I started to add a daily coping tip to the SQLServerCentral newsletter and to the Community Circle, which is helping me deal with the issues in the world. I’m adding my responses for each day here. All my coping tips are under this tag.
Today’s tip is to be gentle with someone who you feel inclined to criticize.
We all get stressed, we got busy, and we are trying to achieve something. It’s easy to criticize others when we feel they aren’t making our work easier.
Recently I was a little stressed about a project at work. I felt a little short with someone, and I really wanted to complain to them in a meeting. I tried to step back and be a little light-hearted about the situation, though I’m not sure I made anything better.
I did decide to not criticize the person, either there or to others later, but examine the situation and what would make it better. In discussions with my boss, I pointed out that there were a few things that were not clear and not communicated as I wished, but that this is a hard project and I’m not blaming a person. Rather, we need to figure out how to work better in the future.
I also apologized to an individual, which hopefully goes towards my being gentle.