Loss, and moreso heartbreak, has always been our basis of the saying time heals all wounds. It has been basically my slogan in everything, “Give it time.” I tell all my girlfriends whose relationships are not working, and I say it to myself always whenever we fight with my hubby. But does it work
Well, at my workplace (that I have grown quite fond of), the first two months were hell on earth. Everybody seemed to bully me, from the cleaner to the CEO, whom I reported to. On several occasions, the operations manager embarrassed me in front of chefs, and I wanted to cry and fuss and, worse, still resign. But I always came home, late and tired, to find my kids happy and excited to have me back home, in addition to warm hugs and kisses from my hubby who never tired from listening to my endless grunting about the toxicity of my workplace. He made it his personal goal to work as hard as possible so that I wouldn’t feel like I needed that job desperately. At that moment he was unemployed but waiting to go abroad .
I remember how exhausting the 5-minute walk from the bus stop to my workplace was. Not because it was a long distance, but because I realized how terrible my day would be even before it actually began. On most occasions, it turned out as terrible as I had envisioned. That’s the point I would say to myself- Give it time, and they will all come around. And come around, they did!
KILL THEM WITH KINDNESS! Is another phrase that worked quite well in turning things around. I have been taught to always be kind and polite to everyone despite their rank or financial status. That policy is much easier to implement than being bossy and bitchy. It works better in building up respect more than commanding does. Back to my workplace; since my fellow managers ( except the sales manager) and immediate boss had resolved to being bossy, I concentrated on creating a rapport with my juniors. It made them demean me at the beginning, but with time, we became acquaintances, and they agreed to do my bidding as a “favour to a friend.”
Well, as a content creator and a marketing manager, all I needed to succeed and be productive was cooperation from the Chefs – to make videos for social media, cleaners- to clean up the location for content creation and Sales team – to help me implement my marketing plan. I carefully observed the personnel I needed to keep close to help my assigned duties run smoothly. Well, with the top management , we only interacted minimally since my major assignment was content creation and social media management.
With time, as I grew fonder and fonder of my job – filming the cake decorating process, taking photos of the impressive cake design among other duties – respect from the senior management also started growing. Apparently, the top managers can only respect and relate well with you if and when you are good at your job. Well, for the operations manager, our disagreement once escalated to levels of having to involve the HR, but it still worked to my advantage. The CEO, whom I report to, slowly but gradually, grew out of the habit of shouting at people and scolding employees for small mistakes. I realized he is quite a good man when he is happier and less stressed.
In a more recent development, the Managing director of the groupof companies ( I work for only one of the companiesin that group) , whom I have met only once, used my social media content as a bench mark for that of other companies in that group. That was a great winning point for me in regards to gaining respect from my fellow managers. The finance manager, to be precise, has been overly supportive since the compliment.
Now, I guess it is safe to say that TIME HEALS ALL WOUNDS! I am not out of the rocks yet, I know, but at least it is not exhausting anymore, just thinking of reporting to work. It is a place I will miss dearly on the day I leave for greener pastures.
dollycate 