Sometimes things don’t go right. You know those days where everything seems to go wrong in clumps?
You might have had a rotten night’s sleep and the traffic was unusually bad on the way to work. Your car chooses that day to develop some problem. Your co-worker or staff rings in sick so you end up having to do their work and yours, but problems that never happened before (or since) occur when you’re at your busiest, stopping you from getting what you need to do done… and so on.
I’m sure most of us, if not all have those days.
And I’m sure that most of us are tired, grumpy and just over it by the time they get home.
All you want to do is just zone out, rest, or do something that will amuse you or make you happy.
However, there are people who want to talk to you, and that is the last thing you want to do right then. You tell them, I’m sorry, I’ve had a really crappy day and I’ll deal with this tomorrow.
Then they’ll say, do you want to talk about it? You tell them no, but they insist, saying it might help.
No, what will help is if you leave me alone, and give me time to rest and re-centre! And no, I don’t want to friggin’ talk about it today. I just want to let it go and move on!
People certainly mean well when they want to help, but unless someone has asked for that help, then it’s certainly best not to try and insist on giving it.
Probably the best thing to say to someone who’s had a bad day is: Understood. You know where I am if you need me. (End of communication.)
We are surprisingly resilient, and get over our bad days pretty fast. We know what we need to do and as long as we’re left alone to do it, we will be fine the next day.
Bad days happen and it’s all okay.