As humans, we are naturally social and at work, we depend on our coworkers and the people we interact with every day to boost our mood and help us enjoy the work day. Nothing ruins morale more than negativity. Negativity saps people’s energy and affects the performance of everyone in the workplace.
Overall, negativity in the workplace is a bad situation, so here are some tips to combat the spread of negativity at work.
1. Understand Where It Comes From
Employers are responsible for maintaining a positive work environment, but sometimes they might not be seeing what you are seeing. Whether the negativity is coming from your coworkers gossiping about each other or someone openly complaining about tasks or responsibilities, finding out where it’s coming from is the first step to combat the negativity in the workplace.
2. Personal Check
This is the step where you take some reflection time to stop allowing people in your office affect you. It’s incredibly difficult to keep the negativity out of your head. Just remember, you can’t control how others act around you, but you can completely control how you react to them.
3. Walk Away
It’s not easy to distance yourself from a negative situation at work physically, but you can try distancing yourself emotionally and mentally. If you can, wear headphones and listen to music to avoid the unnecessary negativity at work. Spend some time out of the office during lunch, if you have to.
4. Take a Stand
When we say “take a stand,” we don’t mean approaching the situation head on and confront the negative person or people yourself. If the negativity becomes too difficult to avoid, then it’s time to address it with your superiors.
You need to be professional about the situation. Make sure your complaint is on a level of professionalism rather than making it personal. Be sure to include reasons that the negativity affects the workplace rather than listing out times when it affected you alone. Once you bring it up to your superiors, you may experience backlash, so be prepared and don’t take any of it to heart. You might even find support from others in the office.
5. Let Them Be
Sometimes no matter what you do, negative people will continue with their ways. All you can do is be the best coworker you can be. Don’t let your annoyance with negative coworkers affect your professionalism and how you work with others.
6. Positive Beats Negative
The best way to counterattack negativity is by being positive and surrounding yourself with uplifting people. Think about the positives on a daily basis and reframe any negative situation into a positive. Make an objective to spend more time talking to your positive coworkers to counter the negativity.