If you’re not sure whether or not guilt has a stranglehold on your work life (or any other part of your life), check out our most popular guilt trips. Sound familiar? Most of you will see that you have some work to do.
—You’re sitting in the park with the kids on your assigned day off, the sun is shining on your back, nobody’s fighting (yeah right—but you get the drift), and in the back of your mind, you’re worried about the sudden work crunch in the office. Shouldn’t you be there helping out, rather than playing here in the park? Are you a bad person because you are not working?
Or
—You’ve finished your assignments and you decide to leave the office. You’re not needed, you’ve added your value for the day, you’ve made it clear to your boss early on that you don’t stay in the office if you’re not actually needed. Still, it is only lunchtime. As you head for your coat, you are painfully aware of all of your colleagues sitting diligently at their desks. There it is again—guilt setting in. You should stay at the office, right?
Or
—You say “no" to extra work generally because it’s not part of your brief, and frankly you’d rather spend that time at home. But still, whenever you’re asked and you have to say “no," yet again, the guilt descends. Maybe if you just said “yes" this one time, that would make up for all of the others?
Or
—You have an extra week’s vacation to use up before the end of the year but your colleagues don’t seem to have taken even half of theirs. Is it OK to take that fourth week when everyone else only seems to take three? There’s no need for you to be in the office that week, but maybe you should stay anyway so people don’t think you’re permanently on holiday?
If you recognize this thought process, or worse, have answered yes to any of the above questions, or even more alarming, have actually changed behavior in a situation like this— don’t feel guilty! Please. Read on and learn how.