We all have that coworker that just can’t see past the downs in life. When you’re spending forty plus hours a week with other folks, their habits and attitude wear off on you. Negative people, therefore, are not the type of people you want around you for the work week. Here are a few ways to help alleviate the side effects from negative coworkers.
Do a Self-Check
Like I mentioned earlier, you absorb traits of people you spend a lot of time with. If some of those people tend to the glass half-empty lifestyle, you might be picking up some habits you lacked before. Every now and then, stop and check in with yourself. Are you getting too wrapped up in your own woes or finding yourself increasingly anxious and moody? If you take a second to notice and acknowledge these emerging traits, then you will be able to sever them before they become bad habits.
Practice Empathy
You’re tired of hearing all the gloomy forecasts from your coworker. The easy route to deal with that type of behavior is to simply walk away. Yet, walking away probably doesn’t boost that person’s confidence. Furthermore, the next time you see him or her, there will just be new pessimistic opinions. Before you walk away, place yourself in your coworkers’ shoes. Meet them at their level and try to understand where the negativity might be originating. Once you’ve tried this, you’ll become more invested in your colleague as an individual rather than an impending storm cloud, which leads us to our next point.
Turn Negative Comments Into Positive Solutions
When you start to view your coworkers as individuals, you’ll realize that this type of attitude is not healthy for them or anyone else in the office. Hopefully, this will motivate you to take action. When a negative colleague says something negative about the actions of say, the proposed business model, prompt him or her to think of a solution to improve the model. Even if this doesn’t take the first time, try it again and again. Your gloomy coworkers might just turn a leaf and begin to see problems as an opportunity to help improve the world.