Things were pretty crappy yesterday.  I was at work, dealing with insanity.  We had someone from out of town come, and it was very nice. She tried to help by responding to some requests.   It was very kind of her. However, we then got into a ‘discussion’ of how to handle a call. I simply took the caller’s name and contact information and email address. The caller was difficult to understand (language barrier). Her opinion was that I should have just told the guy to email his question to us.   I was pretty frustrated because the way she was insisting that I had been wrong, and pretty much felt like I was being treated like a brainless twit.
Then, speaking with a trusted friend about this they essentially implied that I have — in their opinion — not been doing my job effectively.  Then when I tried to end the conversation I got told that I was resistant to change. And you know what, sometimes I am. Especially when it’s unsolicited and about something as stupid as whether to cut off the customer and ask them to email or struggle through and take down their email address and number directly.
So the headache that started after lunch built and intensified. As I walked home I was pretty upset — but l also had a better response — because these people are not my managers and may be opinionated but they’re not my manager. So while I was annoyed, I didn’t take it as personally as I would have in the more recent past. Because you know what? We all have different styles for how we handle the customers, and when we’re not stressed we all agree that this is fine.
So in regards to my ‘gut’ response: this is very good — not taking it personally is important!
Overall though, I was exhausted and had reached my limit and spent the rest of the night with a migraine.  I woke up this morning still with a migraine. I’ve spent much of the day on my sofa. Now I’m sitting here wishing I could run, but everytime I get up off my sofa I’m dizzy. So I’ll lay low and recover. Migraines for me, are definitely stress related.