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How to stay positive in a negative professional environment

Guest post by: Louise Pope

Article Overview: Nothing affects employee morale more insidiously than persistent workplace negativity. It drains the energy of your organisation and diverts critical attention from work and performance. Negativity occurs in the attitude, outlook, and talk of one employee, or in a crescendo of voices responding to a workplace decision or event.

How to stay positive in a negative professional environment



Nothing affects employee morale more insidiously than persistent workplace negativity. It drains the energy of your organisation and diverts critical attention from work and performance. Negativity occurs in the attitude, outlook, and talk of one employee, or in a crescendo of voices responding to a workplace decision or event.

Negativity is an increasing problem in the workplace, negativity is often the result of a loss of confidence, control, or community. Knowing what people are negative about is the first step in solving the problem.

In my experience, when rumblings and negativity are beginning in your organisation, talking with employees will help you understand the exact problems and the degree to which the problems are impacting your workplace. You will want to identify the exact employee groups who are experiencing the negativity, and the nature of the issues that sparked their unhappiness.

Whatever the cause of the workplace negativity, you must address the issues. Or like a dormant volcano, they will boil beneath the surface, and periodically bubble up and overflow to cause additional damage.

The best way to combat workplace negativity is to keep it from occurring in the first place. These tips will help you minimise workplace negativity.

Tips for Managers / Employers:-

Improve communication

• Share information with employees to reduce uncertainty about their jobs and futures.
• Clearly define employees' roles and responsibilities.
• Make communicationfriendly and efficient, not mean-spirited or petty.

Consult your employees

• Give workers opportunities to participate in decisions that affect their jobs.
• Consult employees about scheduling and work rules.
• Be sure the workload is suitable to employees' abilities and resources; avoid unrealistic deadlines.
• Show that individual workers are valued.

Offer rewards and incentives

• Praise good work performance verbally and institutionally.
• Provide opportunities for career development.
• Promote an "entrepreneurial" work climate that gives employees more control over their work.

Cultivate a friendly social climate

• Provide opportunities for social interaction among employees.
• Establish a zero-tolerance policy for harassment.
• Make management actions consistent with organisational values.

Tips for employees:-

• Before approaching a task, you should plan the flow of work and organise yourself before starting the actual work.
• Laughter is said to be the best medicine. You should try to see the humor element in any situation and laugh it off rather than allowing an unpleasant situation to get to you.
• When you feel stressed or negative you should try out some deep-breathing exercises.
• You should keep fit. A fit body leads to an agile mind that can easily cope with negativity.
• Sharing a negative situation with friends can help to ease the stress.
• An unbalanced diet causes health problems that may percolate to the workplace. Intake of vitamins and minerals will also help.
• Take negativity head-on and don't allow it to get to you. Analyse the situation that is causing negativity and try to find solutions.

Finally

Take some time to analyse how well your organisation is applying these actions. They form the foundation for positive staff morale and minimised negativity in your workplace

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Article Tags: attitude, crescendo, critical attention, dormant volcano, employee groups, employee morale, futures, li li, nbsp, overflow, roles and responsibilities, rumblings, share information, ul type, uncertainty, unhappiness, unrealistic deadlines, voices, workload, workplace negativity



Related Forum Posts
Re: What can You Learn from a Jobless and Homeless Woman? - [quote="mbrand2222":3fggv9uf]Alan, I definitely agree that a person needs all of those things. I think for me, it was the positive attitude that was the most important. If I woke up with a "defeated" attitude, I knew I had to do something to snap me out of it quickly. Either read a few chapters from a Zig Ziglar book or the Bible. I'm sure everyone has their own little routine.[/quote:3fggv9uf] Hi Mary, That's a great routine. I think for me, I know what I want so much so that I'm not going to let anyone get me down. I try to stay positive in every situation, business related or not. It helps with life in general. Nothing good can ever come from being negative all the time. I've seen what it can do, and it's ugly. Also, I think a positive outlook provides opportunities that otherwise would go unnoticed if a person is negative about a situation. You'd be surprised how more open-minded one can be and be provided with "light bulb" ideas in the worst of times. I've been there.
Re: Don’t worry, Enrich your life and Be happy - [quote="Christopher":2b2448ak]I am a born pessimist. Can I do something to change my negative thoughts into positive ones? I try very hard not to engage in negative feelings. However hard I may try, I end up with the most antagonistic mental state. This has harmed me in many ways. I really wish I could think better![/quote:2b2448ak] Hi Christopher First of all welcome to the forum, I am sure that you will enjoy being here and will learn a lot. As far as always feeling negative, I would suggest that first of all, stop continuously telling yourself that you are negative. By doing that you are actually affirming it and your subconscious mind will endorse it. The subconscious mind believes whatever you keep telling it. Try some positive affirmations. Say them out loud or to yourself as often as you can (even if in the beginning you don't believe it) and whenever you find yourself thinking negatively, stop and repeat some of the positive affirmations. Don't expect miracles, it is not an overnight process, but over time you will find your mindset changing for the better. Hope this helps MichelleJ
Re: What to avoid when cold calling? - Thanks! How about this word: Don’t Any negative word when describing your product or service is a definite no. You want to list the positive attributes – not the negative. So instead of thinking about what you don’t do, can’t offer, or won’t provide, think about what you do, can and will.
You are too young - ok..let me give you a negative and a positive negative: founders are stubborn masochists. they don't learn from people's mistakes. they need to make all the predictable mistakes them selves, because they assume that bad things only happen to other people positive: the biggest mistake that I, and all other founders make is not doing survey. you wanna do a web dev shop? pick up the phone and do surveys. think that you don't need to? that's predictable if you want to successfully kick start something to clock max returns at lowest risk, you must go and do surveys to a) build a data base of prospects b) put assets on your balance sheet so you can do financing c) qualify your opportunity....but you're not gonna do any of these things because you need to make your own mistakes
Re: Search Engine Optimization Guide for All - Very good article! I enjoyed the positive/negative ranking explanations as well.


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