How to Tell Your Coworkers You’re Dealing with a Personal Crisis
by Jacquelyn Smith, Business Insider
Life throws us curve balls from time to time. Maybe you were just served divorce papers, or recently learned that your child is struggling in school. Perhaps you have an ailing parent, or your spouse was suddenly laid off. If and when you’re faced with these types of personal crises, they’ll most certainly affect your performance at work.That’s why it’s imperative that you tell your coworkers what’s going on. But how you do it can be complicated.
Should you tell your colleagues what you’re dealing with?
There are two compelling reasons to tell them, says Dr. Tamar Chansky, author of “Freeing Yourself from Anxiety.” “The first is the practical reason. A crisis is often time-consuming and sometimes unpredictable. So, from a work perspective, it will be important to do some planning with your colleagues and your boss to cause as little disruption to the work flow as possible.”
The second reason to share — and you can decide how much or how little to disclose — is that “underneath it all, these experiences are not something unique to us,” she adds. “These are the ties that connect us all. Knowing even a little a bit about what’s going on with a person creates a more emotionally safe work environment where people don’t have to call out sick or otherwise go underground if they are struggling.”
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