’t beat yourself up

   Finding paths forward in the current economy is fraught with challenge and set-back. Clients tell me of writing emails for jobs and never getting response. Or, of headhunters who were gushing and warm in getting them to interview never following up with the outcome. It shouldn’t be like this, but sadly, sometimes it is.

   Don’t, whatever you do, take it personally. It’s really not about you.

Times are tough, but keep the faith. Keep your sense of direction and take action you can believe in. That’s what’s going to see you through.

photo credit: Robert S. Donovan

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I decided to write this post to share why I think that workshops are such a powerful form of coaching.

Work Life Balance Workshop

I created The Worklife Makeover because everything tells me that “work life balance” is something people are struggling with more and more these days.

Particularly in the current economy where people – assuming they’re working at all – are working harder for the same or less money than before.

Where many things that folks once took for granted about the security of their jobs has disappeared. Including in the relatively more “safe” public sector.

Where business owners are having to really hustle for their livelihoods.

Where expected career paths are evaporating in front of people’s eyes.

Where once certain retirement plans have become unclear.

In corporate speak, while the government plays the game of digging the country out of its black hole of debt, consumer confidence is tanking. And, unsurprisingly, employee engagement measures are hitting the deck.

People are understandably feeling the pressure. Something my good friend Judy Martin wrote about just this week.

Companies are offering their own solutions to these challenges, as Judy clearly points out. But this isn’t universally true.

Besides, I wanted to offer a service, an event, that allows people to look at their lives more broadly than to what extent they help fulfil a corporation’s agenda of them.

I wanted to support people find their own voices, and retrieve a sense of personal power in the chaos that’s going on around us.

Workshops: The Power of the Group

In one to one work, I endorse and support people to find their own path.

But with certain topics, getting a small group of kindred spirits together has enormous value of its own. People, who don’t know each other from Adam in the beginning, meet around a shared concern, and become one another’s sounding boards.

Of course it takes strong facilitation and coaching to quickly create the safety that allows people to share. And highly focused content and coaching exercises to help people hone in on what’s right for them.

But beyond that, as I help people rethink their lives, see new possibilities, and shift old mindsets that keep them stuck, the power of the group plays a role too.

It mirrors back to you who you really are. It witnesses your casting off of stuff that no longer suits you. It amplifies for you the positive decisions you make in going forward in your life.

Workshops: You are not alone

With skilful leadership, the group develops its own energy. People come to understand that they are not alone in things. A community emerges that supports itself.

Often, that community extends beyond the workshop in ways of its own. I just have to watch my Twitter feed these days to see the interconnections that go on between the online folks who attended my last workshop, and that’s not to mention some of the off-line stuff I am part of too.

So, don’t underestimate workshops. Well run, they can be transformational.

What workshops have you attended, or indeed run, where the power of the event and the group rocked your life?

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I’ve had a curious experience this week that I wanted to share.

It was all the more surprising as I’d just spent some deeply happy days unplugging and enjoying the successes of the first half of the year.

And back at work, I’d confidently set my second half year targets: run 3 Worklife Makeover workshops; add 5 new coaching spaces; sell and deliver 2 social media strategy pieces.

More details on all of these shortly.

I can’t say that one thing triggered it. Maybe it was reading online about the Emergency Budget and its resultant public spending job losses. Maybe it was the stuff I’d seen on TV about the BP oil spill and its ravages on both the US coast line and on the financial markets. Maybe it was the two old whingers I’d overheard in my local coffee shop, crapping on about everything from England’s disastrous World Cup performance to the impact of recession on their pension funds.

But suddenly I found myself asking:

“Who am I…?”

Who am I to be this confident about business in the midst of such upheaval and uncertainty? To be so successful? To have this lifestyle? To feel so loved?

Fear and doubt crept in.

I noticed my attention shift from what I wanted to do in the next months, to what I feared I may not be able to do.

What if I can’t pay my mortgage?

I felt my power sap, and my horizons narrow.

Maybe I should get A Job.

Then, shit, there are no jobs, and, in any case, who’d hire me eleven years out?

