Workplace challenges are a part of life, as unfortunate as that might be, and there will always be something to deal with, whether it’s personality clashes, feeling overwhelmed by the workload, or perhaps even something more serious like harassment or discrimination – when you work with other people, even remotely, issues are sure to come up from time to time. 

Although it can be tempting to just ignore it all and sweep any problems under the rug, it’s actually far better to tackle things head on – that’s always the best way to deal with any problems, especially if you want them over and done with quickly to save yourself stress and upset. So with that in mind, here are some tips on what to do when you’re facing workplace challenges – read on to find out more. 

Photo by Yan Krukau

Acknowledge The Issue

The first thing you need to do when you’re tackling a challenge at work is spotting and acknowledging the problem in the first place – it’s so easy to just thing that something’s normal or part of the job, but if you feel uncomfortable or unhappy in any way, then it’s clearly an issue, and ignoring it won’t make it go away. 

Think about how the problem – which could be anything from a disagreement with a colleague to bullying and more – is affecting you in your work and in your personal life. Is it making you less productive? Is it affecting your mental health? Is your work-life balance impacted? Once you’ve worked out what the issue is, you can work out what to do next. 

Get Support 

If the challenge feels too much to deal with by yourself, don’t hesitate to get help – there’s plenty of it out there from all kinds of different sources. Speak to a trusted colleague, manager, or HR person to let them know there’s a problem and you might find that a solution is easy to find – after all, sometimes an objective viewpoint is exactly what you need. 

For more serious issues like workplace harassment or contract disputes, for example, getting advice from an employment law solicitor might be the right thing to do – they’ll help you understand your rights and guide you through the process of handling the problem professionally, and that’s going to be a big weight off your mind. 

Focus On Solutions 

It’s easy to focus on (and dwell on) what’s going wrong, but it’s not very productive, and what would really help much more is to focus on solutions instead – what can you (and others) do to improve the situation? As long as you know what the problem is, you should be able to come up with ways to make it better, whatever that might be. 

Of course, if the issue really is out of your control, you’ll need to think about how to help yourself in other ways – you might need to set more boundaries, for example, or even look for another job. It’s not ideal, but your mental and physical health, and your overall happiness, is much more important than any job ever will be.