Target Workplace Foundation Skills
Taking Responsibility
Problem-solving
Communication
Team Work
Purpose
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This lesson introduces students to strategies that will help them maintain self-regulation in stressful situations. They will understand how these strategies help people take responsibility for their emotions while on the job. Students will identify what sets them off, and practice ways of maintaining self-control.
Review
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Explain to students that empathy may be an important part of teamwork. Understanding the strengths and weaknesses of coworkers may have a great deal to do with the effectiveness of a worksite. Ask students if they can think of a workplace situation where understanding (empathy) and supporting their coworkers might improve production—for instance, helping someone who has limitations on using the cash register during a hectic lunch. Ask them how the lack of empathy for this coworker might affect the business. Mention that today’s lesson will allow students to understand the value of working together.
Learning Outcomes
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Students will describe:
- Three triggers that cause them to lose self-control.
- Two physical-emotional feelings that indicate loss of control.
- The self-control and thoughts that allow them to respond in a regulated way to a challenging situation.
Teaching Strategies
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- Talk with your mental health providers or treatment managers in your facility to find out the treatment language used for triggers.
- Help students feel comfortable offering examples of those words, statements, or actions by others that tend to set the student off. Use language used in your facility.
- During role-play, use the stress relief cycle (Handout 7.1).
- Model the role-play through facilitated discussion before assigning the worksheets. Make the worksheets a team activity.
- After the role-play, ask students to identify what they were feeling and thinking and how that may change the way they act.
Required Materials
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- Flip chart or white board
- Accepting Criticism (Handout 7.1)
- Stress relief cycle (Handout 7.2)
- For all students, copies of I’m Going Off! scripted scenarios (Activity 7.3)
Vocabulary
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Trigger: A word, statement, or action that makes a person begin to lose control; for example, being called “stupid” by a coworker when you ask an honest question.
Activity 7.2 allows students the opportunity to identify common triggers that set them off. They will also become familiar with their personal reaction that registers stress and a loss of control. This activity also provides students with an opportunity to practice a strategy for staying calm when they experience a trigger. They will use the cycle that should allow them to maintain a level of self-control.
Self-control and/or self-regulation: Words or phrases that a person might use to calm him- or herself down (also known as self-talk) when confronted with a stressful comment or situation: for example, if your manager criticizes you in front of your coworkers, saying to yourself: “I am valued by my fellow employees.”
Accepting Criticism: When a person is able to respond with a positive attitude to a supervisor, coworker, or customer who wants something done differently: for example, when an employee listens to how to correct a mistake they made and makes the correction or changes something they have already done because the manager wants something done a certain way.
Reaction: An individual’s actions that follow a negative or positive event.
Activity 7.1: Identify the Trigger, Thoughts and Feelings, and Action
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- Distribute Handout 7.1
- Have students read the two comics and have them identify the trigger, what the characters were thinking and feeling, and the action.
- Have students come up with alternative actions that show the characters accepting criticism.
Handout 7.1
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- Read the comic
- Ask students to identify the trigger.
- What is each character thinking?
- What is each character feeling?
- What was the criticism?
- How did Lucy respond to criticism? How could she have responded using assertive communication or “I” statements?
- Read the comic
- Ask students to identify the trigger.
- What is each character thinking?
- What is each character feeling?
- What was the criticism?
- Was Bonnie accepting criticism? How could this scenario be reworded into assertive communication using “I” statements?
Activity 7.2: I’m Going Off! Scripted Scenarios (20 minutes)
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- Display or distribute a copy of the stress relief cycle (Handout 7.2) to students
- Play the anger management clip on Don’t Go There (Optional):
https://www.youtube.com/embed/qGA8OStsicE
- Discuss what causes people to lose control in various settings. Have students provide keywords, phrases, or gestures that would qualify as triggers in stimulating their loss of self-control. For example, “When my manager rolls his eyes at me if I ask a question, I go ballistic.” Or when a coworker uses profanity around children. Record their responses on the flip chart or whiteboard.
- Explain that triggers tend to create a reaction in people that activates emotions. These emotions can be physically detected, which measures increased stress and loss of control. Record on the flip chart or board the various reactions students have noticed in themselves and others (e.g., sweaty palms, clenched fists, rapid breathing, turning red).
- Explain that criticism of an individual’s work can be challenging to take. We tend to make criticisms very personal, as a reflection of ourselves, when it is just about the job at hand. Many times criticism of our work can be viewed as a trigger.
- Accepting criticism is a form of self-control. We can receive criticism and think and understand our thoughts and feelings about the criticism while displaying self-control and acting positively and appropriately to our manager or supervisor.
- Explaining the way a person reacts to their thoughts and feelings has everything to do with the outcome of the situation.
- Use the following example to model the first two steps in the stress relief recipe:
Identify the trigger: “He just knocked this food order out of my hand, that dirty rat!” Understand your thoughts and feelings: “I can’t stand working with him. He is a massive jerk!”
- Refer to the last two steps of the stress relief cycle. Have students volunteer examples of imagery that they might use to relax when they are challenged by a stressful situation. For example, they might model images of a warm summer day, lying in a hammock by the river, or listening to their favorite song in one of their favorite places. Record their examples on a flip chart or board under “imagery.”
