Twitter, Facebook, Instagram all of these are great ways to pass your time and be in touch with your friends. But, often we see that they interfere with our work and inside the workplace. It becomes difficult to work and we seem to lose our concentration. Due to which, a lot of work becomes pending and we just don’t find the time to finish the office work.

Below are few tips on how to increase concentration at work:

Priorities

First of all, one needs to set their priorities. Anyone can get easily distracted with constant pings, and e-mails. The easiest way to tackle these is to prioritize yourself. First, finishing up big tasks rather than the smaller ones should be the priority. It helps people get organized and increase concentration. Secondly, for the pings and e-mails, you should put aside a specific time to check them. That way, you are not always distracted and losing concentration.

Break down into small chunks

Big tasks seem very big and often makes us focus on something else. Breaking down the big task into smaller chunks helps in concentration. It increases ones focus on one task and increases concentration. Big tasks often make one feel anxious. Breaking them down into smaller chunks helps in the anxiety.

Location and Silence

Constantly shifting your place of work makes it easier for you to get distracted by external stimuli. Working in a designated space helps your mind attach the place to work. It then becomes difficult for your brain to get distracted. A work desk and a quiet space are complementary to each other. With a designated work desk, the place should be a quiet one. Gossips and talks then don’t become a distraction and you find yourself concentrating on your work.

Declutter and Plan

A messy desk becomes a very big distraction. The mind then shifts from one space of thought to the other. A cleaner desk or an empty desk helps you open up and concentrate on the work at hand. But, an empty desk without any planning is just empty space. Planning your day ahead helps you keep yourself organized. That way you know what time you need to do which task. Also, along with the day planning, one needs to maintain a routine. Constant routine change is another form of distraction.

Take notes

In an hours meeting, there are many things which are discussed. Going back to the desk, many things slip our mind. Taking notes during a meeting helps us remember. It keeps us focused on the task at hand. Later on, one can go back to the notes and highlight the tasks at hand.

Reward & Relax

If you are easily distracted, it becomes very important to take a very short break after you finish one task. After the completion of one task, you should take a short break of 5 minutes for yourself to relax. The break becomes a reward. It gives a sense of achievement. Also, during the break, you can indulge in breathing exercises. Exercises help you relax and bring back your concentration level to the next task.

We often come across people, co-workers who try to belittle us. Their focus becomes to present themselves as grandeur and always are on the defensive. They seem like a very cold person, who never care about anyone else. If you know someone at your workplace like this, then you are probably dealing with a narcissist.

Who is a Narcissist?

Narcissism is derived from the Greek hero, Narcissus. Narcissus was a person who fell in love with his own reflection. Similarly, a narcissist is someone who loves themselves very much. They come across as people who are constantly feeling envious and trying to dominate or use the other.  They have an obsession with fantasies of immense success and show no feelings or empathy. Another aspect of them are, they are hypersensitive towards criticism, and can even react violently towards it.

Below are a few steps on how to deal with a narcissistic co-worker:

Ignore & Don’t react:

First, it is important to identify when they are trying to attack you. The only way to deal with an attack is to ignore. Ignorance becomes a bliss. The more a person will react to their attack, the more they will be fuelled to fight. Ignoring and reacting then becomes a defence against. If they see they are being ignored, they will move to the next person.

Communicating with them:

Communication with them becomes difficult. If you want to communicate with them, then it’s easier to do so in their self-interest. Maintaining eye-contact and speaking confidently with them is the key. But, remember never to criticize them or speak to them in an aggressive manner.

Watch Out!

Attacking your image and making you doubt yourself is one of their strategies. First of all, one needs to be aware when the other is starting to attack you. They do so by making you feel less confident and making you doubt yourself. Secondly, if you decide to avoid them then don’t change your mind. Also, another thing to look out for is never to criticize them in front of others. As they have a very high self-image, this can lead to harming you or punish you.

