4 Common Psychological Traps We Experience at Work
Photo by Luis Villasmil from Unsplash
In the busyness of repetitive workweeks and long hours, it might be easy to fall into certain ways of thinking about our jobs, the environment, and the people surrounding it. Some of these ways of thinking can be detrimental to our mental health, our energy and creativity, and our job satisfaction and purpose. But some of these psychological traps have become so normalized, that it’s difficult to realize you’ve fallen into them or that they’re even traps in the first place. We’re going to go through some of these traps, why they’re detrimental, and how you can break free of them.
Losing Your Authenticity at Work
Sometimes, we fear the judgment that can come with being our authentic selves in front of people who we don’t feel completely safe with. Instead of risking rejection or shame, we often go to work and act as a diluted version of ourselves - we focus on our jobs, our responsibilities, and our roles and essentially lose who we are while we are at work.
This dilution can make having genuine interactions with other people in our environment difficult and therefore makes it difficult to create authentic connections with others at work. It also means we leave behind the things that make us happiest and give us energy like our hobbies, passions, and core values.
The Solution: Creating an authentic culture and encouraging people to interact and discuss things that are real for them. Share things they are excited about or allow them to express themselves in a way that could be as simple as decorating their workspace. If you’re not in a role that would allow this change, talk to someone who is, or instead challenge yourself to try to bring some authenticity to work. Bring in something small that will remind you of what makes you yourself and try to interact with people more authentically.
By encouraging authenticity, we start to feel more human at work and less like robots which creates happier people and heightens creativity and innovation.
Success = Happiness
Climbing the corporate ladder is often used as a benchmark for what makes someone successful…and everyone wants to be successful, right? We assume that a bigger job title means more money, means happier - but that’s not always the case. High-level corporate jobs can be exhausting and unfulfilling if they do not align with our passion and purpose. So if you find yourself climbing the ladder but getting nowhere closer to happiness then perhaps it is time for a change.
The Solution: Ignore what everyone else tells you about needing to work harder and get promotions. It sounds harsh, but the only person you should be listening to is yourself. What will make you happy? For some, they may seek a manager role, for others they may want a more low-key role even if it means less pay. You need to determine what is most important to you and find a job that will balance the scales of pay, time, and job role in a way that works best for you.
We Forget Other People are Humans too
At work, it’s not uncommon to encounter a wide range of different human beings, some of whom are straight-up mean. When we see the same people every day and boil them down to their roles, we start to forget that they are humans. Every person in your office is a human being with a name, a story, passions, hobbies, emotions, and struggles. Sometimes they’re mean, probably because their story is a sad one or they never learned how to self-regulate so those emotions turn into anger and apathy quite often. But human nonetheless.
The Solution: It’s important to remember to be compassionate and empathetic to those you are surrounded by at work because that compassion and empathy will create a loving connection with those who are willing to return it. Take a break a step outside of your roles, and converse with someone on a human level with an exercise as simple as asking “How are you, really?”.
Negativity Bias
Humans tend to hang onto and remember the negative things rather than the positive. At work, this can build resentment for our jobs or the people we work with. This looks like remembering the criticism or feedback you received from your manager, but not the positive appreciation they gave you. This might also look like all-or-nothing thinking that happens when you’re having a bad day or something goes wrong at work. This hanging onto negative thoughts can put us into a pattern of misery that can hurt our mental health.
The Solution: Self-awareness is a good start to recognize these patterns and try to correct them. Write down some of the praises you get and keep them in a place where you can look back at them. Alternatively, as a team, weekly or monthly appreciation circles can be incredibly uplifting for team morale and shine a spotlight on the good. Outside of circles, make it a habit to share appreciation with others, and you will probably find they will return it!
We’ve looked at 4 common psychological traps that we find commonly in the workplace and some solutions to help you break free of them. Self-awareness, empathy, and compassion form the building blocks for most of these solutions and are indeed the solution to a lot of the problems in workplaces today.
