Have Empathy For Your Company, Even It Has Bad Days.

Even great companies reject your good ideas.

There will always be days where it feels like your company doesn't want you there. Or at least, doesn't want your opinions, thoughts, or insights.

Don't take it personally. Think of it like any important relationship.

When your teenager screams "You don't understand anything!" and slams their door, you don't immediately put them up for adoption. You recognize they're having a bad day. You give them space. You know that tomorrow will be different.

Companies are similar. Even good ones have bad days, days when they seem resistant to new ideas, when processes feel rigid, when "that's just how we do things" becomes the answer to everything.

A Case for Company Empathy

Like any lasting relationship, your connection with your company needs empathy to thrive. Understanding why organizations sometimes resist change doesn't mean accepting a toxic situation. In the same way that accepting your teenager's mood doesn't mean accepting abuse.

As organizations grow, they develop habits and defenses. They create efficiencies through experience. Someone got hurt, so we add safety measures. A customer complained, so we adjust procedures. Daily frustrations become documented solutions.

These aren't just bureaucratic barriers. They're organizational scar tissue. Each rule or process has a story behind it, a lesson learned the hard way.

Moving Forward Together

The key is learning to work with this reality, not against it. Respect the journey that led to current practices. Understand the problems they're trying to solve. Look for ways to improve without dismissing the past. Build trust through small wins before suggesting big changes.

Yes, there are toxic companies just like there are toxic relationships. If you're in one, it's okay to walk away. But if you're in a basically healthy organization that's just having a bad day (or week, or quarter), try extending the same grace you'd give to someone you care about.

Good relationships, with people or companies, aren't about eliminating bad days. They're about working through those days together. Every time you choose understanding over frustration, every time you look for the 'why' behind a process instead of just fighting it, you're building something valuable within your team and your company: trust.

Trust isn't built in grand gestures, it's built in small moments. When you take time to understand why a process exists before suggesting changes, when you test ideas carefully instead of pushing for immediate overhaul, when you show that you care about the company's success as much as your own ideas.

And when you build that trust? That's when "that's not how we do things" shifts, even just slightly, into "tell me more about your idea." That's when resistance to change becomes openness to possibility. That's when your relationship with your company evolves from just showing up to truly creating together.