Having a Drek Day at Work? Read This.

Probably at some point everyone gets splattered by random splashes of ill will, bursts of bad behavior or drive-by verbal shootings. If you work in a service occupation, a wide umbrella that encompasses waitstaff and sales associates as well as teachers and other certified professionals, you're more likely to be a target of convenience than if you have minimal public contact. When I've been on the receiving end of an adult tantrum, most often it's simply because I happened to be behind the cash register or counter.

It can be discouraging when you're trying to provide good service but a customer chews you out because he's frustrated by a rule you had no hand in making, or because she's having a bad day. For example, most retail workers can't simply say, "Hey, I didn't write the refund policy - take it to the district office!"

And frankly, some customers (very few, fortunately) are one-uppers with any service provider they meet. There's an old-school job hierarchy in our culture that puts service workers on the bottom of the heap even though many such jobs require high-level "people" skills. At one of my former jobs there was a frequent customer I privately named The Queen because she had a condescending manner towards everyone, even the manager. Some people think that putting others down raises their own stock.

In situations where you have to suck it up and respond politely to someone who's behaving like a jerk, it helps to have some tools handy. I polled a few friends and came up with these ideas.

If you've been showered by drek:

• Remind yourself "It's not about me." This might not help much at first but it has a cumulative effect.
  
• Ask your supervisor for a 5-minute time out. Blow off steam.
• Channel Spock (this is my favorite) - put on a bemused expression and say to yourself, "That wasn't logical."
• Perform a sort of mental cleansing ritual - visualize yourself being showered with a gentle spray of clean water that washes away the energetic mud clinging to you or lingering around in the workplace.

To protect yourself from the effects of emotional mudslinging (prevention):

• Adopt a regular philosophical or spiritual practice consistent with your personal beliefs. If nothing else, try practicing breath-awareness meditation: simply spend some time each day sitting in a comfortable position and focusing on your breath. When random thoughts intrude, acknowledge them and get back to focusing on your breath. I've found that when done regularly this helps develop the ability to detach from the emotional heat of the moment and step into "observer consciousness."
• Keep an ongoing current list of your strengths and best skills. Knowing how good you are at what you do can be a surprisingly effective form of insulation.
• "Be excellent" (see book list, below) to everyone you work with. If you have plenty of allies (or at least no enemies) at work, you'll be supported during bad times.
  
• Always always always have a life and friends outside of work. But then, you already knew that or you wouldn't be reading a blog about work and art...
  

Here's a list of my favorite titles that deal with day job/art life topics
Amazon List: Working With What You Have