Here are this week’s Life Pro Tips.
1. Employers can’t make you stand around after you’ve punched out.
This happens a lot in restaurants. For example, the MOD will make you punch out so they can do the nightly closeout, but you have to stand around and all leave together or actually still have to do side work. Even if it’s just 2 minutes or 20, they have to pay you if they require you to be there. If this is happening to you, record dates and times, take it to your state’s wage and labor board and get what’s yours. Those 15 minutes past each shift add up. You could report it to your company or Government agencies are there to protect you.
2. The best weapon against social anxiety is not courage, but empathy.
An experience shared:
“Lifelong introvert here, who has always struggled with social anxiety and striking up conversations with new people, even though I know it is good for my personal growth.
In the last few years, my ability to engage with strangers has dramatically started to improve due to an unexpected influence – marketing books. The more books I read by guys like Seth Godin or Donald Miller, the more I started focusing on other people and trying to understand them and how I can be valuable to them and make their day a little better. This hasn’t brought me any huge financial success, but it HAS significantly improved my ability to chat with strangers.
My guess is because trying to drum up the “courage” to go talk to a stranger is by default putting them in a somewhat adversarial position. The question “What if they don’t like me?” I used to always agonize over is very inwardly focused, defensive and egotistical.
Instead, when I started focusing more on bringing value to that other person in some small way, the mission of increasing net happiness on the planet helped me break away from my need to be “liked” at least for a few moments at a time – long enough to break the ice in new conversations and discover 9 times out of 10 that the other person has zero negative opinion about you whatsoever. Their opinion is pretty much based on the value you bring and the amount of empathy you can express.
That’s all. Just a word of encouragement. Best of luck!”
3. Being nice to retail workers is far more likely going to get you what you want.
4. If you genuinely feel the need to give context to an apology, do so before the actual apology, not after.
There is a big difference between:
“I’m sorry for yelling, I know I shouldn’t have but I was very frustrated,” which deflects accountability.
and
“I was very frustrated, but I know I shouldn’t have yelled and I’m sorry,” which acknowledges the misstep.
5. If you have to put down a beloved pet, make the vet come to your house to give them the injection. Nothing is more terrifying to them than to die in the only place they always hated to go. They deserve to be surrounded with all their toys and blankets before dying.