Don’t try to change them:

Empathy and feelings are things they are not able to have. Trying to change them might turn into an argument or fight. Putting themselves in someone else’s shoes is not something they are capable of. Things like, “you should…you could…” might result in them reacting abusively. If they become abusive towards you then you should just respond by saying, “This is not nice” and walk away.

Narcissism is a serious mental health disorder. It is not advisable to try and argue with them. To outsmart a person with such conduct, you would have to become like them. They are people who are not able to deal with their own feelings, and hence arguing with them makes the situation worse.

Searching for a job is one of the most important aspects of an adult life. The search for a job can be because of personal or monitory growth. But, after you found a job, the next part becomes the interview. The interview becomes a hurdle for some, while some excel in it. It throws back to the question, what can we do right?

Below are some tips for what to do, and what not to do in an interview:

Research:

First of all, researching about the industry is very important. Researching about the company, hiring manager, and the job opportunity gives you an edge over the others. The more the research, the more are your chances of getting the job.

Review:

There are two things to review, one about common questions asked, another, your answers. Reviewing the questions and the answers help you build your confidence. Your goal then becomes to answer the questions on the point. One good way is to put your answers in a story form. But, there is no need to memorize the answers.

Dressing

As the interviewer doesn’t know you, the first impression matters. The wardrobe becomes an extension of yourself. You need to find out about the culture of the company and dress according to it. Your dressing is then one of the first things the interviewer will see and understand about you.

On time-Relaxed

One should always arrive on time. At least 15minute before the interview should be the aim. Arriving on time leaves a good impression. Another positive factor of arriving early is you will have time to relax. Being relaxed gives you an edge and helps you to be confident. To arrive on time and relaxed, the day before the interview, you must pack your things. You should always have two copies of your CV and portfolio, and remember to carry lots of pens and paper.

Impressions, Body, and Language

As suggested earlier, first impressions last longer. It is important to greet everyone present inside the room. Even outside the room, one needs to be polite to everyone. While giving the interview, the key becomes the delivery of your answers. Authenticity and honesty go a long way for everyone. Remember to answer the questions in a confident but authentic manner.

Secondly, your body language speaks a lot about your personality. Slouching, and bending in an interview leaves a bad impression. Remember to smile and keep eye contact all the time. It presents as a confident candidate. While slouching, looking off into a distance etc doesn’t leave a good impression.

Confidence vs. Arrogance

There is a difference between being confident and arrogant. Remember to be polite and presentable. Cutting off the interviewer is a sign of arrogance and not confidence. Wait for the other person to finish and then present your views. Asking insightful questions becomes a sign of your confidence.

Finally, when the interview is over, remember to thank everybody and ask what will be the next step and the time to make the decision. The more effort is put into the interview, the more will be the amount of success.

It’s often noted that while working, or attending a client, we lose our temper and subject ourselves to anger. There are many cases where because of anger, one has caused self-harm or got fired. Anger management then becomes a priority for self.

Below are some points on how to manage your anger:

Explore:

Many times, our source of resentment is not what it seems. It becomes important to locate the source of resentment, through introspection. If we are able to locate the source of resentment, then it becomes easier for one to control or process it.

Pay attention:

Whenever we are about to get angry there are some warning signs. It’s important to pay attention to those warning signs. Different people will feel different sensations while getting angry. Pounding heart, pacing up and down, seeing “red”, tensing your shoulders, etc are few of the common signs.

Eliminate negative patterns:

Often it happens that we overgeneralize situations or people. It tends us towards negative thoughts and patterns. “Should” and “must” then becomes an aggressive stressor, which then leads to anger. One should not, jump to conclusions and eliminate negative thoughts and trying to find the shortest of “straws”.

Cooling & Relaxing:

When someone gets angry, firstly, one should learn some basic breathing exercises. The exercises like counting down to ten sometimes take off your focus from the anger or the stressor. Another way to cool yourself and relax is through stretch or massage the areas of tension.

