How to deal with life’s unfairness, and stupid things, situations

Lately, I have been through a few things that consume my time and make me angry and frustrated.

The first is the bureaucracy of the HR department of my employer. I would like to switch from one voluntary retirement 401 K brokerage to another brokerage, and I was told they could not find me in the system. So I contact the staff who is responsible for this.  It turns out the majority of the HR staff now works from home and does not take calls. I got a response only after emailing her. She shuffled me to another staff, then the staff shuffled me to a third staff, both wanted a three-way call with the brokerage firm.  anyway, from November last year till February the following year, the problem remains unsolved. The HR manager thinks they are doing a great job and has been helping me all these days.  It turns out the HR folks are not doing their job. All they needed to do is to fill out a firm and send it to the new brokerage firm.   What in the world does enrollment in a retirement plan take so long to accomplish?

The second is the infamous professional HOA, vauxmount metropolitan district, which many Denver residents know.  They list their managers and staff on the webpage, but never there is a person taking the call; sending emails, get no response either. It looks like they exist to just scam the resident, taking the pay but without working for it.  Accidentally, I mailed them duplicate checks for the trash bill. How insane!

With work, the provost imposes the performance standards of engineering faculty on us, business faculty, but requires us to teach more classes! He is so hands-on with the major decisions at the department level. I am surrounded by teaching faculty whose career goal drastically differs from mine, and I am alone and have no one to collaborate with!

I just finished venting my frustrations which have been bothering me for a while! Unfairness, dealing with stupid people, dealing with bureaucracy, we all have a fair share. But do they have to trigger frustration and anger in us for a sustained period of time?

No, perhaps they bother me just because I have too much alone time to slip into rumination mode and let them get into me.  What lessons do I learn?  Does it make a long-term impact on my life? 

For the 1st issue, the key is not letting it consume too much of my time. Letting the manager know their staff is not doing their due diligence.

For the second issue, yes. it is annoying. But the worst case is that I am not getting my 50 bucks back. And that is it. My good mood certainly is worth much more than that.

For the third issue, there is nothing I can do about it. Take advantage of my current position if there is any. If the situation does not improve, which is very likely, find opportunities to leave. The key is to enhance my credentials so that when opportunities knock, I can jump on them: teach well and continue to do good research by collaborating with external colleagues.

When small stuffs in life start to bother you, take a step back and look at how they will affect you in the long run.