You probably have a ready-made list of situations to avoid daily. If you mix that list with the concept of your business day, you have even more concrete examples of people, places, and ideas you’d rather not deal with.
For one set of examples, consider the following three situations. No one wants to get injured at work, especially if it prevents your ability to do business in the future – such as if you do something painful to your back. If at all possible, you want to stay away from any situation where you feel like you’re being harassed during your business day. And, beyond simple harassment, if you stay away from people or situations that feel toxic, you will be a better person for it.
Back Injuries
One of the most debilitating types of injury is if you get a back injury. If your back is in pain or if you have lost mobility somehow because of an injury at work, your ability to do your job will be severely compromised. In some cases, you won’t be able to work at all. In those instances, you would hope that your employer has some insurance for you so that you can make money while you’re not working, and you will also still have a job to come back to once you’re healed.
Harassment
Harassment in the workplace is unfortunately common. If there’s any way that you can avoid it, you should. Obviously, you should never harass anyone, even if you think that you’re just joking. If you’ve ever been on the other side of harassment, you know how painful and distracting it can be. Harassment has become a hot button issue because it is one way that employers have exhibited power over their employees in unfair ways in the past.
Toxic Interactions
Do you know how to recognize toxic interactions? If so, then you know how awful they can be at work in particular. They can prevent all sorts of things from getting done. They can make it so that you don’t want to come to your office. If your boss is toxic, it can be even worse. Even if you love your job, being around too many toxic interactions during the day will make you choose to go somewhere else.
There are a few different things you can do about this. You can either bring up toxic behavior directly to the people who are affecting you, or you can use different avoidance techniques. It all depends on the context of your situation, but the point is that for your health and your business value, you need to cut out as much toxicity as possible.
