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Don't Worry Be Happy - In The Office!
Soheli Kar, Instructional Designer, The Business Workshop

You do not want to start a day in your office with a negative attitude and a series of goof ups. If you are feeling grouchy, that is surely going to reflect in your work and your behaviour towards your colleagues. Hence, learn to develop the positive streak in you.

Negativity within a person can be caused due to various factors but the most dominant factor is the child within each of us. The child that needs attention and that needs pampering like any other. Some of these needs are usually the need for excitement and fun, authority, loyalty and respect.

Therefore, a trigger for negativity may lie in that child within you craving a need that does not get satisfied. Some instances of this at the workplace can be as follows:

It may show up when the person becomes defensive about himself his behaviour is motivated by a strong desire for security. As a reaction to this he may protect himself by criticising others, judging the office policies, colleagues and the organisation in general. His I cants become addictive and he loses his ability to manage any eventuality.

Sometimes the negative individuals internalise their negativity and become workaholics, control freaks or know it alls. This kind of negative attitude not only causes stress to other employees but also may result in a break down out of frustration or failure.

But external negativity is extremely destructive. The externally negative individuals want the rest of their colleagues to know how they are feeling and in the process, manage to spread their discontent amongst the other colleagues effectively.

One of these may be the eternal complainer or gossips. They have a power to influence people through the gift of the gab and they are the ones to generate gossip, pass cynical comments and in the process manage to stir up negativity in the whole environment.

But how does one overcome the negativity in the workplace? It is not a very difficult task actually. If an employee follows two golden rules, then a question of negativity would not arise.

The first and foremost thing to combat negativity in the workplace is to communicate clearly and effectively with everyone. The communication should be positive in nature. The individuals should also learn to build trust and prioritise their responsibilities. This will satisfy the need of the child within you to be respected, needed and pampered.

The second rule is to have clear and realistic expectations from their colleagues and to learn to appreciate others. This includes being involved in all staff affairs and if necessary engaging in constructive criticism.

You need to be comfortable and happy in the place where you spend a considerable amount of time. With a negative attitude clawing at the back of your mind you can never achieve satisfaction at work and neither can you ever be popular among your colleagues.

Therefore, shun all negative thoughts this moment and learn to enjoy being at your workplace and see the difference it makes!

Graphic Done By Sophiya