The simplest way to tell whether you have forgiveness issues in you work life is to ask yourself, “Am I giving my honest best in my job?”. If you are not, then chances are you are holding back for some reason and that may well mean that you are limiting yourself because of resentment due to something you have not forgiven.
Resentment may be general or specific. You may resent “bosses” as a matter of habit and therefore put in only the minimum amount of effort to earn your pay. But that will not lead to your advancement within that organization, nor will it create the type of attitude and behavior that will help you find a better job. If you are the habit of giving your best then this will show up in your attitude in job interviews. The interviewers will notice that there is something engaging and alive about you and will be more likely to want to give you a job.
We may have a specific resentment because of a missed promotion (which we felt we deserved) or because a colleague is stealing our ideas and presenting them as their own. This kind of resentment can also block us from giving our best. If we are blocked to giving our best in one job this can all to easily carry over into the next and even if we get a new job the old attitude can still hold sway and influence our attitude and behavior to our detriment.
People pick up on attitude in many subtle and unsubtle ways. They gauge our abilities and our willingness not just on what we do or say but also and what we do not do or say. Bitterness from past unforgiven disappointments in our work life can be shaping our attitude and holding us back from wonderful opportunities and we may not even realize it.
What for us may be seem like a situation we just want to forget, might show up in our attitude in a way that looks to others like we have some kind of chip on our shoulder. They won’t know why it is there, but it will make them cautious of approaching us or getting us involved in projects which are important to them. They may sometimes give us the benefit of the doubt, or be forced by circumstances to get us involved, but at the first sign of us not delivering as we could, they will have inner alarm bells go off (“I knew he/she would be difficult to work with.”)
Business can be a cut-throat and even our colleagues can see themselves as being in competition with us. However, this is all the more reason to be willing to forgive so that our mind and feelings are free so that we fully engage our creativity and abilities in our chosen work.
Reconciliation and how to chose to relate in the future with those who we feel have harmed us is also an important issue. We may come to realize that it was good that we did not get the promotion we wanted as we were not quite ready for it. Perhaps we did not see it at the time but realized it later. This will change how we see the person who did not give us that promotion.
However, if we are working forgiving someone who did genuine harm to us and our future prospects we need to take into account the likelihood of them harming us again. We obviously need to take any wise and sensible steps we can to avoid that. However, we can still forgive them (even if we are wary of any kind of reconciliation).
When we can give of our best in our current job then this is not only more fulfilling for us it is better for the organization we work for too. If your answer to that is, “Why should I care?” then have look at what you need to forgive and how that is holding you back from acting in accordance with your own best interests. Your own happiness and fulfillment is closely linked to how willing you are to unleash and express your creativity, your ideas and your sense of giving. Forgiveness allows to let go of the blocks to your creativity and therefore to a more fulfilling life and career.