Productive-Anger:

One way to deal with anger is to use it in a productive sense. Anger should be expressed while working out or in the gym. In the gym, your anger gets a positive outlook and is expressed in a better way.

Fighting-fair:

It is natural to get upset at someone, but it is also important to look at what is more important. In a workplace, one should prioritize to look at their workplace relations, and what can be lost when getting too upset. It is better to forgive and forget if the fight is not worth it. Focusing on the present and the gains should be the priority.

To Seek Professional Help:

If you see yourself getting angry a lot and having troubles with the law, it would be advisable to seek professional help from a counselor or psychologist. Therapy then becomes an outlook, reason to look at the reasons for the anger.

Anger affects ones’ work and social environment to an extent where it leads to social isolation and even depression. Anger management thus becomes important and helps the person to cope up with the environment and maintain relationships.

Go Back.

Constant exposure to stress, anxiety, and depression in the workplace can lead to an episode of a nervous breakdown. Recent statistical data shows, that about 77% of the employees are exposed to different kind of stressors in a workplace, whereas 44% employees experience extreme stress while working or present in a workplace. Extreme amount of stress then leads to different mental health problems, which can lead to a nervous breakdown at the workplace.

What is it?

A mental breakdown or a nervous breakdown is an acute, time-limited mental disorder which can happen to an individual through exposures to extreme stress-induced depression, anxiety, or disassociation in a previously functioning individual, who then is not able to function on a day to day basis.

Below are the few indications towards a nervous breakdown:

Extreme Sadness:

One of the major contributors of a nervous breakdown is depression, where a person experiences extreme episodes of weight loss or gain, loss in all social activities, suicidal thoughts, and loss of sleep or too much of sleep. Apart from these, the person may have extreme negative thoughts and lose interest in activities.

Anxiety:

Another contributor is anxiety related to work and stress. It can cause an increase in blood pressure, dizziness, trembling or feeling sick to the stomach.  Too much work, monetary problems, and marital issues affecting work can add to the symptoms of anxiety.

Now, below are few points on what to do if someone experiences a mental breakdown:

Seek-Help:

When someone experiences or nears an episode of breakdown, one should immediately seek professional help from a psychologist or a psychiatrist, as the symptoms can lead to serious mental health problems. Depression, hallucination, panic attacks or even schizophrenia are some of the conditions.

Relax and ease:

If someone has experienced an episode of mental disorder, the main objective then becomes to reduce the amount of stress. There are many ways to reduce stress and explore, which include taking a holiday, joining yoga classes, or/and hanging out with friends and family. While facing an extreme amount of stress, one should start counting till 10 and breath in and breath out slowly, to control the rising blood pressure.

Avoid Substance Use:

Mental breakdowns are amplified with substances like alcohol, cigarettes, etc. Under no circumstances, one should adhere to use of these substances, as it can then develop a dependency towards them. Substance use then worsens the situation and can increase the amount or frequency of breakdowns.

The company’s role:

If the company sees an employee going through a nervous breakdown, or learns about it, then it becomes the company’s role to provide the person with emotional support and reduce the person’s work stress. The company can also provide the employee with few days off until the person has recovered fully.

On 9^th December 2013, the Rajya Sabha passed a bill on Prevention, Prohibition, and Redressal on Sexual Harassment of Women at the workplace, but according to a survey report, 36% of Indian Companies and 25% of MNC’s are still not compliant with the act. It is slowly growing to be one of the major concerns for women and men working in an institution.

 What is it?

As the title suggests, it is the unwanted touch towards any employee by the employer or a colleague, which can range from inappropriate unwanted touch to extremes of rape or sexual favours. A person subject to these acts of violence inside the workplace is projected and presented under the above-mentioned act.

