Encouragement

Recently I've been under a lot of stress and pressure at work.  Due to changes at the corporate level, I now work for someone else as opposed to the President of the company (who hired me nearly 4 years ago).  I am now under the umbrella of a group of people with the same type of position as opposed to being under a specific company within the corporation.  It has not been a smooth transition.  I am expected to do and follow processes that the corporation has in place, even though some of those processes do not fit on the company level.  There is no set guideline or workflow.  There are lots of little glitches.  Things are not running smoothly.

I'll be frank; it kind of freaks me out.  It freaks me out a lot!

I am trying my best.  I'm doing what I can to move the work forward.  But I'm making mistakes.  I may leave something out.  I may forget to do something.  I'm thinking that's to be expected, but again it's setting me on edge; especially as the emails flow fast and furious.  (Moreover, many automated emails that alert me to work on a project go directly to my spam box, which means I need to remember to check my spam several times a day.)

By the end of the day, I'm pretty tense.  Honestly, I am REALLY tense.

Yesterday, on my way home from work, I got a call from my office, but I was on another call, so I didn't answer it.  I reminded myself that I was off the clock, but to check my email when I got home.

When I did, I saw an email chain.  I scrolled through it trying to figure out what I'd need to do.  At the bottom, I stumbled on a note from the person who had tried to call, which simply said, "give me a call to discuss."

It was after five, but I made the call.  After all, although he was not my boss, he is a director of the corporation. 

The first thing he asked me was how I was.  I honestly answered that I was trying to keep my head above water.  He clearly heard me and said that things were actually going better than he had thought they would. And that was all that I needed to feel better about  what was doing.  I won't say that a tremendous weight was lifted from my shoulders, but I DID feel like I could continue on with what I was doing and that I wasn't a complete and utter failure.

Sometimes all it takes are a few words of encouragement to turn someone's day around.  I know it's been said before, but a little positive reinforcement can do wonders.  We all have the opportunity each and every day to encourage and uplift.  Take that opportunity.