Janet* has just been informed by her management that she has to step down from her current job and responsibilities and start a new project in another unit, taking on a role that poses a real challenge but entails no managerial responsibilities. Because of her excellent work in her current position, because her managerial skills have been widely recognised and most of all because she was not involved in the decision, Janet is struggling to accept this change.

She keeps wondering why this has happened and is very concerned about the potential impact of this change on her career. She feels shocked, worried and depleted of all energy. As a result, she is not sleeping well and has lost motivation for work. She needs to find a way to cope with the new circumstances and regain peace of mind and confidence.

Let’s have a look at what happens to our brains in such circumstances, how emotions take over and what we can do to regain a sense of control.

Our brains like certainty and autonomy. A sense of uncertainty about the future and a feeling of being out of control both generate strong limbic system responses: our emotions, in this case negative ones.

In the situation described, Janet is both facing uncertainty about her future and experiencing a relative loss of autonomy. Hence the negative emotions that take over and start affecting her health.

In such situations, we may be tempted to try to suppress our emotions and even deny them. This does not work and, on the contrary, reinforces the negative feelings.

Janet could try to label her emotions by asking herself: what is it exactly that I am feeling now? Indeed, labelling and recognising emotions is proven to reduce them as they kick in. And, contrary to common belief, it will not make Janet feel worse.

Another very powerful tool to face challenging situations is to reappraise them, i.e. change the interpretation that creates the negative feelings in the first place.

After the much recommended “Stop, take a deep breath and think”, there are several ways to reappraise a situation, which we will try to apply to Janet’s case:

Reinterpreting the situation
This is when we consciously decide that the situation is no longer a threat. In Janet’s case, she could decide to see the new job as an opportunity to demonstrate another set of competences and skills, all assets for her future career. 

Normalising the situation
Change is always difficult; it is normal to feel uncertain and apprehensive when facing a new situation that we did not necessarily choose. When Janet consciously realises that what she feels is normal and even to be expected, she will reduce her emotional response to the new situation.

Reordering priorities
We all have our set of values, in a given order of priority, which supports us in life. Janet gives priority to the well-being of her family. Still, having managerial responsibilities and being able to influence things at a high level are also very important to her. Next in her current ordering of values comes the excitement of tackling challenging projects. Maybe Janet, to cope with the situation, needs to reconsider the relative importance of the last two, at least for a period of time, in order to find satisfaction in her new job and reduce her negative emotions.

Repositioning the perspective
A very powerful way to reduce emotions and turn them from an “away” to a “toward” reaction is to look at a situation from a different angle. Janet could also consider that her competences are critical to make her new mission a success and see that the management has chosen to entrust her with this highly challenging project. By doing so, she would change her negative emotions into excitement and regain peace of mind.

In challenging situations, we can, to some extent, control our brain’s response. It requires first being aware of our emotional responses, labelling them and applying effective reappraisal techniques.

If you are facing a difficult situation and are overwhelmed by your emotional response to the challenges, why not come to the Ombud’s office and discuss it?

If you would like to know more about how the brain functions and how we can manage our emotions, I highly recommend the great book from Dr David Rock, Your brain at work.

*The name and situation are fictitious.

Laure Esteveny

I would like to hear your reactions and suggestions – join the CERN Ombud Mattermost team at https://mattermost.web.cern.ch/cern-ombud/ .

More information on the role of the CERN Ombud and how to contact her can be found at https://ombud.web.cern.ch.