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Welcome to your exclusive Mind Tools member newsletter, designed to help you survive and thrive at work. Each week, you’ll find personal insight and advice from the mindtools.com editors, and from our network of thought leaders, researchers and coaches.
This week, we’re focusing on what you can do when you simply don’t have the physical and emotional resources to learn. Then scroll down for our Tip of the Week and News Roundup.
Too Tired to Learn?
Why Growth Sometimes Feels Impossible – and What to Do About It
By Charlie Swift, Mind Tools Managing Editor
When was the last time you had a rush of adrenaline and shouted in triumph at your achievement?
You might have performed a fist pump or hopped from foot to foot. Or your “YES!!” could have been quiet, in your head, for your ears only, but it felt just as good.
Had you wrestled that new piece of software into delivering your wishes, or dared to speak up in the departmental meeting? Maybe you’d completed the qualification that could open the door to better-paid work?
Perhaps today was the first time you really understood the technical language your co-workers use – and could turn it into action?
Whatever your success, it didn’t come out of the blue. It wasn’t just luck. It was the result of you doing some learning.
Learning – Joy or Burden?
Learning is exciting, surprising, sometimes nerve-racking, sometimes fun, but always satisfying. Right? Wrong.
Learning can also be a chore, a pressure, another thing to fail at. Sometimes it can feel like an impossible mountain to climb. Then you're shouting, “Too much!”
The truth is, it takes physical and emotional energy to learn, not just thought. It requires time and focus, reflection and practice. And you’ll need to really want to do it if you’re to put in that kind of effort.
Learning – Sink or Swim
Sometimes learning isn’t a choice: it’s more about survival and something you rise to instinctively to get by.
Why is starting a new job so tiring? Because you’re learning every moment of every day: colleagues’ names, the layout of the building, correct procedures and processes, cultural dos and don’ts...
Scroll down for our Tip of the Week on how to smooth your arrival!
Equally, you might feel comfortable in a role, confident in your abilities, only for an organizational restructure, updated regulations, or an about-face in the market to shake you to the core. Suddenly you’re feeling left behind, confused and frighteningly exposed.
Our Human Basic Needs
It’s just no good trying to solve a complex technical problem if you’re dog-tired.
Extending your attention to hear someone else’s perspective, with empathy and imagination, will be beyond you if you’re afraid. And the dilemma of an ethical crisis will overwhelm you if you’ve no one to share the burden with.
We all have some basic needs of our own that must be addressed, at least to some degree, before we can start thinking higher, cleverer thoughts and behaving in transformational ways.
You might remember this theory from Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs model. It’s often presented as a pyramid or ladder with physical needs such as food, water, sleep, and shelter at the base, and a semi-mystical “self-actualization” at the top. In between, are more mental and emotional factors such as connection and esteem.
My own experience of the last few years was of the demolition of several key elements of this pyramid until, without a firm foundation to support me, my ability to learn – or even to recall much of what I once knew through and through – collapsed.
Now I know what burnout truly means. And, thankfully, now I also know how addressing what Maslow would have termed my human basic needs, systematically and consistently, can breathe life back into our bodies and minds.
It gave me back the ability to learn – and even some joy in doing it. YES!!
What's Next?
If you’re struggling with a muzzy head, a weary body, loneliness, or low self- confidence, be sure not to ignore the signs. Effort alone is unlikely to improve how you feel or perform.
Instead, seek support from a trusted professional if you can, but, at the very least, tell someone. It will break the cycle and give you a chance to recover.
Equally, look out for your colleagues and team members and don’t just pile on the pressure.
For a more sustainable approach, have a look at these Mind Tools resources:
What Are the HALT Risk States? Knowing when it’s time to stop.
The Skill/Will Matrix Match your level of support to the ability and motivation of your team member.
The Learning Zone Model How to move from your comfort zone while avoiding the panic zone!
Tip of the Week
Try this shortcut to getting to know your team
By Kevin Dunne, Mind Tools Content Editor/Writer
There’s a lot to think about whenever you start a new job.
