In our last blog, we presented a challenge that had to do with dealing with the fear of terrorism. The risk we pointed out for the situation we described was relatively low. We asked you to describe how you would deal with the challenge by using the skills and the attitudes of resilience.
In this blog, we are going to be talking about terrorism again, but describe a situation where the risk of a terrorist act may be much higher.
You work for a company that contracts with the U.S. government to provide services to the military. You travel with your job, but usually within the United States and usually to places that are not at high risk of a terrorist act. Your boss, however, has decided that he wants you to travel to the Middle East and meet with a contract administrator who works with the military. The trip will take you to Baghdad and you will be staying in a hotel there and meeting with the administrator for a number of days. It is important to your company that the details of the contract be worked out. You have the knowledge base to do this and have done it in similar situations, but not in a war zone. You are married and have children. You are well paid by your company and will be paid an additional bonus if your contract negotiations are successful. The additional money would be helpful, since you are planning to send your children to college and eventually put away some money for your own retirement.
What would you do in this situation? How would you use the skills and the attitudes of resilience to deal with this situation?
As before, we would ask you to take some time and think about this and about what you would do. Try to put yourself into the situation.
Here are some of our suggestions about ways that you might deal with the situation. Again, these are only suggestions, and every individual and every situation is different. We are sure that there are other ideas that you may have or others may have about how to deal with the situation. You may have dealt with something similar in your own life or you may have a friend or a relative who has. Talk with them.
First off, we would suggest that you be aware of any feelings that you may have about this request by your employer. We would think you would have feelings, and pretty strong ones. If you’re going to deal with feelings in this situation, you will need to acknowledge that they exist.
We would encourage you as part of this process to talk with others; specifically, your spouse and your friends about what you are planning on doing and what they might do. Communication would be important.
It would also be important to be realistic about what you are going to be dealing with. Weigh the pros and the cons of this situation. Make a realistic plan about what you are going to do. Don’t minimize the risk. Find out more about what security measures are being taken and how safe your travel will be.
Take care of yourself. You’re going to be no good to your family if you don’t come back from your trip.
Take a look at the purpose and the meaning of what you are doing. How important is the money? What are the other options if you say no to your employer?
Again, you may come up with other skills and attitudes that you could apply to this situation. This is not an easy one. There is clearly a conflict between your loyalty to your family and yourself and your loyalty to your employer and your concern about your financial situation. As we said earlier, every situation and every individual is different. Think this through and talk with others about how they would deal with a similar challenge or how they have dealt with challenges like this in the past.
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