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Managing Negative People

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How to Exercise the Emotional Virus of Negativity in the Workplace

Noel Paul

LAW 410

Alan Gallagher

April 6, 2008

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How to Exercise the Emotional Virus of Negativity in the Workplace

Negativity is like an emotional virus which can spread rapidly from one person to another. Individuals can bring the virus to work or catch it from others in the workplace. The emotional virus can spread quickly in a matter of days or weeks, and once transmitted, it is difficult to cure. We all have difficult and negative people in our lives and we have to work, manage, or live with negativists, whiners, and complainers. The most difficult personalities in the workplace today are Negativists and managing them is a skill in itself. Researchers have shown that negativists, also known as whiners and complainers, have a strong need to be liked (Kettenhofen p.1). They tend to think that by complaining about how much work they have to do or that they do not have enough work to do, they will gain empathy from fellow coworkers. The fellow coworkers in the office begin to notice how these people often spend more time complaining than working. Employees tend to spend more time focused on the individual and less time working. Negativists tend to be capable people but this capacity gets turned in the wrong direction. Individuals with this type of personality tend to feel very strongly that unless a project is in their hands, it will fail. We are likely to hear negativists say things like “We tried this at my prior employer and it did not work there; why would it work now?” Often negativists have the ability to dampen everyone else’s attitude towards tasks or projects. They tend to spread feelings of disappointment and helplessness, and the more we try to solve a problem or improve a situation, the more negative they

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