Employee Mood Swings: A Curse!

Each of us cycles through multiple moods several times a day. Depending on how we feel, we may be gung-ho to take on a project or be immobilized by a pessimistic funk. Like stress, moods are often reactions to events and operate behind the scenes of consciousness, pumping us up, shutting us down, leaving us at the mercy of whatever feeling has bubbled to the surface.

Moods have a big impact on what we get done during the day, how much we get done, the decisions we make, and the stress that we feel. Researcher Marcial Losada found in a study that looked at the behavior of business people in meetings (using a two-way mirror for observation), that those with positive mood, who asked questions, didn’t go on the defensive, and used positive framing in their language, were more productive employees, had better sales, and got along with others better.

In this article, we will discuss 5 strategies on managing mood swings, especially the bad moods at work:

1. Know your triggers

Emotional triggers immediately reminds us of any past instances or experiences, regardless of the fact that they were good or bad. Just that very reminder immediately put on or off our moods. Knowing our trigger points, helps when we are able to identify or relate to what makes us upset or puts our mood off.

This could be people, events, interactions, situations, places etc. Knowing ourselves in advance can prepare us to remain calm and plan our reaction according to the situation. This way, we may be able to even anticipate the other party’s reaction. Always remember, that letting go is the key here. Let’s not stay imprisoned due to any situations that hampers our progress.

2. Be respectful

Respect is one of the most important traits @workplace because it creates a positive work culture for us and our teams to accomplish goals together. Let’s learn to treat people around us the same way as we would like to be treated. In business world or at workplace, we just cannot avoid anyone and everyone for a number of reasons.

We must learn to co-exist and work together. If the other person is rude, there’s no need to reciprocate. We can stay gracious and just be firm and assertive without being aggressive. Often, rude people will mellow down if they don’t get a reaction from us and realise that they are the only one shouting in the room and will eventually rectify their behaviour.

3. Compartmentalise

Compartmentalisation is a coping mechanism that allows us to separate conflicting thoughts, feelings, and experiences into separate mental compartments. This can be a useful strategy in situations where we need to focus on other aspects of our lives. When we commute to work, use that time to tell the mind to let go. Through this thought process, we can mentally ‘store/lock up” the issue in a box for the time being.

Likewise, never bring back negative emotions home. It would be a good practice to let go of any anger, frustration and unhappiness at the end of every workday. Harbouring negative emotions allows us to fester like mould, bringing us to a breaking point. So it’s best to empty the emotional “trash can” on a daily basis, to prevent overwhelm.

4. The 10-second Rule

This 10-second rule is a tried and tested rule around the world and is considered to be quite effective. Let’s give ourselves a chance to respond in a healthy way, even in challenging situations. The 10-second rule is really quite simple. It simply says that whenever the temperature in a conversation starts to go up, pause for 10 seconds before responding.

This is especially helpful if we are angry, frustrated or even irate. If one feels that internal temperature is rising, try and count to 10 to recompose. If possible, drink water, take a short break but let’s reassure rest of the meeting participants that you will be shortly back to deal with the matter.

5. Decision-making

Research shows that decision-makers in a negative frame of mind tend to be more focused when facing a high-risk situation. Decision-makers who feel more upbeat tend to be less focused in their information search. Anger, on the other hand, can undermine good decisions. In this day of instant communication, it’s easy to just shoot off an email or text that you may regret later.

Let ‘s ensure that the anger or unhappiness never clouds our judgement. Hold off all forms of communications i.e. email, phone call or in-person or virtual meetings while angry. We can write emails but save as draft and sleep on it for a day. Re-read it the next day or even let someone you trust take a look at it before you send it.

Wrap Up

To sum it up, let’s remind ourselves that no two men or women are born identical even in terms of behaviours. In that case, to the emotional levers of mood, since they have such an impact on performance, motivation, interest, persistence, and satisfaction, among many others, these are some of the reasons that our work-life balance, staying positive, and time management employee training programs teach the power of optimism and the resilience that comes from it.

We’re all familiar with when the day gets off on the wrong foot. Everything seems harder, takes forever, as intrusive frustration, sadness, or anxiety gets in the way of what we’re doing. The tone tends to spread throughout the day and this can only happen when we take complete charge of our moods.

About the Author

Muhammad Sajwani is a C-Level HR, Transformation Leader, Board Advisor, Business Coach & Organisational Consultant working in the capacity of Managing Director, Evolve HR. He is an author, columnist and a contributor who besides writing for other platforms also regularly writes at BizCatalyst 360. He brings along 30+ years of local & international experience. He is a change catalyst specializing in unleashing the human Dreamgenius through Leadership, Creativity and Change Management. Muhammad has been instrumental in helping organizations come to terms with organizational changes like right-sizing and business process re-engineering. His innovative approach & high personal competence encourages people to not only accept change, but also to excel in it. Muhammad has diverse experience in conducting strategic & management development programs, conferences & events for organizations across sectors.