How Do We Thrive in Difficult Times
Last week, like many companies in tech, my company went through a painful lay-off. Many teams lost members, mine included. The mood was gloomy, to state the least.
Let’s face it. We are in the middle of an unprecedented global pandemic. Many people lost jobs, investments, advertisement revenue, investment property income, to name a few.
How do we survive this period? How do we stay together, encourage our family, friends, and team members to go through these difficulties, and to emerge again, stronger than ever?
I would like to share a few thoughts.
- Resist the urge of negative thinking.
Stress often brings panic. It’s human nature. When we are attacked, we map out the worst case scenario, and get ready to flight. However, we no longer live in the stone age. While a healthy dosage of alertness is good, being overly paranoid and react to any situation with panic is not. Humans tend to think of the worst case scenarios, most of which will never happen.
When we are caught in the pattern of negative thinking, a good technique is to ask “so what?”. What if I also get laid off to? So what, I’ll start reaching out to my network. What if I can’t find anything in three months? So what, I’ll keep on sending resumes on a daily basis, go through some interviews, and maybe use the down time to take a course. What if I can’t find anything, absolutely nothing in a year? Well, chances of that are very low, but so what, maybe I’ll use this time to take a sabbatical, and when travel resumes, finally take that long trip to South America that I have been dreaming for years? You see, this method quickly helps you calibrate the worst case scenario with the reality and brings you out the panic mode. Stay positive, it’s really not that bad as you may think.
2. Work smarter.
Now that we are losing some team members, the already heavy workload may become heavier. Instead of facing the burden with stress and pessimism, we got to find ways to work smarter.
This is not to say that we will just drop important tasks or be simply slower in responding to customer requests. We just need to learn how to prioritize better. Also, we will not sacrifice the quality of our deliverables, but maybe there are corners that we can cut while still achieving mostly satisfactory results. While we may have to put some strategic long term projects on the back burner for the time being, we can still work on them if we have a little bit of down time and getting ourselves ready along the way. When under stress, survival is key. Keep every one afloat without being burned out, and reorganize and re-strategize after the crisis.
3. Ask for the help.
Many people think it’s a sign of weakness to ask for help. I beg to differ. When the team is under pressure and when priorities shift, it’s perfectly ok to leverage the bigger team and ask for their help. You’d be shocked how many people are more than happy to help.
I asked my engineers to help me submit certain documentation. I asked other peers to help take on some tasks. To my delightful surprise, many of them are more than happy to help. Even when they are not able, no one took my request for help as a sign of weakness. They know that I needed the help. And they know that when the circumstances change and when they need the help, they can always come my way.
4. Trust that this too shall pass.
Nothing lasts forever, including your troubles. Times are difficult, we are quarantined at home, but do you really think this will last forever?
Julius Caesar said, “it is easier to find men who will volunteer to die, than to find those who are willing to endure pain with patience.” Sometimes we just need to weather the storm with patience and grace, and trust that the storm, no matter how strong it seems, will pass in the end. The days will come when we can rebuild everything, when we can travel and get together again, and when things will be back in order. It’s just a matter of time.
