Bloggers Unite On December 17

Bloggers Unite, a part of Blogger Catalogue, is encouraging bloggers to write about some good that they have done to kind of show the giving side of the people who write blogs.

I am known at my day job as a bit of a free spirit who is usually in a good mood, doing goofy things to lighten the mood, singing Christmas carols in July and August when the temperatures in Houston are high and high humidity is a given. I joke and kid around, often at my own expense, to try to keep a pleasant working environment. On a daily basis, I try to make at least 3 trips through the workplace to talk to everyone, ask how things are going, if there are any questions, concerns, or problems. I try to have lots of positive reinforcements for the work that everyone does.

Lately, however, our company has been experiencing growing pains. We have taken on several new, very large clients. We have had to change the way we do business in order to meet the requirements of these new clients. It has been a learning and growing experience for everyone from the top down. One of the "joys" of my job is that I am the bottle neck of the hour glass. Almost every operational directive and decision that must be given to the hourly workers, goes through me to be passed on to the crew. Almost all information, ideas, reports, and suggestions from the crew goes through me on the way to upper management. This has gotten even more intense as we add these new, larger clients. I often joke that on a scale of 1 to 10, my stress level is about a 16. My boss was recently diagnosed with "stress induced" diabetes. When his doctor asked him to list his stress level on the same scale, he said only 13. I told him I must be doing a good job if his was that "low." We both laughed and made promises to not let things get to us as much and to rely on each other a little more when things get on our nerves.

I mentioned all that to say this, I have gotten away from being the goof ball and free spirit that I am. I have snapped at people more. My patience has been almost non-existent. I would still talk to people and try to help but I was not the normally cheery and encouraging person that everyone remembered.

Last week, I became determined to get back to the normal me. I spent the weekend kinda thinking about the world around me, my job, my relationships, and the meaning of life. (That is just a fancy way of saying I was doing a lot of pondering on things!) I realized that I had gotten to where I hated going to work. This was a job that I had loved at one time and found myself dreading having to work everyday.

I am a firm believer that each of us determines what our attitude is. I had given up that freedom of determination by allowing the pressures of work to bring me down. I wake up each morning now realizing that me and me alone is responsible for determining what my attitude is going to be for the day. I am starting my day by determining that I am going to have a positive outlook on everything that comes my way. When troubles arise, and they are almost guaranteed to several times a day, I realize I have a choice. I can let myself get down and negative and be irritable or I can choose to maintain a positive outlook. Either way, I still have to deal with the issues but it is much less stressful by keeping the positive outlook.

So what does this have to do with doing some good or showing my giving side? i have gotten back to being a positive and supportive manager for my crew. Several people have noticed that much more like the old Eddy and people don't cringe when they see me coming their way. I am seeing better attitudes by my crew and that always translates into better production. I try to uplift and encourage even the people doing the most mundane of tasks. The Christmas season can be a very stressful time but I have noticed that many of crew don't seem as bothered as they did just 2 weeks ago when I was also stressed and bothered.

I would like to think that my renewed attitude had something to do with it.

Merry Christmas to all. This season can produce large amounts of stress but let me encourage each of you to remember, you are solely responsible for your attitude. You have do deal with the issues you face whether your attitude is good or bad. Make a choice that you are going to have a positive attitude and see how much easier it is dealing with even the most difficult of times.

(c) 2008 Eddy Seegers