May 9, 2019
Episode 55 of The Teaching Space Podcast explores 10 ways to deal with negative colleagues.
We’ve All Been There
Unless you work on your own, I am sure you can relate to the disruptive and wide-reaching effect a negative colleague can have on a team.
If I reflect on my experience, I can remember a particular colleague who could walk into a room and the overall mood and feeling would drop dramatically. She didn’t have to say anything. It was a superpower! I don’t know if it was her body-language or something even more subtle than that. You could just sense it.
Negativity is contagious and it can have a terrible effect on your mental health and wellbeing.
I’m not suggesting you transform into a superhuman constantly happy person. We all have off days. But what I would like to do is share some simple strategies to help you deal with negative colleagues in such a way that the impact on your mental health and well-being is minimal.
10 Ways to Deal With Negative Colleagues
- Remember: the only person whose behaviour you can change is your own.
- Avoid interacting with your negative colleague if you can.
- Set boundaries (episode 37).
- Don’t get drawn into office gossip and politics.
- Encourage your colleague to seek HR or Union support as appropriate.
- Seek out positive colleagues.
- Don’t spend time over-analysing negative behaviour.
- Remember: negative behaviour is usually about the person showing it - it’s not about you.
- Prioritise self-care (episode 54).
- Raise your game - be even more positive.