At the core of Ayn Rand's philosophy is the Aristotlean metaphysical premise that reality exists, independent of our perception of it. As a consequence of this premise, she believes that the correct way to navigate through life is to use your rational faculty to try to understand the nature of reality and determine courses of action that provide the best benefit to you based on your value system.

You can feel whatever you want, it's not going to change the underlying reality. Feeling emotions isn't wrong -- accepting them as a substitute for reality is wrong.

In your workplace example, you used reason. You used your rational faculties to gather more information, create a better understanding of the situation, and make a more informed decision on what action to take.