i'm really scared right now. the school superintendent is here and i just found that he has set up a personal meeting with me and my wife on Wed morning before school. there has been some tension between the staff of our school and him and the school board. and i have been one of the more outspoken voices for the rights, interests and opinions of our staff. i don't know if this is going to be a step towards better understanding and communication - or if my head is on the line.

this is a major trigger! i hate it that he can make me feel like a sniveling little brat. it's the old authority phobia - like the step-dad, the coach, the scoutmaster, the bullies, the bosses, the pastors - every negative authority figure from my past - all piling on. my heart is pounding and i am short of breath and my hands are shaking. but i am not a little kid anymore. and i am not a helpless victim. but he can still ruin my career and reputation and self-esteem and send me home in disgrace. trying to keep calm - but don't know how i'm going to make it to Wed.

Lee

Hang in there Lee,
Keep venting if it helps
Try to put your thoughts on better things if you can
Don't let it take you out, you can survive this thing
Keep us posted

I have been dealing with this for the last couple of months . I am very outspoken and i am finding out more and more I need to take a break and do more listening than talking .

I have been in these situations in the last 2 months and I have had 3 different times I had direction guidance and input when I thought it was criticism or I just thought my way of thinking was the only way to think . Go Figure lol


Not to mention I do not take criticism well at all at first only after self reflection and through prayer .

Than i tend to see the bigger picture




I do no do well with my emotions and do not no how to control them so i get mad and frustrated and it comes off wrong to the other party . I even begin to shake if i can not put my words together the way I am thinking them . somehow it does not come out the way i am thinking it

moral to the story be OPEN to criticism constructive or not .
Do not react right away give it some time to sink in and reflect than have a conversation with these people after you have had time to process it

thank you, SmartS and nlt!

i am doing better now. this is amazing to get a couple of responses at this time. my time zone is about 12 hours ahead of EST. and usually NO ONE is on here during my afternoons except sometimes a very few who are not in the USA. so i am very thankful that you were on when i needed to be talked down.

i appreciate the support,
Lee

Lee, I'm going to be up for a while. PM me if you need to.

One thot that's helped me sometimes is to completely detach from the situation and take criticism as useful information. We're both artsy-fartsy and I think one skill I've acquired in my "old age" is that criticism of my work by one person - no matter how powerful he/she thinks he/she is - isn't necessarily a reflection on my abilities.

Conversely, when the criticism is obviously personal, I channel my inner Spock and realize it tells me more about them than me. I already know more about myself than most "normal" people. If you will, the more they talk, the bigger the hole they dig for themselves. The only question at that point - AFTER some calm reflection and time to get my emotions out - is whether I'm willing to put up with it.

Hi lee.

I hope your feeling better about this since you posted the initial topic. Cryticism as Dave said, especially from someone in a position of power is not fun, too much recall of unpleasant teachers who told me I was nothing and all those dayly insults as a teenager, not to mention prejudice as an adult. I've found myself that often I will either cave completely under cryticism and just agree with it since it reinforces my own sense of worthlessness, or more rarely feel it as a personal attack and become extremely angry or defensive, though this doesn't happen quite as often.

One thing that has however helped me with this is finding another person who's opinions I can! trust, then going over things with them, since then I can considder their opinion and be somewhat more objective about assessment of what I! have done, and thus will be less likely to react in either extreme way. most recently I had the viva for my thesis which was basically an hour of people asking me questions on what I'd been writing for the past five years, and I know if I hadn't gone over things with my tuter before hand, a man who's opinion I have infinite respect for, I wouldn't have reacted as I did or been able to argue the points that needed arguing and concede the points that needed conceding.

that helps practically with the cryticism end of things, though anxiety is of course another matter, albeit it sounds like your dealing with that pretty well given that your first response was to come on hear and vent.

I hope this meeting goes as you want it to.

Luke.

thanks, Lancer & Luke.

i am usually pretty devastated by negative criticism - whether deserved or not. and then later i get angry. i feel totally in the dark about this, can't think of anything that i have done - except to be vocal in discontent with the current state of things. so i am dreading it and not even sure how to prepare for it. i don't usually get defensive during an evaluation. and i know this is a flaw - but i care more about being liked and approved than i do about what kind of job i'm doing. i know i do a good job - so that is not the issue. but there have been anonymous accusations against other staff members who have been sanctioned without being able to face their accusers or know what the charges are. maybe i am paranoid - but that doesn't mean that they are not out to get me.

only time will tell...
Lee

Lee,

I usually assume the worse when there is a senior manager meeting, or a performance review. I get caught up in worry, and prepare for the worse case. Which then triggers my anxiety and addiction cycle.

Of course 98% of the time, my fears/worry are unfounded. But its that 2% that bothers me...

The Serenity prayer helps....

Jim

Hi Lee. I have not had time to read the thread other than your first post. At work and don't have much time. But I was wondering if you can ask for an agenda prior to going to any meeting. If you don't know what the issues are then you will of course feel the way you do.

Here's a thot, why the hell - especially in your recovery - would you want to work for an institution like that? Just something to let your brain chew on.