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The effects of stress on
your thinking

By 19 April 2021No Comments

Have you ever been in such a stressful situation that you could not think straight? To have your mind so preoccupied by an event, a worry, an atmosphere that you were tetanised and that your reason no longer followed?

 

Let me tell you about a personal experience that will illustrate this point, because I found myself in this situation.

 

 

A difficult context

 

We were in the last century. I mean the last century, the last millennium: 1994! I had just graduated from the previous year and had just finished my military service. And yes, it was a period when we were called up for ten months, a time that people under 25 years old cannot know!

 

At the end of these obligations, I actively looked for a job. Because I had just graduated, I wanted to approach my first job in a humble way, and above all not thinking – and I still don’t think so today – as we were constantly told, that I could have big salary claims in a management position because I had just graduated from a business school that proclaimed itself to be “prestigious” and according to its directors “we were worth it”. I was able to join a company as a commercial attaché which acted as a gold and silver wholesaler on the French market. My role was to canvass jewellery retailers throughout France so that they would come and buy from our company. The company had two sites: a head office in Lyon and a subsidiary in Paris. The Paris branch I joined was made up of nine women, so I was the only man on the site. Working with women and reporting to a woman didn’t really displease me, on the contrary, I thought I would feel very comfortable among them. Two women were senior managers in this Parisian structure and the relationship between them was unfortunately execrable, one wanting to oust the other and this reflected on the whole company, so I quickly became disillusioned. Fortunately, I was able to escape from this atmosphere when I went to approach my prospects.

 

In 1995, two employees of the subsidiary suffered from burn out, certainly due to this heavy atmosphere, and were placed on sick leave. So, I was asked to come and help out in the shop. There I served the customers who came to the store and took over the regular tasks from my absent colleagues.

 

I went to work backwards. One of the two managers was taking her frustrations out on everyone and was openly fighting with her counterpart. Every time I heard my name I was terrified of conflict, of a difficult relationship and sometimes almost humiliation.

 

As this was my first job I didn’t want to make waves or rebel, I told myself that it was hard but so was the world of work that I was finally discovering.

 

So, I swallowed my snacks without complaining or complaining. I had a job, it’s a precious commodity, so it was better to keep quiet, bend over backwards and do what was expected of me.

 

The revealing event

 

One day the CEO of the company came to Paris. As he often carried jewellery from one office to another, he had to come by car for obvious security reasons. On several occasions I had travelled with him between Lyon and Paris. He had parked his car in the alleyway, the parking was of course paying, at that time the payment was still done by coins. He had to take his car back to Lyon that evening.

 

I was working on one of the most basic tasks in the shop: labelling the jewellery we received in bulk from our suppliers, always in fear of having contact with one of the managers of this office, despite the presence of the CEO. After his arrival in the office he came to see me and after putting 20 francs – about 3€ today – on my desk he asked me to “go and put some money in the car”. This is where something happened that I still find difficult to conceive and which perfectly illustrates the stress I was under at that moment: because he was used to paying tolls on the A6 motorway in cash and was constantly looking in his pockets for the change to pay him, I thought he would prefer to have money at hand in the car so that he wouldn’t have to look for it. So, I dutifully put the 20 francs inside the car under the dashboard and went back to work in the shop.

 

After two hours, still busy with my labelling, my big boss came back to me and asked me exactly this question: “What time did the parking lot end? “And then everything came back into order in my mind and everything must have accelerated very quickly: I realised that the money I had to put in the car was in fact the parking meter ticket and that, more importantly, if he realised the mistake I had made, he would think that this sales representative he had employed and who represented his company like an ambassador was profoundly stupid and that it might be a good idea to try to get rid of him! ! So, I had to find a solution very quickly to make up for it and get back on my feet.

 

So, I stammered out a “I don’t remember what time it ended”, which made him sigh and roll his eyes, give me another 20 francs to extend the parking time by two hours and hear him say: “Here’s hoping that the periwinkles haven’t passed and that I haven’t got a fine in the meantime! “.

 

So, I went out quickly, praying that there was nothing there and to check as quickly as possible that a possible ticket was not already on the windscreen. If that had been the case, needless to say that the payment of the ticket would have been the logical price to pay for my state of intense stress which had blocked all reflection at home! Fortunately, this was not the case, as no one had come to write the ticket. So, I immediately took the 20 francs from inside the car, put them in the parking meter and put the ticket on the dashboard.

 

On my way back to the showroom, I passed by the office where the CEO was and gave him the remaining 20 francs. Amazed, he asked me why I was giving him back the 20 francs he had just given me? My answer was: “Well, I made a mistake, I threw the previous parking meter ticket in the bin without thinking about it and as I know that you use it as a proof for the reimbursement of your expenses, I’ll pay you back for my mistake”. To which he replied: “But come on, Gilles, I’m not 20 francs short, don’t be ridiculous and keep your money! “.

 

The lesson to be learned   

 

This personal story could lead to a smile and to say that the management of this “crisis” allowed me to reverse the perilous situation of the beginning and to win 20 francs in the end! However, I can tell you that at the time and with hindsight I was not really proud of myself and that there was nothing to be proud of in the result

 

No, that’s absolutely not the benefit I got from this experience. This event had another virtue: it made me aware of how bad I was working in this atmosphere. It had the effect of an electroshock on me. Shortly afterwards, I asked for a meeting with my CEO and told him about the problems we were all experiencing in this climate in the Paris office and the repercussions it was having on our work, our productivity and above all our motivation.  Two people were already off sick and this was a very telling illustration of what I was telling him.

 

A few months later, I left that company and looked for another job that suited me better and in which I could develop.

 

The bottom line is that if you don’t find pleasure in your job, leave it! If you don’t think you are delivering the best service to your customers, if you don’t think your product is the best on the market, change your company or redefine your strategy if it is your own company.

 

No business, no job, is worth losing your health over.

 

When Jack Welch, the charismatic former Chairman of General Electric, toured all the countries in which G.E. operates to meet with the subsidiary teams of all the Group’s businesses, the first question he asked each and every one of them, from the top managers to the rank-and-file employees of these subsidiaries, was: “Do you have fun in your job? “. The last sentence he said to them before leaving was: “Make sure you have fun in your work, if you don’t have fun, don’t stay here! ”

 

A beautiful philosophy to follow throughout our lives.