Understanding Reconstitution for Work Health

Because Work-Hurt Happens

In this mid-year edition of CAP, I want to spotlight something that majority of us will experience while working and building a career. Not limited to work per se, but sometimes not recognized for what it is within the work world. Because many of us were taught to suck it up and move on. And that is the concept of work hurt.

I coined the phrase as a mashup of “church hurt ” a common term used in evangelical circles to describe “the physical or emotional pain that results from the actions or decisions of members or leaders of a church." Replace church with work, and you get 'work hurt." Not to be confused with getting physically hurt or injured at work due to occupational health and safety violations or other such incidents.

The probability of work-hurt occurring within a person’s career-span is almost a hundred percent. Be it from a co-worker, a colleague or a boss.

From a systems point of view, many organizations should function as open systems but in reality, operate as closed systems . Working within a closed system by definition implies a scarcity of resources.

If economics taught us anything, it’s competition. Competition for scarce resources. Borrowing somewhat from Uncle Ben in Spiderman — "with great competition comes great innovations, but also increased opportunities for 'crushing' an opponent. Whoever that real or imagined opponent may be.

What happens when you are the “crushed” one. Even in the best of outcomes such with grapes or olives in wine and oil production, crushing is painful.

Work-hurt is not just physical, it’s emotional too.

The pain of being overlooked, of not being supported, of not being believed, of being gaslit, of being the object of lies and harassment. I have heard it all from clients and acquaintances. Which is why I said, the concept of hurt comes with life as a whole.

Work-hurt rings different simply because we spend so much time at work. We also sometimes tie our identities to the work. Such that any in-congruence between what we expect and what we observe and or experience is jarring to the psyche.

So, work-hurt happens or happened. How do we deal with it?

Most will talk about the concept of working or walking through it or of leaving and going to find something else. You hear talk about being resilient and having grit and all other kinds of tools offered to deal.

I, however, want to talk about the concept of reconstitution. And how we can learn and practice this for work health and career acceleration.

I discovered the term in my research for this month’s newsletter. After a conversation with a friend on trying to make peace with someone in their family who betrayed them. Reconstitution is a military term that speaks to rebuilding combat power, while still in active warfare.

Not to get too technical but I’ll use some metaphors here

Reconstitution is an operational tactic. Usually called by the Unit Commander. Much the same way, we are the “commanders” of our responses to work-hurt.

There are three elements for a successful reconstitution; reorganization, regeneration and rehabilitation. I’ll take each one and its application for combating work-hurt.

1. Reorganization: Shifting resources to increase survivability. This will look like not expending mental and emotional energy presently on the situation, unless it is one of clear and present danger. Shifting mental resources to other aspects of life that are working well, allows for compartmentalization of work-related issues
2. Regeneration: Rebuilding the unit. This may look like getting the emotional and physical support needed for future work. Leaving can be a rebuilding strategy should you choose to. Staying may involve using available Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs). Either way, rebuilding is not and should not be a solo effort.
3. Rehabilitation: Rest and reconditioning after withdrawal from arduous duty. For some, this can look like taking a leave of absence. Or a sabbatical (paid or unpaid), obviously dependent on the type of work and the privileges associated with one’s type of work.

The big idea: *Reconstruction and reconstitution is possible. We can take command of a bad work experience and use these reconstructive practices to build back a healthier work-self.

Have you experienced work-hurt? How did you handle it?

*Please note that some degrees of work-hurt may require you to take other recourse such as filing a complaint/grievance. Or even a discrimination or harassment claims with the relevant bodies. Part of reconstitution is knowing what equipment and tools you have in the arsenal to build back with.

About the Career Acceleration Precepts (CAP) newsletter:

A monthly LinkedIn newsletter designed to provide early to mid-career pharmacy and healthcare professionals with tools and ideas for advancing their careers. CAP is curated by Dr Otito Iwuchukwu, CPTD, organizational psychologist, pharmacist-scientist, author, consultant, and career strategist. As a certified professional in talent development and career advocate for multi-passionate healthcare professionals, Dr Iwuchukwu helps individuals, put their gifts and strengths to use in and out of work.