Those of you who know me well enough may find this surprising, even funny, but I spent a few unhappy hours, just swimming around in this self-destructive soup.

Whoa!

Unhappy. It was realising that this was how I was feeling that pulled me back from a shockingly downward spiral. I’ve done a lot of unhappy in the past, and I’ve vowed not to do it for long any more.

Life’s too short. Who can afford unhappy?

It was as I was coming back to myself that I got to wondering about all the negativity that’s out there and whether it has some sinister purpose that I’d momentarily got caught up in.

Maybe, I thought, doom and gloom is society’s way of keeping us in line and reminding us who’s boss. It sends an insidious fear message that talks right at the level of our most limiting beliefs.

Sure, it’s all dressed up in fancy, logical language.

The black hole in the economy. Budget deficits. Necessary measures.

Blah, blah.

But it shifts our focus from what we want to do because it’s naturally us, to what we have to do in order to stay valid society members. And it robs our vitality, so that we have energy only for achieving those needs.

Not buying into this.

I heard the words as I regained my own perspective. Yes, I want much of what society would deem as acceptable. But I also want to it on my terms.

And I realised that this was the choice doom and gloom gives us. We can either allow it to knock us out and surrender to its spell; or we can choose not to accept its handcuffs.

And I wonder what choices you’re making in its midst?

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The WSJ article reckons there’s two reasons:

First, there’s a glut of people who have sat out the recession in the relative safety of their current jobs, when they’d normally have been progressing their careers elsewhere.

Second, many people who have taken the brunt of tough cost-cutting initiatives, are now looking to greener pastures as a way both of voting with their feet, and moving on in their own lives.

No problems with any of that.

But, in tandem, I heard on my own grapevine last week that there’s been a sudden increase in the number of new Employee Engagement jobs in London. A quick look at those advertised online confirms that most of them are about trying to get some enthusiasm back into weary workforces.

As someone who has coached and consulted with some of the most successful companies in the world, I have to say that this seems to be a case of closing the gate after the horse has bolted.

Employers need to get the message that they can’t treat people badly and expect them to keep smiling

We’re not living in the early 20th Century any more. The world and society has shifted hugely since the first mechanistic concepts of people management were developed. People see themselves as having more choice. There’s a lot more consciousness in the system and people will exercise it to their own advantage.

Old paternalistic, command and control cultures are breaking down. People want to be treated as adults these days. They don’t want to be treated as recalcitrant children: lavished in good times; punished in bad. They want their personal power to be respected and valued.

If you manage staff, you can’t talk to them one day about how important it is for you to engage them, hearts and minds, next day unilaterally impose swingeing cuts, and not expect them to be angry about your breach of trust. These days they smell your spin at fifty feet.

Employers need to understand that damaging their workforces, means damaging their brand

I’m an advocate for the well being of people at work, whatever work they do. Work is more than just a cog in the economic machine. It’s a vital aspect of giving each of us a sense of purpose and direction in life. Businesses have a wonderful opportunity to engage talented, purposeful people, support them to thrive – and see their businesses thrive too.

Instead many – too many – continue to see their people mechanistically. Even if they’ve thought about “Employee Engagement” it gets managed as an initiative, rather than a living, breathing, vital part of business. It’s pumped out through town hall meetings and emails. The importance of the human, energetic relationship between managers and their staff gets missed.

Employers forget that their people have voices. That they talk to their friends about their experiences. That they write about them on social media sites. Hence others build a picture of what constitutes a “good” or “bad” employer in much the same way as they build a picture of a consumer brand.

Employers need to count the costs in both people and financial terms

They appear to be blind to the fact that there’s a wave of what they call “talent” streaming away from their organisations. That, indeed, many talented individuals are waving two fingers to the corporate world because they’ve had enough psychopathy to last them a life time.

This is not just a phenomenon fuelled by recession. As the Conference Board reported in January, Job Satisfaction Statistics have been trending downwards for 22 years.

But there’s a financial impact of all of this too.

Joe Light across at WSJ made a good guess at the financial cost of the turnover we’re starting to see as the job market eases off. He estimates that, at more senior levels, the bill is around 50% of each new person’s salary.

