Here’s Helen’s Story

Helen had taken a promotion at work. Several months in she had found herself feeling very unhappy and anxious, not only at work, at home and in her social life. Helen was certain that her unhappiness stemmed from what was happening at work but soon found that it affected all aspects of her life. She found that she was isolating herself from friends and her partner.  

Helen said, “Joining Thrive came at the right time for me, that had things continued I would have become unwell. The gentle challenge, reassurance, and affirmation about my situation I received from group members was invaluable in enabling me to take a different view on what was happening to me.” 

Helen described that she already felt out of her comfort zone in the new role as she lacked the technical knowledge she needed, this was known by the CEO when she was promoted, however she was not getting the support she had been led to believe she would get. 

“I was working all hours to keep up with the work. The CEO repeatedly got frustrated with me in meetings and would shout at me in front of others, often resulting in me getting angry and shouting back or at times I became tearful. I couldn’t sleep and no matter how many hours I out in I couldn’t seem to please the CEO who grew increasingly fierce as time went on, it had become unbearable.” 

Helen cited the workshops and group coaching regarding relationships, behaviours, and triggers as particularly helpful. Exploring the thinking around the inner chimp was especially pertinent. That and being able to test out her thinking in a supportive peer group, listening and contributing to others learning and goal setting gave her confidence to move forward. 

Helen said, “I felt that I was just being paranoid about what was happening, I had got myself into a downward spiral, I couldn’t see a way out other than to leave but when I described it in the group conversations others questioned my putting up with it.” 

What happened was that Helen found the courage to meet with the CEO, explain how she felt and how the impact of his behaviour was affecting her. Helen negotiated a different role in the organisation, one that better suited her skills and knowledge. The CEO said that he didn’t want Helen to leave and created a new role for her. 

I caught up with Helen 4 months after the Thrive programme finished and asked her how she was feeling now and what she thought had been so important from the Thrive programmes perspective. 

Helen said, “I love my job now, I have the balance back in my life, I am so glad things worked out and I didn’t leave. It’s a small company and we don’t have an HR department, so it was almost impossible to do anything about it, others were scared too and did not speak up. In my new role, I am now taking on some of the HR tasks and have recently completed a mental Health First aider course, I feel as if the learning I’ve had will help me with this new aspect of my job. Thrive helped me to take a pause, see what was happening and how my reaction was not helping the situation at all, in fact, I was making it worse. As soon as I changed my response to him something changed. It then gave me the confidence to make the next move, in a way that suited me.” 

She continued  

“Having others that I could share my ideas within a safe space, strangers, not telling me what I wanted to hear, as can so often happen when you tell friends that you are unhappy. The group members challenged me and supported me. The best bit was that I was able to contribute to others growth too, that in turn gave me a real boost in confidence and self-worth.”