Big Girl Pants

I was hard at work at my desk one day, concentrating on a project.  I sensed someone standing in my doorway, then heard chuckling.  I looked up to find my staid, quiet “cube wall” neighbor laughing and pointing. She was directing her attention to framed artwork on my office wall that reads “Put your big girl panties on and deal with it.”

People can really relate—even the normally taciturn have been known to break into outright laughter when they read that saying.  Because let’s face it, sometimes you do just have to deal with it.  Life is full of distasteful tasks, large and small that require one to suck it up and deal.

The “deal with it” dilemma surfaces all the time our work lives.  Much as we’d love it otherwise, there’s plenty of stuff in our daily work that requires us to forge on, even in the face of plainly ridiculous office politics/policies/inefficiencies.  A personal example: A few years ago, I got an expense reimbursement form bounced back to me because I tried to save the company money.  I had submitted a receipt for the actual cost of my meals out during a business trip.  Because the meals were less than the daily per diem, I was told to re-submit the form with the per diem amounts listed (even though this was a higher expense.) Insanity.

What tough situations are you willing to endure in the name of getting things done. . . or not rocking the boat . . . or keeping your job?   What tasks or situations make you put on your big girl pants and deal with it?

 

Note: to read the companion piece to this essay, see No Monkeys! , an essay on when you say “enough is enough.”