That’s not including the costs of paying for interim or consulting staff to cover key vacancies. Or the incremental recruitment costs from the bad will you inflict on putting extra stress on an already pressurised work team.

If you’re in the highly privileged position to be able to have people work for you, you might like to consider what that means going forward. You might like to connect with the reality that people have lives, that they have souls, that they care. That if you dare to provide the right kind of environment, they will bring these beautiful, human qualities to the benefit of your business.

My belief is that if employers adopt this kind of thinking, the rewards will speak for themselves. What do you think?

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Photo credit: Steven Durbin Photography

If there’s one word I’ve heard clients use a lot recently, it’s the word reality.

It has come up as they’ve talked about what’s happening in their businesses right now. Because some of them are once more finding their pipelines to be a little short on flow. After a few months of order books starting to fill up again, they’re having another moment when the phones aren’t ringing.

Maybe it’s buyer uncertainty around how the new Cameron-Clegg coalition will pan out. Or market panic about the Eurozone crisis.

Whatever its cause, the return of relative silence brings back gut-wrenching, immobilising fear.

In coaching, clients want to put aside what they suddenly see as being the terribly indulgent work they’ve been doing on themselves.

“Right now I have to get back to reality,” they say.

Sometimes their tone is punishing. As if by supporting their personal development I’ve somehow lead them astray and am to blame for the stasis in their business development.

When I ask what getting back to reality looks like, they express different, pressing coaching needs.

“I’ve never really had to market myself before. Help me get my head round that.”

“I need to build my confidence in going into completely new networking situations.”

“Help me get over my fear of proactively calling people.”

These are the issues that are alive for them, and so we’ll go there. And yet I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t give voice to the panic that I intuit. Or question the clinging after control that I feel.

My clients are successful people in their own regard, irrespective of what hand life is currently dealing them. Whether they’re prepared to say so or not, they experience themselves as having much to lose. It’s not just money. It’s their reputation that’s at stake. Their power and influence. Their perceived competitive position versus peers and colleagues.

What has all the effort been for, if it can just all be swept away?

One guy told me of a dream he’d had. A nightmare, really. He’d been at the top of a mountain, and watched on, horrified, as a climber on an adjoining peak accidentally slipped on rubble and fell freely to certain death.

You don’t have to be an analyst to figure that one.

But such conversation takes coaching to a different place again. People want to move forward. At the same time they feel the weight of their own fears. Which need do they address?

Surely, I argue, the answer has to be both?

By all means, explore what you can do differently to open up your business-getting options. Look at your offering. Address your marketing weaknesses.

But don’t make the mistake of cutting off from yourself in the process. Don’t think that self-development is something you do after the crisis has passed.

Facing things in this way allows new questions to emerge:

• What responsibility might you be inappropriately shouldering for the current situation?
• What deep down failing do you fear is about to be unmasked?
• Who are you without your professional reputation and business persona?
• What gives your life meaning beyond this profession; this portfolio?

Life and nature bring times of uncertainty and silence. What if this lull was a normal, natural state of affairs? What qualities and resources in you, other than your cleverness and control, is it calling you to develop?

This is the opportunity in the silence: the chance to integrate; the chance to listen to your own soul.

Great, meaningful, deeply significant work happens when you really marinate in the meantime. It is not a distraction from the creative process, it is the creative process.

Pam Slim, Escape From Cubicle Nation

What silences have you faced recently? What opportunities have you allowed them to mean for you?

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And with cost-cutting measures still in vogue, how do you live without the dread of being tapped on the shoulder by your boss?

• Bring your focus back to youWhen there’s bad news around, we tend to spend most of our time worrying about stuff that’s “out there”, beyond our control. We fret about whether our company will survive the recession; whether our government will intervene to make things better. As valid as these things are to wonder about, there’s little that we can do to influence them. But we exhaust and depress ourselves in the process.Instead, bring your attention back to you. You are the only person you can control in all of this. Decide to empower yourself; decide not to be a victim of circumstance.

  This mindset is fundamental to what I’m going to say next, and indeed to your long term happiness in tough times.

