by Amela Piric

Created on: July 27, 2011

Assertiveness is a skill that needs to be learned nowadays if you want to be respected at your workplace.  Rarely is anybody born as assertive, but it is a skill that can be honed and practiced.  If you achieve assertiveness you will manage to maintain your independence and you will be looked upon with respect and admiration.  People will not walk all over you and thus they will know when it is too much of you.

There are certain situations at work where you better learn to be assertive rather than let your cooworkers do whatever they want to do with you.

Don't allow psychological abuse

There are sometimes unhappy and unsatifsfied people around you filled with negative energy.  They have a tendency to take out their frustrations on somebody and that way they usually feel much better.  This can especially be the case if that someone is in a position of power over you and they think they can deal with you or handle you any way they want.  Don't allow yourself to become a victim of someone's frustrations and to be criticized in front of the public.  Don't allow yourself to become a scapegoat for someone who wants to put all the blame on you.

Don't take on much more work than you can handle

As you already may be familiar, there are always doers and actors in the workplace.  Whoever wants to work and is good at it gets more work and doesn't gets avoided.  While a certain healthy dosage of work is good for you, don't allow them to overload you with work so that it becomes unhealthy and overwhelming for you, because tiredness and stress over a long period of time can easily turn out into burnout.

Don't always go for the dirty work

Don't allow yourself to become a trashcan at work.  Don't always go for all the "dirty work" that no one else wants to be doing.  You should never be picky at work, but also do not let people think that they can get away with giving you all sort of nasty tasks to perform.

Whenever you decide to say no to a request at work or elsewhere, make sure to do it in a polite and kind way without being passive agressive.  Assertivness is not about being aggressive or passive it is about being kind yet persisting at requesting and fighting for your rights, because nobody else will do it for you.

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