Home Career Advice

Mitigate Toxic Vibes in the Workplace

Toxic employees in the workplace bring negative behaviors that tax your sanity and your health.  They lurk or reside near your cubicle as supervisors, direct reports, coworkers, or even a vendor. Unfortunately, you can’t change people.  The best chance you have to keep your sanity and preserve your health is to create a strategy to mitigate the misery.  There are a few approaches you can leverage to reduce the drama of stressful situations.

Reframe Your Thinking

You can’t change people but you do have the power to change yourself.  Avoid dwelling on how the other person or people can change.  Ask yourself, “what can I do differently in this situation?”

Patience Is Golden

It takes 14 days to start a habit and just as long to end one.  All situations are not resolved quickly.  Be patient on getting resolution and understand that problems surface when there may be more to it at the root. 

It’s Not Always about You

The problem is not always related to you.  Your colleague may have just yelled at you but it could just be an after effect of not getting enough sleep the night before. 

Harness Your Communication Skills

If you are in a work situation where toxic behavior is negatively impacting your success, take time to confront the situation in a positive manner.  Schedule time to discuss the matter with the individuals in question.  Preserve self-esteem throughout the conversation in word and tone.  Seek win-win solutions.  Make time to share and listen to each other.  Try not to place anyone on the defensive by pointing fingers.  Use the following formula to share your concern.  “When you <action>, it makes me feel <emotion> like <result of the action>.

Coordinate Your Style

Be sensitive to other people’s styles and how they like to work.  When you get to understanding their communication style, you can sometimes adjust your approach to get a more productive relationship. 

Document Negative Behaviors

Take time to carefully note what happens, when, and how it impacts the work you do.  Don’t make it personal. 

Accountability 101

A popular topic for managers and organizations is accountability.  Frustration is common when there are people on the team that you manage that don’t pull their weight.  Endless conversations with an employee about performance gaps can become frustrating. You come to a point where you sometimes think where is the disconnect?  Am I not saying something the right way?  Are they intellectually challenged? Is it me or is it them? after beating your head against the wall. 

The book, Fix It:  Getting Accountability Right is written by a team of authors who walk through 16 accountability traits and solutions an everyday manager may need.  They pull data from a 3 year Workplace Accountability Study with Partners in Leadership.

Stress Meltdowns – How Are You Managing It?

Many people issues often arise out of mental illness on a daily basis. Meltdowns can be associated with depression, suicide thoughts, alcohol addiction, harassment, etc. With one out of five workers experiencing mental illness, dealing with stressed out, angry or emotional workers associated to mental illness is highly probable during your tenure in the workplace. Some of the attached videos may assist with the unique challenges that leaders and team members face in these emotionally charged situations. Review the following: https://lnkd.in/bUbg2wm.