Hi all,
I just registered today and figured I'd say hi, and give a little background into who I am and where I am in life. I'm 28 years old and work as an IT guy.....little bit of programming and a good amount of systems support. Great gig, not much people contact, right? Well, this is with a large corporation, all of you know its name, so there's a LOT of correspondence back and forth on business related matters. It's not just about being given a work assignment, it's about communicating the right requirements with my manager as well as others across our work network. Some of it is done in person in my office, others over email, but I have HORRIBLE social anxiety, coupled with depression and terrible people skills, and all of that is just in a really bad place right now.
I get super nervous when dealing with people at work, and I can't read people at all, body language, their expectations of me, I just can't pull it off, so unless someone explicitly gives me a command, I have a hard time figuring out what's needed of me. This even applies to email, though I'm an excellent writer and have no problem expressing myself in words, but I just don't speak the people "language". Example, I was asked this week by my manager (in person) to do an assignment and I said yes. The next morning, the manager over her asked me to do something similar (over email) so replied back that I would. My immediate manager chimed in, saying that we'd already agreed to do that, me and her, making it sound like I was acknowledging the request for the first time, and like I'd completely forgotten we had talked about it the day before. I guess I wasn't clear in the email about acknowledging my conversation with her, but figuring out the need to do that, understanding the right way to confirm that sort of thing, it's just confusing to me. That plays in to my social anxiety a lot, since being second guessed and patronized just makes me feel incompetent.....and that in turn makes the problem worse. As far as my technical skills go, if I'm given a technical assignment I tend to do those very well since my logic skills are second to none. But how am I supposed to make it through the day with my sanity intact when I'm seized with fear and have a nervous breakdown every time I go to send an email or have to talk to someone?
Sorry for the brain dump, but it's just not a good time for me right now.....I hope to get some insight from everyone here and maybe provide some of my own in return. Good to meet you all.
I just registered today and figured I'd say hi, and give a little background into who I am and where I am in life. I'm 28 years old and work as an IT guy.....little bit of programming and a good amount of systems support. Great gig, not much people contact, right? Well, this is with a large corporation, all of you know its name, so there's a LOT of correspondence back and forth on business related matters. It's not just about being given a work assignment, it's about communicating the right requirements with my manager as well as others across our work network. Some of it is done in person in my office, others over email, but I have HORRIBLE social anxiety, coupled with depression and terrible people skills, and all of that is just in a really bad place right now.
I get super nervous when dealing with people at work, and I can't read people at all, body language, their expectations of me, I just can't pull it off, so unless someone explicitly gives me a command, I have a hard time figuring out what's needed of me. This even applies to email, though I'm an excellent writer and have no problem expressing myself in words, but I just don't speak the people "language". Example, I was asked this week by my manager (in person) to do an assignment and I said yes. The next morning, the manager over her asked me to do something similar (over email) so replied back that I would. My immediate manager chimed in, saying that we'd already agreed to do that, me and her, making it sound like I was acknowledging the request for the first time, and like I'd completely forgotten we had talked about it the day before. I guess I wasn't clear in the email about acknowledging my conversation with her, but figuring out the need to do that, understanding the right way to confirm that sort of thing, it's just confusing to me. That plays in to my social anxiety a lot, since being second guessed and patronized just makes me feel incompetent.....and that in turn makes the problem worse. As far as my technical skills go, if I'm given a technical assignment I tend to do those very well since my logic skills are second to none. But how am I supposed to make it through the day with my sanity intact when I'm seized with fear and have a nervous breakdown every time I go to send an email or have to talk to someone?
Sorry for the brain dump, but it's just not a good time for me right now.....I hope to get some insight from everyone here and maybe provide some of my own in return. Good to meet you all.
