This Is a Healthy and Anonymous Way to Vent About Workplace Problems
Venting about work might feel good as you’re doing it, but it can come with some serious consequences — especially if you find yourself saying something negative about someone you work with in the heat of the moment that you will regret later. Your problem may be a bad boss, troubling teammate, or even a toxic culture that’s affecting your mental health, but the best thing you can do is air your concerns in a constructive way that’ll lighten your emotional burden — without putting your job at risk. While setting up a meeting with HR can be a solid first step, issues might not get ironed out as quickly as you’d like, and depending on your work culture, that team might not always be so approachable to begin with.
So what should you do in the meantime — or if you’re not even sure what to do, period? Empower Work, an online platform that was created specifically to help people with professional problems, offers a solution to your workplace woes. The company, created in 2017, realized that work issues are universal after 95 percent of people they’d surveyed shared that they had encountered a “significant” challenge while on job, with a whopping half of them resigning as a result.
Even more, according to the company’s website, certain employees can be more heavily impacted by these types of challenging situations, like “those with less social capital such as women, LGBTQ+, first generation in their family to go to college or join an industry, [and] people of color.” Empower Work’s mission is to change this: “What if every person could get help when they experienced a micro-aggression or feared being fired or was grappling with an ethical question, or had exciting job offers to choose from but couldn’t make a decision? How would that change someone’s success in their role, career trajectory, or economic opportunity?” their website reads.
If you’re nodding yes, yes, and yes in agreement, you’ll be relieved to know that a qualified sounding board is just a text away. The Empower Work platform has a team of trained peer counselors available via free live chat or text between 8:30am to 8:00pm PT Monday through Friday. Since the conversations are completely anonymous, you can feel safe discussing your anxieties and stressors and even venting in a *slightly* less constructive way — without fearing that your complaints could get back to your boss. And you can use an incognito web browser for an added layer of identity protection while chatting online. So the next time you’re enraged at something your boss said and are about to shoot off a livid email to your work wife, pause and remember that if that email somehow gets out, your days at your job could be over. Then send a text to this life-saving (or at least job-saving) service instead.
Don’t need help right now but remember a time when you did? Recalling how much someone’s support got you through a hard time at work in the past may inspire you to volunteer as a peer counselor for the site. If accepted, you’ll receive extensive training in topics like active listening, management, and workplace dynamics that’ll not only enable you to help others but also seriously bolster your skill set at the same time. You’ll then be able to sign up for short two-hour shifts that work with your schedule. Professionally speaking, paying it forward has never been easier.
How do you feel about using a platform to privately air your work grievances? Share your thoughts with us on Twitter @BritandCo.
(Photo via Getty)