You can probably tell when coworkers don’t want to work with you. Some are obvious, like avoidance or direct insults. If you’re the negative one in the office (a.k.a., “stress monster”), you’ve likely picked up on the obvious. And you’re still justifying your negativity. So how do you know that you’re the one who needs to get your stress in check?
If you aren’t so quick to pick up that everyone in the office is trying to avoid you; here are some signs that you might need an attitude adjustment, stat.
Are you consistently the first person to arrive and the last to leave the office? We all wish for more hours in a day, but it might not be good for you, or your coworkers, to never have a life outside the office.
Do you catch yourself working, or wishing you were working, on the weekends? This might be a sign you are putting too much pressure on yourself, which can cause unnecessary stress in all aspects of your life.
Do you get an uneasy feeling around coworkers? Trust your instincts, if they aren’t smiling or making eye contact with you, they don’t want to be around you.
When they do have to work with you, they keep it short and sweet. There is no “How are the kids, how are the home renovations?” talk. They actively hide from your negativity.
You hear everyone is going to happy hour on Friday after work, but no one has actually invited you to join. They will also not make any other social plans with you; book club – nope, children’s birthday parties– nope, out of the office lunches – nope, you are not included.
Do you feel like you’re in high school all over again with the office cliques? Ever hear an inside joke and the entire office laughs but you? It’s because you radiate negativity and stress.
Coworkers are actually avoiding you. If the break room seems to be deserted whenever you’re in it (or they don’t acknowledge you’re in the room), your coworkers don’t want to be around you.
The first step is admitting that you’re the problem! Now that you’ve identified the source of the office negativity (stress IS contagious, BTW), you can move on to learning how to fix it.
(GIF’s from giphy.com and tumblr.com)
