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Have you been wronged today?
It can happen a lot in your work.
The client that doesn’t pay. The hiring manager promises a higher salary, but it doesn’t materialize. The commissions that go unpaid.
And, this is just the money wrongs.
The list goes on when you take a look at what goes on in the workplace around promotions, opportunities, personal favors, and who is overworked and who gets to coast along.
How you deal with the wrong matters in your work.
Responses to these moments tend to become habits, and habits are a large part of who you are and what you become.
Sometimes you will fight a battle to right the wrong. Sometimes you won’t.
Your job is to weigh the trade offs and make a decision on how to respond. And, your responses may vary.
There will always be these moments in life and work. Pay attention to your responses.
Episode 106 Show Notes
Episode 106 Transcript
This is Rebecca Clark. Episode one oh six. Wronged This podcast is for anyone that knows they haven’t yet found and offered up their best work but are compelled to seek it out and do it. Are you ready to move your desk? A few weeks ago, I agreed to rent a larger vehicle to transport one of my siblings belongings, and I got extra insurance. I didn’t bring it in quite full of gas, but I actually turned it in 12 hours or more before the deadline. But that typically doesn’t matter. I know there’s even been some airports or places that I’ve rented cars in the past where if you are too early with the return, they would ding you for some reason, right, because they had limited car space and they had certain plans for rentals and that type of thing. But the grand total for the bill came out to $550. I know it’s the spring break time of year for many people. I know that there’s taxes and insurance, and that’s always more than we want to pay. But this is a bit much right. It’s almost like highway robbery, so I called the company right afterwards and was able to get through to customer service and express my concerns. And there was a hold on one credit card and a hold on a debit card and this whole convoluted thing, and they said it would take like, 10 days to resolve whatever issue. Well, it’s been beyond 10 days, and I called back. I couldn’t even get a live person. I’m thinking, Come on, like this is a large outfit I’ve rented from them before. What’s going on? And so now the credit card is charged, but I still haven’t gotten back. $250 hold on a debit card. I feel wronged now. As a coach, I’m always working on my mind. So I’d already worked through the fact that hey, this is going to cost a little bit more money than I intended. But at least I got to see my brother. At least I got to see some great red rocks, take a little hike, whatever, and I had already worked through it. But when I see this charge still on my card, I feel like I’m reintroduced to this problem all over again because it hasn’t been resolved. So how do I address it? And other related questions like, How much time do I take engaging in this matter? Is there something good or better or best that I should be doing with my time? What would be better recording a podcast episode in producing it or spending far more time on the phone trying to resolve this issue? The time spent would be about the same, whether I think through record and edit a podcast or go through the shenanigans of customer service at the same time that this is occurring. I have several former co workers and friends and family members that have experienced not getting paid for their work, not getting the commission’s. They were intended to receive being offered lower salaries than they’re used to, and the question has come up again. What should I do? How should I address this? How much time do I spend engaging in solving what I think is a problem now? Certainly we don’t want to accept some atrocities or things that happen to us where we’ve been wrong. I don’t want to have that be the idea that comes across today, but pay attention to what battles you are willing to fight. And when I say battles, I mean, how much time do you want to spend engaging and trying to get some money back or trying to get more from someone that does not value your work or trying to prove to someone that your idea, your work, your value is more than they place upon it? Do I want to call back the rental car place? Absolutely. I’m going to wait another day or two. They have a record of my messages. But what about those that aren’t receiving payments or commissions or the salaries they were expecting? Do they let it go? I think the answer is it depends and this is where it pays to be aware of the choices were making and and to engage your mind and a very thoughtful process of what are you willing to spend your time doing and toward what outcomes there are some times in life where we do need to fight a battle right. We might have to fight the battle of getting a fee waived or go to court for some kind of battle to get something, or to stand up for an idea. But there are other times where our time is better served. Not doing that, because the downside is much larger than the any upside that can come from it. The problem is, is we can often default to thinking we have to do it a certain way. Well, I should go to bat for this because of a certain principle. Or I should go to bat for this for everyone after me. And you may be absolutely right in that thing, but I encourage you to think through what you are signing up for. In the process of fighting that battle is the outcome. Something you want. I encourage you to think through what you will be giving up and what you will be gaining from that battle. Will the time be worth it? Will the money be worth it? Is it okay to lose money once in a while if it served a purpose of teaching you a lesson of what you are not going to do again and you can move on and focus all your time and energy on something you’re actually supposed to bring into the world to create, to contribute to The answers aren’t always super clear, but I do feel in some things they’re clearer. For me, the rental car thing is not worth a lot of time. If I spend more than an hour worried about it, that’s more than an hour I could have spent on earning more money, doing something creative or interesting for one of my clients versus fighting for something in the past. Sure, I’ll still send an email or two and give a call. But beyond that I’m going to let it go, because there’s other things I’m supposed to be focused on that I am compelled to offer up and to provide to others. And I need to have good energy. Good mindset, good vibes. As they say, If I want to bring to the table my best ideas, it may be a different answer. Every time you feel wronged, sometimes you’ll go to battle. Sometimes you will not, and you will use your time in different ways. You get to choose and choose well, because your choices will become a habit and the world is big enough and the abundance is available and ideas and opportunities so that no matter when you’ve been wronged. There seems to be other ways that life is made right and work is made right. And you wouldn’t want to miss those because you were languishing about something you were wrong about in the past. Even if the past is just yesterday, it’s something to think about as you strive to move forward. What is the balance between looking backwards and looking forward, and how do I do it in a way that serves me and the people that I am meant to serve? You will be wronged on a regular basis in life and definitely in your work. Mhm. But how you deal with that wrong matters and I encourage you to deal with it from a place of thinking about it and not defaulting to a negative emotion. But to use your brain to go. Okay, I get to decide where to put my energy today. Go forward. Even if you’ve been wronged. Hope you have a great week. I’ll talk to you soon. Yeah, Thanks for listening to the show today. If you enjoyed it, I’d love if you’d write a review and share the show with your friends, Sign up for a weekly nudge at move your desk dot com. Mhm. Yeah. Mhm.
