This Conversation/Situation Is Making Me Uncomfortable.

Put your hand to heart and tell me if you really have the courage to say this in your workplace setting. I am guessing 50% will say “NO”, 49% will say “YES”? but deep inside they know they can’t, and the rest 1%, well you may skip this post because you have what it takes!?

A recent event made me take notice of my inability to do so. Yes, I belong to 49% category who dreams about taking a stand but is too scared to actually take it. And I am not going to ponder over what is required for us to take that step.

What I am actually going to talk about is the why? Why doesn’t it come easily to us? What makes us stop??

The first reason that comes to my mind, and this is based on my personal experience is that we don’t want to hurt that person who made us uncomfortable. So, when a very good friend of mine started bossing me around like I was their order - taker, I shut my laptop down with a thud and stormed out of the room. Talk about being passive aggressive, eh?

Wouldn’t it have been easier if I had just said that one thing? It certainly would have. But the repercussions of saying that would have been unsettling. Then, I would have had to acknowledge that my friend was being unreasonable. And that would have hurt him/her. So, stomp away and forget it over a cup of chai the next day.

An unhealthy way to deal with your emotions as well as a conflicting situation in the office for sure!

The second reason is all the more interesting and I bet all of us can relate to this. We don’t call out which conversation or situation is making us uncomfortable because we don’t want to create a scene. We don’t want to bring attention to ourselves. We don’t want to “bother” others with our “so - called” problems.

This is the exact same reply I gave when I was asked - why didn’t you come up to me earlier?

I can’t really point a finger on which deep seated issue from our past has made us like this but the truth is - we struggle internally a lot just to put up a brave face externally. And that comes at the cost of our own mental well-being. If we start disregarding our problems, how do we expect a resolution, a change to happen?

This is serious. This is affecting me. And I need to say it out loud.

Remember this line - THIS CONVERSATION / SITUATION IS MAKING ME UNCOMFORTABLE.

Yours Sincerely,

The Well-Being Reporter