How to Keep Your Cool in the Office

Managing your temper and cracking a smile is the most difficult thing to do under stress. This is especially true if the work you’re in demands a lot from you at a split-second pace. When it comes to making crucial decisions that involve your company, and being faced with incompetent staff and a demanding boss or customer, you just want the earth to open up and eat you! However, before jumping out of the 23^rd floor becomes your only option, you should remember that there are better ways at addressing pressure than killing yourself. Along the way, you might realize that it’s the best option...and that this is one heck of a career advice.

When you’re trying to reach a hectic deadline, or at rush hours in the office, make sure you silence the unwanted. This means that anyone who may ask anything that doesn’t involve the crucial papers currently at hand should get out of your space. Make sure that while you’re working and sorting out the details, you listen to the right people, ask the right questions, and get relevant answers right away. Finish everything with a good time margin of about 5 minutes as allowance. After making sure that everything is handled well and delivered on time, take a breather, and get back at it!

Under normal, ordinary office circumstances, dealing with difficult people will be more challenging. You know that you’re not in the position to insist on being a corporate bitch because nothing “special” is happening to necessitate an attitude. Just like what most unhappy lovers do, just fake it! No one really knows whether you’re listening or not, anyway. Might as well, take advantage of the situation and put a smile on your face and think of happy thoughts. You can even divert the stressors’ attention away from you, in order not to pop your last nerve.

Making sure that you have grace under tremendous amounts of pressure or stress is very taxing. It requires from you a great sense of self, patience and a fully charged music player! Bear in mind that if you stay as the professional that you truly are, you’re still the winner in the end. No one can become the champ if they’re the one to lose their temper first. Besides, the best revenge you can give anyone is not by being as difficult as he/she is, but killing them with kindness. Realistically speaking, there is nothing more irritating for a grumpy workmate than to see you smiling while he’s moping and miserable.


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When I am pissed in the office (around a year ago, when I still worked in an office), I surf the net for some funny videos, stories or good music. Sometimes, I also take a couple of deep breaths and close my eyes for an energy recharge. Sometimes I go out for a short walk around the office compound. I bring my umbrella, of course. 


What are your ways to keep your cool in the office?

Tips for Effective Communication in the Office

As children, the scene where we are rushed to the room when we have visitors is familiar. Because of this, a lot of us grew up timid and afraid to talk to strangers. Hence, we find it hard to express ourselves when it comes to public speaking. This may be one of those classes in college or high school that you just wanted to get over and done with. Though at times it might be fulfilling to know that you just passed this course, your next boardroom conference with the CEOs might get back at you for that. Don’t worry! It’s never too late to master the basics of public speaking, especially if applied to the office environment. Here are some pointers you’d want to consider:

Basic public speaking lessons would tell you that confidence is the core of effective communication. Well, this is true and false. While it is true that you need this boost in order to speak properly, you also risk not being able to relay your message properly. It may be that because of too much confidence you place on yourself, you forget your audience along the way. The moral of the lesson is to be never too arrogant in speaking. You should have empathy with respect to your audience, especially if they’re the people you need to impress for a bonus of promotion. Strike a balance between these two always.

Furthermore, mastery of the topic will always save you from humiliation. Although most of the time, you’d be asked to report on something you do, along the way, you might encounter unfamiliar areas. This might be because of the work of a colleague who passed the last minute and you just copied his work unto the final presentation. Don’t run away scared! You can manage this by reading his part of the report thoroughly before you place it on to the presentation. If that doesn’t work, ask him to explain it in your behalf. As a last resort, just be honest and say you’ll get back to that once your data’s good to go.

Lastly, never present yourself in a boring manner. Always use hand gestures and keen eye contact on the people you need to do the report on. There are observable patterns in the crowd’s facial reaction that’ll indicate whether or not they follow you. It’s not as easy as observing your friends, but you’ll get there with more exposure. Being able to effectively communicate needs a lot of practice, so there’s no instant pill you can take. When you do get the hang of it, you can only get better at it with time.