The curious case of the missing sanity
These stories tend to start with – "It was just another normal day at the office." Not true. You know you saw it coming from a mile away. You saw all the signals of disaster and heard all the alarms go off. But being the confident manly man that you are, you figured you'd wing it. What's a little extra work? It builds character your father said. And while your father may have had the self-control of a saint to stop himself from beating you to an inch of your life, you are delusional.
Rule one, know your limits. At the end of the day it is not the work you put in that will be remembered if in trying to do it you managed to invoke the wrath of every single person in the office. Before you take on extra work, remember all those hours you need to put into the work you have to finish on a regular day, multiply that with the number of hours of sleep you need to stay sane and divide that by the pay off. Still worth it? Secondly – sharing is not caring. Never work for two bosses. Even if you informed all of them beforehand, nobody likes to think they are being slighted. You might be the best multitasker in the world but you don't have the ability of being in two places at the same time. Avoid the drama if you value your life, your dignity and most importantly, your sleep.
But of course, you took on more than your brain can deal with anyway. What do you do when all hell breaks? Do not be rash – punching the wall in anger, or heaven forbid, shouting back at your superiors will not make things better. Do the best that you can, try to keep your calm, talk to a friend and vent if necessary.
Remember, everything that can go wrong, will definitely go wrong. This will be the week when work will drop out of nowhere. No matter how many cups of coffee you knock back, you will end up a lost soul with a missing sanity. Only way to avoid this is to not take up the work in the first place. Otherwise, drag yourself through the week and have the words "Never Again" tattooed on your forearm in big, bold letters.
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