It's a normal day in the office. You're working away, cracking jokes with your co-worker.

Things are running smoothly when you get an email notification and a meeting invite almost simultaneously from a name that makes your stomach drop at the sight. It's something no employee ever wants to deal with: an official reprimand and write-up from the dreaded human resources representative.

Having breached standards of company policy or even general corporate conduct — absenteeism, tardiness, insubordination — whatever the offense and whether you feel the reprimand is warranted or not, it's likely you'll go through some sort of "grieving" period. In fact, you'll probably go through something eerily similar to the five stages of actual grief.

1. Denial

The first stage of grief is denial, though some argue it's actually shock. So, we'll just play off both of those arguments here.

"This can't be happening to me. How could I get written up? I'm an ideal employee, so this just can't be real." Those are the feelings most likely to run through your head after you've signed your written warning and you're leaving the HR department.

Don't worry, though. This phase is completely natural. No one wants to believe they've actually done something so wrong that it's now been documented and will forever stain your employment record with this company.

2. Anger

Then, you quickly move on to the second stage: anger.

"How can they do this to me? I'm the best employee they have. This is absolutely ridiculous! How am I supposed to bounce back from this? My career is over! To heck with this place!" You’ve shaken the denial, but now you've reached a sort of dark place where everything seems negative, and the outlook looks dire.

Some advice for how to work through this phase? Get out of the office. Go for a walk. Blow off some steam away from your peers. No one needs to see you like this.

3. Bargaining

The bargaining stage of grief is a phase of questioning.

"Man alive! What can I can do right now to regain control of this entire situation? Maybe I can get them to understand the tone of my email and this can all be stricken from the record. Maybe If I promise to never do this again, we can go back to the way things were before, and it'll be like this never happened."

This may sound a bit like wishful thinking — and it kind of is — but it's necessary and it’s a solid step in the right direction.

4. Depression

Now that you've worked through all of the "what if" situations, the depression finally sets in.

"If they're going to do this to me, then I may as well pack my bags. There's no sense in pretending to be OK, or trying to suck up to make things better. This is all useless, and I need to be looking for another job."

Basically, you've given up. You don't see the point in putting yourself through the stress of worrying about how to make it better, because in this phase, there is no better in sight.

5. Acceptance

Finally, you get to the stage everyone who is grieving longs for.

"OK, this is real. I messed up. I faced the consequences. It's time to buck up, move on and get back to doing what I do best." This is the stage where you should take a step back and look at what went wrong and really try and find your way back to yourself. In other words, swallow your pride and move on.

This is probably the easiest advice to give, but the hardest to follow. Yes, a reprimand is embarrassing. Whether or not your entire department knows, it's definitely a shot to your ego. To move on though, you have to put your pride aside, shove the hurt feelings way down deep and make the decision to learn from your mistake and the situation as a whole.

Don't just take my advice, though. According to Janna Smith, HR director for Lone Star Valet in Dallas, Texas, "The best thing a person who's been written up can do is be open to listening about the issue and asking how they can correct the situation."

When it comes down to it, if you plan to continue your career and move on with your work life, you just have to wrap up your grieving period and dive back in to your work and the work environment wholeheartedly — none of that halfway business. It has to be all or nothing.

Once you've done this, you'll (hopefully) find yourself back on the right track to being happy with your job once again.