Below are some preventive measures one can subject to, in case of workplace sexual harassment:

Open-space:

The workplace environment should be changed and subjected towards a more open environment, where the people working there can open up to each other and express themselves. As the place of work becomes an extension of ones’ home, the need to feel the same comfort becomes important for the person. In a closed corporate set-up, the voicing of these kinds of violence becomes destructive for the self. The person feels comfortable and is able to voice against harassment if the environment is open.

Learn & Teach:

Another preventive measure is to introduce the employees to different workshops, where they learn, understand and even open up to face these problems. Through the workshops, a person learns how to deal with the perpetrator and what to do in cases of harassment. The main fight then becomes against the stigma attached to sexual harassment, which one needs to break free from.

Talk & Listen:

It becomes important to speak about the harassment faced, as it damages the psyche a lot. One should gather courage and file an official complaint against the one in question. It becomes, important to bring them to the light. If needed, one should seek professional help from a psycho

The company’s role:

The company is responsible for taking strict action against the perpetrator of sexual harassment. Victims can approach the police and file an official complaint if the company fails to do so. It becomes the company’s responsibility to compensate the person both emotionally and monetary.

Legal Actions:

In extreme cases, if it happens, one should always file an official complaint with the police and take the help of the law. The company then in question should support the employee and help him/her to fight the case.

Thus, it becomes important to report acts of workplace sexual harassment whenever it happens to yourself or your colleagues. If left unreported, the perpetrator may commit the same crime again.

What is Anxiety?

Understanding what anxiety is the first step before delving deep into this topic. Anxiety is the fear of anticipated events. Note that! ‘Anticipated’ but not need not necessarily be real events. It is natural for a fish to feel the fear when it’s under shark attack. But, if the fish stops swimming altogether anticipating a shark attack, life goes to a halt. That’s exactly what anxiety does to individuals.

Avoidance of the anxiety-provoking events/situations is one of the most common ways in which people manage anxiety. However, unfortunately, it doesn’t change the fact that avoiding such situations eventually takes over the quality of your life and starts interfering with your productivity at work.

One can’t manage to face it and can’t afford to avoid it. Tricky situation! What does one do then? Read on to find out.

Accept it and Face it:

Accept that you are facing anxiety and let it come whenever it comes. Set some room aside in your workday to deal with it. Use your anxiety to learn the triggers it ticks off on. Make a note of them and be prepared for the next time before being in the same situation. For e.g. speaking on stage! Here’s the thing. You must face those situations in order to learn and grow. If it helps, make a list of all those anxiety provoking activities and rank them. Start with the lowest ranking item and work your way up the sheet to accomplish the final and hardest task.

What’s my level?

Caught yourself in anxiety? That’s great! You are becoming more aware of yourself. The immediate next smart thing to do is to become mindful and ask yourself, “On a scale of 1-10, what level of anxiety am I at?” See what you did there? Anxiety is an emotion. So the rational component of the brain is in passive mode while you’re anxious. By asking yourself such a question, you are activating the thinking part of the brain, thus off-setting emotion.

Care:

Care for yourself with proper nutrition, exercise, rest. We know that the standard list stops at that. So here’s more! Put quality information (books) into your head-space. Read and watch comedy. Maintain a healthy balance of emotions. Engage in activities that involve multiple senses.

Catastrophic and Over-generic:

Be wary of this nature of your mind and don’t take its suggestions always. It tends to communicate normal situations as catastrophic and generalizes one mishap onto every aspect of your life.

Connect:

Stay connected with the people around you. Use your friends, family and colleagues as a support system. But be careful about how much you want to reveal to your work-place colleagues especially. If you have bottled up feelings that you can’t seem to share with people who know you, it is advisable to visit a counsellor to let the emotions out.

Relax:

Breathing is an important thing to control during anxious phases. Deep breathing by inhaling to 6 counts and exhaling to 10 counts helps relieve anxiety. Counting numbers going from 1-10 and back from 10-1 is also a quick fix strategy you can implement. Make it a point to also engage in activities that are personally enjoyable and relaxing for you after or during work.

