Difficult work environments are exhausting in a specific way. The pressure is constant, and it has a way of narrowing everything down until the job feels like the whole world.

Tonight, let’s widen the lens.

Feet on the floor. Feel the chair beneath you, the floor underneath your feet.

Let those points of contact remind you of something: your skills, your experience, your knowledge, your character — these are what’s holding you up. Not the environment. Not the dysfunction. You brought those things in with you, and you’ll carry them out.

Deep breath in, deep breath out.

Now, imagine you’re floating a hundred feet above the ground, looking down. What do you see? The people in your life. The places that matter to you. Everything that exists outside of work. Take it all in for a moment.

Where is your job in that picture? How much space does it take up?

Deep breath in, deep breath out.

Come back down now. Feet on the floor. Back in your own space.

Think of three things happening in the world right now that are more urgent, more pressing, or more consequential than what’s happening at your job. Just three. They aren’t hard to find.

Deep breath in, deep breath out.

Notice what happens when you hold your workplace inside that larger context. The lens widens. The pressure doesn’t disappear, but it shifts — it takes up a little less of the frame.

Every day at work may be hard right now. But the job is not the whole picture, even when it feels that way. Widening the lens — even briefly, even imperfectly — is a way of reminding yourself that you are larger than the environment you’re currently in.

Take that with you into tomorrow.

When It’s Not Just You is a series running all week about the impact of a difficult work environment on a team.

For news, updates and more resources, visit unmanagedpeople.com.

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