Working Haze: Failing to See Your Work Environment

Much like a scene out of the movie Groundhog Day, you wake, get dressed, drive to work, and somehow manage to make it to your desk without consciousness as to the exact trip. Each day it’s the same. Wake, work, eat, sleep … the next day, wake, work, eat, sleep … and again, wake, work, eat, sleep. It’s a never-ending cycle or what could be coined a working haze. It’s a terrible situation to be in. With such an outcome, you’d think it’s one forced on working-class America. Who would willingly and knowingly expose themselves to such cruelty? Well, the reality is we’ve unconsciously fallen into it: the abyss of numbness we call our lives.

Think of making changes in your life, unless of course, you’re having a great time in your current haze. Aside from taking some obvious steps, such as getting more sleep at night and changing your diet to reduce caffeine and sugar, here are some other alternatives to help you get out from under that funk and dust yourself off.

Tickle Your Funny Bone … and then Tickle Your Neighbor’s. Treat yourself to a daily dose of humor by subscribing to online joke portals that email you a new joke each morning. Jokes oftentimes take only a couple of minutes to read, yet the effects can last the entire day.

Pass the joke on if you wish. A laughing department can help relieve tension between colleagues and make the overall work environment more productive through improved communications. Managers like to see bottom-line results and goals achieved, so don’t be afraid of a 10-minute goof-off session. If producing, employers don’t fret much on what their employees do to reach such achievements.

Start a Morning or Lunch Walking Group. A partial reason for working haze is the lack of something to look forward to throughout the day. A morning walk is a great way to get the day kicked off; however, a lunch walk would likely include more office mates (since that time is more convenient). You can’t argue the fact that a mid-day walk would provide a nice break to a mundane eight-hour day.

Boss can’t live without you? Can’t take too long of a lunch? Take your boss with you. Make it a working walk. Talk about pending projects, discuss your boss’s expectations of you, and make it time to talk, laugh, and learn about each other. No one says that you can’t be a friend with your boss.

Create a Chain of Support. Learn to recognize and assist when people need support and a shoulder, and they’ll do the same for you. It’s okay to ask probing questions, especially if you have nothing but good intentions behind them. In Bob Losyk’s book, Get a Grip! Overcoming Stress and Thriving in the Workplace, he talks about how forthcoming people are with co-workers, making it a main reason they stay with employers.

Think twice. Avoid judging a person’s bad mood or consider an underlining reason behind hateful words. At first glance, it may seem like you’re the reason for it; but actually, that person may be dealing with something deep and painful, you just happen to be in front of them when steam needs releasing.

Avoid Seriousness. What’s the big deal about being serious all the time? Life was meant to be lived, and we should never intentionally go through it with blinders on. Read the following over and over: my family and I deserve to laugh more, play more, and enjoy more of the what life has to offer … therefore we will; starting right now. Use those personal days. Play hooky from work so you can take your daughter to an afternoon movie. Spend your lunch hour planning an inexpensive weekend trip to a local park for exercise and relaxation. Bring your spouse a picnic lunch and spend the entire hour talking about how you miss each other during the day.

Working haze occurs when we forget to live. We unwittingly allow our lives to fall into a rut that sucks the life out of the limited days we have. The above suggestions will certainly help bring you back to the land of the living and will brighten your current situation so you see other areas of your life that need attention; i.e., continued education, ailing relationship with a friend or family member, or lateral/horizontal career move.


Need a kick-butt resume plus cover letter? Teena Rose is a credentialed resume writer, columnist, book author, and careerist. She’s authored several career books, including 20-Minute Cover Letter Fixer, How to Design, Write, and Compile a Quality Brag Book, and Cracking the Code to Pharmaceutical Sales.