- Explain that self-talk goes hand-in-hand with calming imagery and self-control. As they relax, they should begin reciting positive statements about themselves, such as “I am a calm person,” “I need to take deep breaths,” or “I am stable and focused.” Ask them to present examples of self-talk that works for them. Record their examples on a flip chart.
- Refer to the flow chart to show the different ways that triggers can affect actions.
Handout 7.2 - Stress Relief Cycle
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Stress relief cycle example: Your manager criticized the way you cleaned the storage room. She felt that it was still messy and that you should start cleaning from the top down and from the back to the front.
- Identify the trigger. Your manager’s criticism was a trigger for you. You don’t care how the room is cleaned as long as it is clean at the end of the day.
- Thoughts and feelings. Understand that you think this is stupid and think the manager is just picking on you. You feel angry because this feels like micromanaging.
- Begin positive thoughts and self-control. I am grateful to have a job and an income. Managers can be very particular about how they want things done, and I have to respect that. I can still do this job without getting upset.
- Communicate with self-control (act accordingly). “Okay, I will try cleaning up the room the way you asked.”
Example
Handout 7.3 - I’m Going Off!
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Scripted Scenarios
Directions: Using the stress relief cycle, role-play each of the scenarios. Answer the questions that follow each role-play scenario.
Script 1
Role-play setting: At a gaming store.
Customer: “I drove all the way across town to buy the new PS5 console! Don’t you have any in the back?”
Employee: “No, I’m sorry, we’re all sold out.”
Customer: “All out? I bet you’re just too lazy to even look for it.”
Employee: “We had some earlier, but they went fast.”
Customer: “Your family hasn’t raised you to be a hard worker, have they?”
Ask the Student
What would you feel when the customer said your family hadn’t raised you to be a hard worker?
What thought led you to that feeling?
What positive self-talk could you use to not show what you are feeling?
Script 2
Role-play setting: At work in a gas station. A customer with children in the car only has cash. She tries to pay you…
Employee: “I’m sorry you have to go inside to pay.”
Customer: “What? That’s ridiculous! I have kids in the car! I can’t go inside!”
Employee: “We don’t accept cash at the pump.”
Customer: “I bet they don’t let you take cash because you would probably steal the money.”
Have the students fill out the box below.
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Reaction
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What are my thoughts after I reacted this way?
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What are my thoughts after I reacted this way?
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|---|---|---|
| Your reaction is to say, “That’s the rule, lady. Don’t you think you’re being ridiculous? I can’t help you; what do you want me to do? |
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Reaction
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What are my thoughts after I reacted this way?
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What are my thoughts after I reacted this way?
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|---|---|---|
| Your reaction is to say, “I’m sorry. Unfortunately, those are the rules of this station. I wish I could help, but I can’t. |
Ask the Student
- What do you see are the differences between the two reactions?
- How could your feelings or thoughts differ following what you said?
- What are other “owning” reactions?
Script 3
Role-play setting: At work in a gas station. You just finished filling the tank for a lady with a couple of kids in the car.
Employee: “I can’t believe that lady wouldn’t put a mask on to come inside to pay and then called me a thief!”
Coworker: “I can’t believe that you couldn’t help her out a little and overlook the mask policy!”
Employee: “But my manager told me not to let people go in without a mask.”
Coworker: “What kind of person are you? Who cares if they have a mask or not? You probably won’t last very long anyway once I let the manager know you keep driving customers away.”
Ask the student
- Think of what would be your trigger in this situation.
- What was criticized during the discussion with the coworker?
- Your coworker just threatened your job. What do you say to yourself (self-talk) after that?
Ask the class
Your coworker just threatened your job. What do you say to yourself (self-talk) after that?
Script 4
Role-play setting: Packaging Center
Coworker: “Hey, I saw you at the coffee shop around the corner with some old guy. Who was he?”
Employee: “Actually, he is my parole officer. I got into some trouble a while ago, and I was checking in with him to tell him about my new job and how well I was doing. It really feels good to be working and showing him I’ve changed.”
Coworker: “Really? I didn’t realize I was working with a criminal. What did you do?”
Ask the student
As the employee, how did you feel being able to disclose that was your parole officer?
As the employee, think of different ways to answer that question. Do you think this was a good answer to your coworker’s question?
As the employee, how would you act after your coworker said that about you?
Ask the class
- What are different ways to respond to your coworker using self-control?
Activity 7.1: Identify the Trigger, Thoughts and Feelings, and Action
This is to use in the lesson
- Distribute Handout 7.1
- Have students read the two comics and have them identify the trigger, what the characters were thinking and feeling, and the action.
- Have students come up with alternative actions that show the characters accepting criticism.
Handout 7.1
This is to use in the lesson
- Read the comic
- Ask students to identify the trigger.
- What is each character thinking?
- What is each character feeling?
- What was the criticism?
- How did Lucy respond to criticism? How could she have responded using assertive communication or “I” statements?
- Read the comic
- Ask students to identify the trigger.
- What is each character thinking?
- What is each character feeling?
- What was the criticism?
- Was Bonnie accepting criticism? How could this scenario be reworded into assertive communication using “I” statements?
Check for Understanding
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- Have students think of instances where they have effectively used a system of self-control
- What would be an example of something that could happen in the workplace where you would need to use self-control with a manager, coworker, or customer.
Practice Activity
Ask student to pay attention before the next class period on how they used self-control during their day. They should pay attention to how they wanted to act or what they wanted to say and how they actually acted or what they actually said.
Knowledge Check 7
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