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Environment makes a difference

Work-place environment makes a big difference in the health and well-being of the employees and thus has a direct relationship with the productivity of the work-place. It increases employee satisfaction, making companies more successful and reducing the turnover.

What then, are the ingredients to the perfect workplace? Here are a few we are listing out for the benefit of our readers:

Physical Factors:

Location:

Location is one of the prime features of a workplace. The key factors to take care are the accessibility to public transportation, parking spaces, eating places to access for lunch or for meetings and spots for post-office hangouts.

Mixture:

A perfect office space is a mixture of open, semi-private, and closed spaces to cater to meetings, one-on-ones and working needs of individual employees.

Technology:

Workplaces of today must be appropriately designed with today’s technology with preferably wireless access to the internet or a number of Ethernet ports to connect to. The wiring should ideally be covered and the office space should not look like a jungle of wires.

Lights!! :

Ample amount of natural light coming through windows or glass buildings accompanied with right lighting at workstations are big drivers of productivity in the workplace, meaning it’s a must-have for an ideal working environment.

Environmental friendliness:

The best workplaces have LED lightings and smart technologies to avoid power loss. The spaces could also include some greenery which works well both for visual aesthetics and lung spaces. Innovation and growth are also inspired when the surroundings are covered with nature.

Perks:

Playspaces, coffee machines, reading corners, gym etc. There’s always something or the other that you can manage within your own budget. It is with the intention of making employees feel special and making the workspace an enjoyable experience for them.

Non-physical Factors:

High-quality relationships in a workplace are a better way of creating a great workplace than focusing too much on employee benefits, perks and other programs.  Reaching far deeper into people than corporate benefits and cool offices ever can, those relationships are why some workers love their employers and hate to leave and why job applicants will crawl over broken glass to work at those places. What then, are the factors that play a crucial role in building a powerful culture that boosts the health of the workplace?

Mission:

These companies are pursuing a larger purpose, and company leaders make sure no one forgets it. When employees are all pursuing a mission they believe in, relationships get stronger.

Colleagues:

The best people want to go where the best people are. Make quality your top-most priority when it comes to hiring.

Trust:

Show people that you consider them trustworthy, and they’ll generally prove you right. Employer’s trust in employees boosts the employee morale and rarely results in abuse of privileges.

Caring:

Show the care instead of just saying that you care. To show that you care for your employees and their families in the thick and thin times goes a long way in creating an emotionally strong bond that boosts employee productivity.

Dealing with a ‘Bad Boss’

In the perfect world, we all will have the perfect boss who would nurture our growth, make us feel great and excited for Monday morning. Except that, unfortunately, that’s not the case always. Probably you are facing the wrath of their micro-management, favouritism, anger-management or plain incompetence. At the end of the day, you still have to navigate your way through it and get your job done or remain sane until you find the next better opportunity.

To achieve the same, you need ideas that you can implement and benefit out of. And thus, we bring the below strategies to you which we hope will help you.

Self-check:

This is the first thing to do. It is important for you to analyse your own actions and check if you can make things better by yourself before concluding on the accusation that your boss is bad. Check where the triggers are going off in between you both and see if you are doing something wrong that is ticking them off or whether it is basically poor communication between you. Change those triggers and see how the relationship gets affected. If it gets better, you don’t have a bad boss anymore.

The boss’ motive:

It is important for you to understand what they do, how they do, and more crucial, why they do it. Put yourself in their shoe and understand the reasons behind their behaviour. When you know their, ‘why’, you can better communicate with them in their plane of thinking and thus establish rapport to avoid catastrophe.

Let the work be untouched:

Don’t let the bad behaviour of the boss affect your productivity. You want to keep your job and maintain good relationships with the rest of the colleagues and leaders in the company. More crucial, you want to grow in your career, don’t you? So, it literally pays to keep your emotions aside and put your head down for work.

