Surviving Job Pressure. Is this good advice?


The theme of the day conference is ‘Surviving Job Pressure’.
Assembled are IT consultants, doctors, nurses, teachers, social workers, HR managers and many others.
They have an ‘Inspirational Speaker’ giving them tips; and one of the tips is this:
‘Act as if…’
When at work, act as if it’s going well…act as if you’re confident…act as if that person didn’t just say something that upset you.
There are dangers with this advice. If our working life is simply pretending things are great when they’re not, then something will have to give.
We need to deal honestly with things when they are not well; and a mask of pretence really isn’t dealing with them.
Our smile will not reach our eyes.
But where this advice is strong is in encouraging us away from negativity under pressure to reach for a bigger/calmer place inside us.
Perhaps pressure makes us turn in on ourselves in blame or perhaps on another; perhaps the pressure is making us anxious as to what others think or about how things will work out.
But if we can take ten deep breaths, (always a good thing to do before shooting off an email anyway) and act as if things are OK, as if this too shall pass, as if there is nothing here to fear, as if we really do have worth…
…then our speaker has a very good point.