Recovering from an emotional outburst at work | by Vinita | September 2023

You can’t go back in time and correct your overreaction, but you can certainly develop emotional agility – moving forward with curiosity, courage and compassion.

Workplaces are full of moments where it’s easy to lose your cool. Uncontrollable, sudden, intense emotions that overwhelm you can dramatically and unexpectedly lead to an emotional outburst.

Negative emotions like anger, fear, or frustration arise when your expectations are not met or when people say or do things that conflict with your personal values ​​and aspirations. Ignoring conflict or anything that bothers you for too long creates inner turmoil – it makes you react to others or things in your environment. You act without thinking. You become a victim of your thoughts and your situation.

Not controlling your emotions can cause you to say or do things that you later regret.

You can yell at a co-worker.

Say rude things to a junior member of your team.

Break down in tears when others disagree with you.

These emotional outbursts can not only cause extreme distress, but they also harm your relationships at work. Others can’t see the inner conflict bubbling inside – they can’t understand why you’re calm one moment and agitated the next. No doubt they will find your reaction inappropriate and unnecessary.

What is done is done. You can’t go back in time and correct your overreaction, but you can certainly develop emotional agility – moving forward with curiosity, courage and compassion.

Emotional agility isn’t just about controlling your emotions and not taking out your frustrations on others, it’s also about what you do when you react unintentionally.

Here are 5 practices to prevent strong emotions from overwhelming you, take control of the situation and limit the damage if you end up acting in an unhealthy way: