Office Negativity Can Be Toxic [AUDIO]

Do you ever want to just leave work five minutes after you arrive, because you’re surrounded by “Debbie Downers” and all of their negativity? You’re not alone.

Every office has the constant complainers and whiners (maybe you are one of them); the goal is to escape the negativity and enjoy the place in which you work.

Of course there are bad aspects of your job. Maybe you are overworked. Perhaps you fear a pink slip at any moment. Still, there is a positive side to the job as well. Dr. Steven Tobias, Director of the Center for Child and Family Development in Morristown, says it’s up to you to choose which part you focus on.

“You can choose to focus on either the half-full or the half-empty. That’s a choice that people make every day coming to work,” Tobias says.

He advises workers to take responsibility for their own happiness – think about what you can do to make things better for yourself and your work environment, rather than complain and vocalize it to everyone else.

Your co-workers have a goal when they spread their negativity, according to Tobias. They want empathy. They want others to validate their feelings and to understand how bad they they feel.

However, Tobias says, constant negativity can result in the complete opposite for a “Debbie Downer.”

He says, “It’s a basic human need to feel heard and understood, but people don’t realize that when you do this in a very negative way, in a repeated way, people want to stop listening.”

Rather than getting the support they are looking for, the negative workers are only receiving social rejection and exclusion.

Tobias says negative attitudes can be toxic to the work environment, so positive, realistic thinking is what’s needed to get through the work day.

Money is not the top reason why employees leave their jobs. It is a negative work environment.