I tell you what, these past few months in the new year at my full time job have been excruciating. I work for quality control testing vaccines for animals at a small company. I have to write down every step and time that something has incubated, etc. It is very repetitive and annoying (and makes my hand cramp some days), but that’s ok. These papers then go through two rounds of review, one internal and then another through a different department – (we’ll abbreviate this department as QA for this post).

These past few weeks, QA has been handing out deviation after deviation to my coworkers and I for things that used to not be an issue. Write down the wrong time? We would correct it later that day when we caught the issue (mistakes happen) and it was good to go. After all, we are the scientists who understand the processes. QA does not understand the process at all (which has been made very evident). Nothing has changed, but the amount of deviations has drastically increased and this has been noticed by several departments (just so you know its not just my interpretation).

QA has been scheduling meetings and trainings, talking down to us, acting like they are God’s gift to the world, and any small error (whether it is as minimal as spelling) they have been jumping at and making everyone get retrained on how to use an excel sheet. They do not accept “sorry, I’m a human and messed up” as an answer. I could go on and on, but I’ve complained enough to my husband and family about the power trip QA has found themselves on this year.

I’m sure you’ve likely experienced something similar in your workplace. However, over these past few weeks (and one day in particular filled with QA being jerks), I realized that I let them ruin my day by caring far more than they did. I would be so annoyed throughout the day, I would always text and complain about it. But then I had a bit of a shift in mindset.

Sure, I still get irritated in the moment, I hate being treated like a child when I know more about the science than the QA reviewers who do not practice science. BUT, after the meeting or the training is over, I let it go. If my company wants to pay me to not do my job, and rather sit and be talked to about how to correctly cross out a piece of wrong information and create a note to file – then I will let them waste their money and my time. While the topic is annoying, when I frame it that they are paying me a very good amount to sit and be talked to on things I already know, it makes the ordeal a lot better.

Over the last few weeks, I’ve gotten better at adapting to irritiating situations at work. I can be annoyed at the situation, but I can’t let it ruin my whole day. At the end of the day, it does not matter in the grand scheme of things how many new deviations QA has opened for me that day. No one will care – my future job will not care, and it does not impact my life. If my company wants to pay me to waste my time, I’ll let them.

Things in life will be annoying and irritating, but we have to work on focusing on the greater picture. If the event really has no impact on your life, let it go. If someone cuts you off in traffic and really upsets you, let it go. It probably only made you 2 seconds later, and the person who cut you off is not impacted by you dwelling on that incident. They likely forgot about it the instant they did it. By you holding onto your anger and irritation, you are taking away from your life. I still have to work on this, and luckily QA seems to be on the track to keep opening deviations over idiotic things, so I see plenty of practice for me in the future!

“Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.”

– Phillipians 4:8

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All scripture taken from the Holy Bible, King James Version.