• Face your demons head onWhen the threat of being made redundant is hanging over us, it can demobilise us and make us feel quite stuck. Worse, it can lead us to being less productive than we usually are, which just serves to exacerbate things.Instead of having “what if…” fears running aimlessly around in your head, watch what happens when you look at each one of them in the eye.

  A useful way to get into this is to take time by yourself, and write out all the things that you’re worrying about. What are the worst things that could happen if you lost your job? Go ahead, get some big sheets of paper and write a list. They may be things like not being able to pay your rent or mortgage or support your family; facing the prospect of it taking time to find another job in your field or area; believing that people might think less of you. What comes to mind for you?

  Done that?

  Okay, now I want you to go back through each of the things on your list, and ask yourself, if this fear becomes for real, how would I handle it? Here I encourage you to be as creative and inventive as you can be. These are unusual times and they call for unconventional solutions. So, if you became unemployed and couldn’t pay your rent, what could you do? Yes, you could ask your bank for overdraft facilities, or borrow from friends and family. But what else? Get a barista job in Starbucks; take in a lodger; get in on the anti-restaurant scene like Jamie Oliver recently portrayed and open your home to paying supper club guests… Come on, what else can you think of that would work for you?

  Done that for your whole list? It’s okay, take your time, I’m going to be here till you’re ready.

  Now, go back through each of your ideas for handling your fears and ask yourself, what can I do now that would allow me to feel more in control? Take our example above, you might want to check out the ins and outs of taking in lodgers. Or investigate the anti-restaurant scene. You could do these things now. But those are my ideas – what works for you?Starting to feel a little lighter?

• Look after yourselfWhen anxiety is in the air, we often forget to take care of ourselves.To be of most benefit to ourselves and others, no matter whether the sword of Damocles is hanging over us or not, we need to pay good attention to the basics of eating properly, exercising and making sure we get plenty of rest.

Hopefully you will never have to implement your layoff strategy. But if you’ve faced your worst fears, you’ve already despooked the whole thing for yourself.

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This post is for people staying put in jobs they’d really rather be leaving. How do you turn a potentially dispiriting experience into something you can gain from?

• Make a positive choice to stay It may seem like you have no choice at the moment, but really you do. Instead of being an unwitting victim to circumstances, make the decision to commit to your current job. Focussing on what you don’t want, just takes you down into a spiral of depression and negativity. Instead, switch your focus and list off all the positive reasons you’re staying in your current role. Money is likely to be one; relative safety and security is another. If you’re thinking of working for yourself in the future, you may have decided that staying in employment for now buys you time to better develop your business model. If it really is the best option to stay right now, accept that with grace rather than gut-rotting contempt.
• Set yourself goals on what you can achieve by staying
  

  Think about your hopes and dreams for your life beyond this role. What things would you like to add to your CV or to your skill set that would put you in a better state of readiness to achieve them? Rather than flounder aimlessly at work, get resourceful and make a plan to develop yourself whilst still doing what you do. So for instance, instead of looking at new assignments that come along as extra work, think about how they will stretch you in a way that might actually be to your advantage. And if you can’t see opportunities immediately around you, get your head off your desk and look beyond you. Go after things that’ll add to your personal portfolio. Rather than feeling resentful about giving your current employer more of your precious time, you’ll feel energised because you’re doing something for yourself.

• Stop hating the people you work withYour boss may well be a complete tosser, but the more you allow him or her to wind you up, the more tired, exhausted and, frankly, hateful, you will become. Realise that ugly feelings only damage you and let them go. If you really want to challenge yourself, set yourself the goal of learning how to deal with people you find difficult. It’ll be enormously beneficial for you in your present job and set you up well for all kinds of work and life challenges in the future.
• Maximise travel time If part of the thing you’d really prefer to escape from is a lengthy commute, consider how you can maximise this time. Could you listen to MP3 files on topics that help to take you forward? If you travel by train or underground, are there books or papers you could read to the same end?Does work often take you away from home? Rather than feel you must switch off from thinking about or developing yourself for the future, take your pc, a book or some papers with you – whatever you need to ensure you don’t neglect that self-supporting part of you.
• Find something soulful to do outside of work It can be difficult to nurture your soul in a deathly job, so make sure you give it space beyond the cubicle. Drawing, painting, writing, blogging, spending time with loved ones, walking in nature, doing yoga or meditation: these are all things that can bring your spirit alive. And, let’s face it, in a scenario where you may be challenged daily to keep your outlook positive, you need to make sure you’ve got good, positive energy to draw on.

