Please welcome the lovely Samantha Novak, who is here to talk about how using Magical Eyes helped her through a very difficult workplace situation. We've all been there, no? Rock on, sister...

When I interviewed at my current job, the hiring manager and I hit it off from the get-go. She was young, hip and seemed to get my sense of humor.

We actually traded pop culture trivia via e-mail during the hiring process. I had a good feeling that this initial bond would translate to a job offer, and I was right. Before I knew it, she was calling to go over the details of the position. I was elated. But once I began working with her, things quickly got confusing. She was hyper-critical and her oscillating moods were hard to read.

One minute, she would chat with me about TV or  our significant others' quirks and the next, she was ripping apart my work and throwing me under the bus in front of our higher-ups. I decided that she probably didn't like me very much after all.

Get me off this rollercoaster...

This went on for a long time — she would be mercilessly hard on me when it came to the minute details of my work, and I'd keep plugging away. But if the conversation ever turned away from professional to personal, I'd let her talk and mostly nod. I just didn't know which way to turn, so I put up a wall of distrust.

One day, out of the blue, she gave her two-weeks notice to our top manager. When she told me that she was leaving, I congratulated her, and admittedly, on the inside, I was a bit relieved. After her last day in the office, she e-mailed me to say that she thought I was talented. She enjoyed working with me. She felt I had grown tremendously over the time that we had worked together.

I was dumbfounded. This was someone who I thought loathed me! But once I had finished reading her candid e-mail, I had no choice but to see her through Magical Eyes. Everything became clear. I realized that she probably had just been miserable at our company and that she was actually a friendly person who thought highly of my work. What's more, it's possible that she was only being hard on me all of that time because she believed that I could do better. She saw my potential and believed I'd benefit from being pushed to reach it. 

Shedding the masks

I realized that behind cubicle walls, we conform to a finite power structure that causes managers and underlings alike wear masks. We treat one another in ways — both good and bad — that would likely never translate outside of office building doors. It's only once we walk out of those doors and see one another with Magical Eyes that we can understand one another's motivations. It wasn't until after my boss had been released from her suffocating job that I was able to see her true colors.

By seeing her with Magical Eyes, my wall came down. Now, I consider her a friend, and we're actually in the process of doing other business together again. Only this time, sans masks.

Do you have a difficult time dealing with your boss? What are some ways you can empathize with them? How do you handle an uncomfortable situation with your superior? What ways might you look at the relationship differently?