You need to identify exactly what’s expected of you for a start, then there’s the processes involved, the IT and software you need to master like yesterday before you can even begin to show what you’re capable of.
But there’s one aspect you should never overlook when you are straining every sinew to cover the ground – getting to know your new colleagues and building a rapport.
And in 40 years of work there’s one surefire hack I’ve found that always works.
I let my son, 22, into the secret last month. He went back to college but was moving into a house with four new roommates.
My advice was to make dinner on the first Sunday you are there. So he did: curried goat, jerk chicken and rice and peas.
His housemates loved his cooking, they all got a free dinner and loved the fact that Charlie (no relation to the writer above) was a nice guy who didn’t mind doing something for others.
Now they’ve decided every month someone will cook a great Sunday lunch for the rest of the house.
No, you can’t serve up dinner when you start your new job, but you can make the tea or go get the coffees for everyone in your team.
That way you have a ready-made icebreaker – one that means you can talk to everyone, let them know who you are, find out who they are and do something nice for them. Everybody loves that. And they can’t help but think, “That new person seems pretty nice.”
For more top tips on making a good impression, see our article, Starting a New Job.
Pain Points Podcast
Don't miss the latest episode of our “Pain Points” podcast! Hear stories, insights and tips from people who understand the challenges we all face at work – in “Pain Points,” the new podcast exclusive to Mind Tools members.
This week, Jonathan Hancock and the team talk about anger. Can it ever be a force for good? Or is it only a destructive emotion in the workplace? Hear personal stories of dealing with anger and tips for controlling it in this week's episode of Pain Points.
Check your email for your personal link to the Pain Points podcast, sent every Tuesday, and be sure to subscribe! Then you can listen on your browser or subscribe in your favorite podcast app.
News Roundup
This Week's Global Workplace Insights
Workplaces Designed With People (and Pets) in Mind
As companies increasingly seek to encourage people back into the office, a new poll suggests more than a quarter of workers would consider quitting because their working environment isn’t right.
And more than two thirds said their office had a significant impact on their physical and mental wellbeing.
No surprise to workplace strategist Dr Nigel Oseland. He said, “The office must be more attractive than the convenience of working from home. The workplace must promote wellbeing and enhance mental health through better design and working conditions.”
Employers then are now faced with raised expectations about office design. Here’s a lead: nearly a third of survey respondents said they’d be more likely to work in the office regularly if it was dog friendly, providing services such as dog groomers and walkers!
Find out more in this article from Workplace Insight: Poor workplace design means a quarter of people may consider quitting job
Food For Thought
What are the rules about eating at work? Well, a new “snackiquette” guide, featured in the Daily Express, has outlined some food-related dos and don’ts.
All the old favorites are there, like avoiding eating strong-smelling foods and anything that makes lots of noise (yes, potato-chip munchers, that’s you!).
Others include:
- Don’t eat anything bigger than your thumbnail while in a meeting.
- Dine away from your desk whenever possible. Whatever you’re eating, a close neighbor will struggle to ignore it – or to avoid silently judging you.
- Make it something that you can share. A quarter of people surveyed said they’re irritated when a colleague eats something but doesn’t offer any around!
Find out more: New office “snackiquette” guide
Combination Clothing for Climate Control!
And finally, forget about hybrid working – hybrid clothing might be the answer when you find the office is too hot or too cold, according to the New York Times.
We’ve had the “shacket” – part shirt, part jacket. Now meet the “coatigan,” half cardigan, half coat. It’s light enough to wear or carry, and long enough to use like a blanket if the thermometer really drops.
Getting the temperature right for everyone can be a challenge for employers and feeling too hot or cold can be a serious barrier to doing your best work. The coatigan may or may not be the answer, but it makes sense to have a few fashion tricks up your sleeve!
Find out more: Should I Wear a Fleece to the Office?
For more tips and guidance about wellbeing at work, see the Mind Tools video 6 Ways to Support Employees' Mental Health
See you next week for more member-exclusive content and insight from the Mind Tools team!
