Let's just say it that they were high. Welcome to the Only Child Diaries podcast. I'm your host, Tracy Wallace. Have you ever felt like you didn't receive the how-to brochure on life, that you didn't get enough guidance about major life issues? So did I. You don't have to be an only child to feel this way. In my podcast, we'll explore some of the best ways to better navigate adulting, while doing so with humor and light. Welcome everyone to the Only Child Diaries podcast.

Today I'm going to talk about, well, the workplace and triggers. Triggers in the workplace. There's a lot to say about triggers. Triggers are an emotional response to things around you, right? A trigger. Well, let's say, you lost a loved one or you lost a pet, or even you lost a job and something reminds you of that loss and you feel sad. That's a trigger, right. So there's also triggers. I guess that's kind of, in my mind, the basis of PTSD or post-traumatic stress syndrome. It's a trigger, right. But sometimes in work or wherever you are, there's going to be people or things that trigger you in maybe, yes, a positive way, but also a negative way. Positive triggers are okay, like anything else, but a negative trigger is not so good, and especially when you're in a work environment, a negative trigger can be challenging and frustrating. Now a negative trigger can come from a coworker and I have to say that I experienced this recently and I wanted to kind of explore how I approached it. I haven't quite figured it all out yet, but I thought that it was a worthy conversation for the podcast. It was a worthy conversation for the podcast.

As I've aged, I've become more intuitive, I guess, as to why people are the way they are and what's really going on, because what you see on the surface isn't necessarily what's really going on. So this particular person obviously triggered me. I was kind of upset and frustrated and ticked off and I had to kind of well, I had to step back because I was getting too irritated and I don't like to be irritated and I don't like to be irritated and I don't like to act irritated and I just don't want to be in that space. So I stepped away and later on I thought about it and I realized that the person necessarily wasn't doing or saying anything negative, but it was the energy that they were projecting and I haven't quite figured it out. But I suspect that what was really happening was either that this person was on some sort of substance, or let's just say that they were high or that there's something else going on, like a manic episode, because that's really how it presented. There was a lot of talking, there was a lot of chatter, there was, to an extent that I hadn't seen before, there was interrupting, there was singing to the overhead music and to the point that it was distracting and not professional certainly. So, while I was irritated by this behavior, I couldn't really fault this person because it wasn't necessarily negative. There were no insults, there was no negative comments per se, negative comments per se but it was the energy and certainly some of the behavior wasn't, again, necessarily professional.

How do you handle a triggering incident or experience in the workplace? Because, again, it's not like a relationship, right, that would be a different response. A work experience, a professional environment is different. You have to carry on with your own work, focus on your own work and try to put that behavior or that experience out of your mind as best as you can and at the same time, sometimes if it's distracting to clients or customers, you have to take that into consideration and there might be an opportunity for you to go to your supervisor. And if your supervisor hasn't experienced it or seen it, that you report it to them, because if it's impacting clients or customers they should know right. But I think it'll be interesting, at least from my perspective, to see if this person exhibits this behavior again, because there would be a history and I think one incident maybe is something that you can overlook, but if it's a pattern, then that's another story.

I've done a lot of thinking in the past week or two about leadership in the workplace and trying to be a leader, and I know from my experience that recently, especially as I've matured or, let's say, gotten older, that the feedback that I've received from people that I work with has been positive because I've tried to be a leader, I've tried to assist my coworkers and I've tried to increase the productivity of where I am. And I think, to a certain extent even though you can't put a personal spin on this right A workplace is not a personal relationship, it's a work relationship. That leadership in a professional environment has a lot of similarities to a parenting relationship, I think, because when you're a good parent, you in a way provide leadership, you provide direction, you provide advice and you provide oversight to your child or to the children that you have. Again, I'm not a parent so I can't say, but in leadership, professional environment, the boss, if you will, or the supervisor, provides oversight, advice, guidance a lot of the same qualities that a parent would provide. So in that way, leadership, or good leadership, should provide that same sort of direction and input that a good parent would right. Just some thoughts. There's a lot more to say about that, but I have given it some thought because it looks like there's a possibility, a strong possibility, that I might be a guest on another podcast talking about leadership and talking about working with others and providing leadership, and I think that there's a lot of similarities between my podcast concept giving the brochure on life or the brochure on different topics that have to do with life, and it's kind of advice. It is definitely guidance and how I perceive being a good leader in a work environment comes to fruition.

I've often felt that good leadership is also about good communication. Think about it. Who have been the good leaders that you've worked with? Have they been good communicators? I suspect that they have, because good leaders do spend time talking to you or giving you guidance, and that is about communication. Right, I don't see in my head, a way to be a good leader without good communication, and so I think that the two parts, the two sides, have to meet somewhere.

I know, when I was studying business way back in college, there's a book that had just come out. It's called, or it is called, in Search of Excellence. It talked about how to have better relationships, if you will, with employees and how to empower employees to create a more productive work environment, and I looked it up recently and it's still available for sale. I'm sure it's gone through several edits since the 80s, but I was heartened to see that it is still available. What I think is frustrating these days in many work environments is that there tends to be a wall of secrecy between things are working or put together or the decisions that are coming up, even if people are going to be impacted by them.

I think a culture of communication is so important because it makes the employees feel that they're part of the team. They're part of the success of the team, and that's a way to make employees feel better about their jobs, and when they feel better about their jobs, they do better at their jobs. About their jobs, they do better at their jobs. Just my two cents. Anyway, folks, that's all I've got for today. Next week, tackle another topic together. I hope you'll join me. If you like this episode, please follow the Only Child Diaries podcast on Apple podcasts or other platforms you might listen on and consider rating Only Child Diaries and writing a review. It helps others to find us. Please share it with a friend you think might like it as well. Visit my Instagram page Only Child Diaries or Facebook Only Child Diaries podcast. Thanks for listening. I'm Tracy Wallace and these are the Only Child Diaries.