Shrinking

Yay boot! This will be heard when someone gets irritated with another person of the right age and performs immature acts. There are instances when physical growth is already obvious but the emotional capability of the person is still that of an adolescent. People might see you as old enough yet the actions and reactions to stimuli are that of a simpleton.

Maturation (according to alleydog.com) is the process of learning to cope and react in an emotionally appropriate way. It does not necessarily happen along with aging or physical growth, but is a part of growth and development. A situation a person must deal with at a young age prepares them for the next and so on into adulthood. Maturation does not stop when physical growth ends - it continues through adulthood.

But there are also instances when maturation is hampered or even curtailed. Pikunas (2010) mentioned that the sequential changes that occur in human personality and behavior include not only the unfolding and perfection of different dimensions but also the gradual deterioration of those dimensions. Thus, intellectual development encompasses both its emergence and perfection in the years of childhood and adolescence, and its gradual impairment in the late years of life. In order to understand personality and behavior, therefore, it is essential to trace the sequence of changes that occur in childhood and adolescence and also in the adult and later years of life. The significance of these later periods is great because the percentage of persons in this population group, as well as their influence on society, is growing at a considerable rate.

Again, we trace the importance of childhood as a formative phase since most of the things we do as an adult are either the good products of our being a child or the deficits we have during those days.

People who have fond memories of childhood, specifically their relationships with their parents, tend to have better health, less depression and fewer chronic illnesses as older adults, according to research published by the American Psychological Association.

Recent research suggests that the role of other people and how children feel can be more important than the events. Getting things a child wants, academic issues, or failing to make a sports team are not strongly related to the adult perspective of childhood happiness. It is feeling loved by parents that makes the most influential contribution to childhood happiness. As adults, we no longer feel that the number of toys, sports trophies, or top grades we received as children were as important as we thought. What is important to us as adults is knowing that we shared joys and sorrows, successes and disappointments with people who loved us. Long after our memories of toys, gifts, test scores have faded, the feelings of trust, comfort, reassurance, and love remain (Batcho, 2012).

With our encounters with people in the workplace who manifest immaturity, we could directly infer that they do not have good experiences and relationships with their parents. Their anger, irritation, envy, jealousy and other negative acts stem from the lack of affection and attention they receive from their parents. Yet, it seems that such mistakes are ours since they will then attack our weaknesses by their so-called “power” and try to gain what they did not have during the times when they were young! What a pathetic way of doing things!

If the person refuses to act properly and continually causes problems for you, ignore them. They can’t act childishly in your presence if they aren’t allowed in it. People that you may need to see more frequently, however, are difficult to ignore. If a co-worker or a family member is the one who is immature, try to stay away from them as much as possible and keep the encounters that you do have brief. If you need to be around them for extended periods of time, find another person to keep you occupied so that you can prevent them from talking to you. They will eventually get the message that their behavior is no longer welcome in your life (Buckley, 2017).

The world is full of happiness and wondrous experiences. These immature persons could ruin such wonderful things to happen. Do not allow them to take away your peace and let them wallow with their pathetic lives. It is not your fault that they were deprived of joy and exciting childhood. Let them repair themselves. Their health and well-being are their responsibilities.

The truth is, this isn't your battle to fight — if the person is not willing to recognize his behavior and take steps to change it, there is little you can do. It may be particularly difficult for an emotionally immature person to realize he needs to change, as a hallmark of emotional immaturity is blaming other people or circumstances for one's bad behavior (Griffin, 2018).

The author continued that if the person won’t see reason or won't go away, you may need to be slightly confrontational and tell him that you cannot engage with him any further. Gather up all your courage and politely ask him to leave you alone, while simultaneously removing yourself from the caustic environment.

We deserve to be happy. If we are doing our work well, we will not allow others to destroy our spirits to continue doing what we maturely think as right and proper. We will not let someone destroy our credibility because he/she is nursing on his/her sanity.

We continue to check on our mental health through reflection and introspection. These may help us deal with our inner demons and become a better colleague.