By Barbara Zeigler

      Negativity in the workplace can range from occasional to constant. Both are contagious and both affect employee moral and decrease productivity. If not responded to, both can increase employee turnover and generally sap energy from your business. In extreme cases, employees may spread their negativity well beyond your company walls and hurt the business’ reputation.

Common Causes of Negativity

      Common causes of employee negativity can stem from things management can control. For example, your negative employee may be feeling anxious and insecure about something related to the job.

      Poor communication in a business is also a common cause. If there are a lot of changes going on, the reasons and objectives should be clearly communicated to everyone. Decisions and issues outside of the employees’ control can significantly affect them. As a business owner and manager, you should do your best to answer questions and address concerns. Lack of direction from management is often an underlying cause for employee negativity.

Situational Negativity

      If the same negative sentiments are being repeated again and again, it could be that the negative employees don’t feel as though anyone has really heard their concerns. Make sure they feel you have listened to them. Repeat their statements back to them. Ask questions. Many times you can eliminate the negativity by taking these steps. Focus on creating solutions. Under no circumstances should you become defensive, condescending or degrading. Remember, you cannot take their responses personally.

      After you listen to employees’ concerns, you may find they have a legitimate reason or reasons for their feelings. If that is the case, you have several options. You can check to see if they need your help or your ideas for solving a problem. If they do, provide ideas or advice to resolve the reasons for their negativity. Follow up to be sure the causes have been eliminated. Other times, you as the owner or manager will have to take actions to solve the difficulty.

      Your employees may just need to vent and only want someone to listen. In this case, you should listen to them; but you may need to set some boundaries so they do not over do it. Long-term complaining saps everyone’s energy. Guide them to see the positive aspects of the situation.
      It is also not uncommon for employees who do not receive recognition for their efforts and contributions to take on a negative attitude.

Constant Negativity

      Negative employees may need a new job, company, counseling or possibly a new career. However, before reaching this decision, consider some other options. Help them focus on positive things. Lead them to focus on solutions instead of everything that is wrong. Coach them to see how they can be part of the solution rather than just pointing out what is wrong.

Other Solutions

      Make an effort to identify possible aspects of the current situations in your business that may have changed recently. Could these have caused the negativity you are seeing? Management can make decisions that have unexpected impact on the job and culture.

      Management should work toward being visible and available to employees. Scheduling special meetings to show your concern and willingness to understand how the changes have affected your employees can go a long way to decrease negativity.

      Finally, no matter what the cause of negativity in the workplace, do not let any false statements go unchallenged. If the negative statements are true, communicate the reasons behind the decisions causing the negativity. This can help restore trust, which is a major cause of situational, sometimes legitimate, negativity in the workplace.

Barbara Zeigler, MBA, is a business consultant, executive coach and principal of Business Solutions Resource Inc. You can reach her at (913) 381-6800 or .