Make them look good:

Don’t go for open conflict and show their weaknesses in the open to defame or tarnish his image. Instead, help them harness their strengths and support them in the areas they are weak. Doing that, you become indispensable for them.

Communicate:

Maybe your boss is utterly unaware of the way you are feeling due to their behaviour towards you. It makes sense to voice out your concerns which offers them a fair chance at rectifying their behaviour towards you.

Don’t tolerate the bully:

Cowardice and going low is never the right approach to a bully boss who likes to exercise their power over you. Call them out on it in a cool-headed manner, but, remain well-prepared before doing something like that. Make your options for a potential fall-out. Risk it out by managing the risks as best as you can!

Qualify:

The best thing to always take care of in regards to this matter is to not end up with a bad boss in the first place. Do your own qualifying process where you gather information about the team culture, the management and their practices before joining a new job or moving places within your own organization. This process avoids a lot of hassle that you may potentially face.

Move on:

If you’ve done all the above and you still see irreconcilable differences and start feeling toxic about your work environment, it is time to find another better opportunity and move on. There is always plenty of opportunities out there for the resourceful people. Go ahead and find your glory!

Crash Course on Conflict

Conflicts are a very common place in work situations. Conflict is certainly a good thing. Yes, you read it right! If the conflict situation is used well, conflicts can result in a lot of growth, both personal and professional. Most people tend to avoid conflicts, as that is the path of least resistance. However, that doesn’t resolve the conflict. It just stays under-cover and results in passive aggression in the work-place and the day it finally bursts out, it will be far messier than the initial one. Instead, actively working towards the resolution of the conflict is the right strategy to implement to cool things down and resume work in positive spirits.

Sources of conflict

It is now time to identify the general sources of conflict in the workplace:

• Different Interests: Competition to win one’s own interests is a major cause of conflicts
• Different values: Different people perceive things differently and that sure is a source of conflict.
• Personality clashes: Acceptance of various personalities and personal approaches toward work is a key factor in maintaining a healthy workplace
• Poor communication: Results in misunderstanding and mistrust between employees.
• Poor performance: When some work hard and some don’t, it naturally creates conflict with one group calling out or taunting the other
• Scarce resources: This one goes back to ‘survival of the fittest’ and competitive mentality

Ways to handle conflict

Once you know which category you are falling into, it is now time to consider different ways of handling conflict:

• Avoidance: Avoid facing the conflict. This is wishful thinking that the conflict will subside and lack of action towards an active resolution.
• Collaboration: Paving way towards a new and a mutually beneficial solution or way of doing things
• Compromise: Using strategies for negotiation and finding the middle ground where both parties win and lose a little at the same time
• Competing: Simply put “The best man wins” attitude towards conflict. One productive change that can be used is by converting it into “The best idea wins”
• Accommodation: Giving up and let the other person have their way for this time.

Prepare for conflict-resolution:

Here are the things to take care of during conflict resolution process:

• Define Acceptable Behaviour: The expected behaviours and conduct while performing duties and during conflict should be well articulated and communicated so that they know what will be tolerated and what won’t be.
• Address it face-to-face: It is better to get things done face-to-face instead letting things go awry by telephone or email.
• Hit Conflict Head-on: Spot potential areas from where conflict could arise and address them before it even becomes a thing.
• Take time-out where necessary: When things get too heated up, it’s a good idea to take a time-out and cool down.
• Stick to real issues: Means the issues of the here and now! Avoid pulling up past or calling names.
• Be aware of motives: It is very important to be aware of the other person’s motives and what they are trying to achieve. What you initially think may not be what they are really after. It’s always good to ask!
• Importance Factor: Fight only worthy battles. Don’t waste your time picking battles that aren’t worth it.
• View conflict as an Opportunity: Leverage conflict for growth. The right resolution could lead to great innovation and change.

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