9 Ways to Manage Negative People At Work

Being around negative people at work is energy sapping, demoralising and frankly makes life at work a lot more difficult. The obvious step is to spend as little time around them as possible.  If you have to work with them – because they are a colleague, you manage them or need to work on a project with them, then learning how to manage negative people at work becomes really useful and makes your life at work better. I take you through 9 ways to manage negative people at work. The first way to handle negative people at work is to control how you react to them. You can’t control them and you can control yourself. By controlling your reaction you will reduce the impact of the negative behaviour. Then when dealing with negative people at work, a good technique I have found works is to force them to talk positive by asking questions framed to get a positive response.  When managing negative people at work, it is very important not to be sucked in by their negative behaviour. When they ask you to participate in their complaining, sidestep the request. Positive reinforcement is very powerful so when handling negative people at work, look out for any positive behaviour and praise it. Another way to manage negative people at work is look out for the positives in the negativity. Glass half empty people can be a treasure trove of risks and issues. Use these to start the solutioning process. If you are a manage, when dealing with negative people at work, set behaviour expectations. This can be done in a positive way that improves the team morale.  A great approach when handling negative people at work is to ask them for the solution to what they are complaining about. This forces them to think positively, and the team gets more improved.  And lastly, if a really negative person at work is unwilling or unable to improve how they behaviour at work, remove them from the team.