  These are all ideas that have worked for me and some of the people I coach. But what works for you?

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Today I’m talking about the equally loved as hated team building events that seem to be resurfacing as businesses regroup after the chaos of the last couple of years. When times were good you turned up to these days with hope, said your piece and went away feeling hungover, but bonded. These days, post the redundancies that ripped through your department and caused you to wonder if you could ever trust your boss again, chances are you’re feeling more cagey and reticent about spending two days locked in a hotel room with your colleagues.

So, how can you turn it into a positive 48 hours for yourself?

1. Decide to turn up. Instead of spending days and hours resenting the thing, and exhausting yourself by being there in body but not in mind, put your resentment aside and make a firm decision to be wholly present. You’re a big girl or boy now. You can choose how you want this time to be for you.
2. Set your expectations appropriately. Approach the whole event with a degree of healthy curiosity. Rather than being unrealistically hopeful and feel gutted when your wishes aren’t met, stay with how things actually are and be pleasantly surprised.
3. Set some goals about what you’d personally like to get out of the event. They might be things like understanding what your boss sees as the future direction for your unit. Or learning two facilitation techniques from the coach or trainer. Alternatively, set some private goals. Having a long lie on the second morning because you’re not getting up early to commute; using the swimming pool or gym when you’re away; or reading a chapter of your new book when you have some down time.
4. In advance, talk to your friend, partner or child about this event in a way that lightens it for you. Have fun with it. Imagine your boss’s earnestness in trying to re-engage everyone, when you know how critical people are feeling towards her currently. Visualise a colleague getting up to some of his hysterical antics. Laughing about it in advance allows you to empathise with the human side of it, and builds your resources.
5. Avoid the water cooler till after the event. By contrast, bitching about the upcoming workshop with any of your colleagues who are in a less than good place will only depress you. Don’t give yourself that experience.
6. During the event, do something fun. Even if your boss or colleagues aren’t aware of what that is. One idea is to wear some ridiculous underwear – those fabulous red Christmas boxer shorts your aunt gave you last year, or the Agent Provocateur lingerie that makes you feel good about yourself. No-one else needs to know about it. The point is that, when the mask painting is in full swing, or you’re being encouraged to hug papier mache trees, and you’re sinking in what feels like insanity, you can think about how ridiculous your knickers are and inwardly giggle.
7. Resolve to say only what you feel comfortable to say. There’s a big expectation at some team builds that you will get all your baggage out in the open and resolve it. In business, there’s a fine line to walk between saying what you need to say to be understood and productive, and completely unburdening yourself. Remember that, no matter the setting, this is still a corporate event. You have to guard your psychological safety because that’s not often something the trainer will have been trained to think about, or your boss will be worrying about.
8. You may be treated like a child: you don’t have to act like one. Bosses often do the parent thing in corporations. Either they’re doing the arm round your shoulders stuff, when they think that’s going to help things, or they’re doing the harsh, punishing stuff when that’s what they need to do to deliver results. This kind of thing can disable us and make us feel a bit crazy, Wise up to the game and don’t get hooked into it.
9. Take whatever time out is on offer. Go to the gym or pool. Read your book; listen to your iPod music. Or call your friend, partner, child, or dog. Do anything that reminds you that there’s a life awaiting you beyond this offsite, and ground yourself in its reality.
10. Finally, watch what you eat and drink. Coffee, sugar, chocolate and alcohol are all often available on tap during these events. I’m not advocating total abstinence, but I do suggest you watch your consumption. In excess they numb you out. Alcohol in particular can lead you to say and do things that, in the morning, you wish you’d rather not.

Related posts:

1. 7 Warning Signs That It’s Time To Quit Your Job
2. How to stay in your current job AND enjoy it!
3. How to live more easily with the fear of layoff