I know the new boss is difficult, but she’ll really give us the push our unit needs to move ahead.When confronting negative coworkers, you have choices. You can ignore the complaints altogether. Trust me, they’ll soon know you aren’t an audience for their misery. Or you can respond to what they’re saying by showing them the positive side of the situation. For example, if a coworker says this,
I hate this new system. Why couldn’t we just stay with old one? They’re always making things difficult.
you can respond with this,
But it will save us time in the long run.
Keep your responses realistic. If you’re disingenuous, your coworkers will know. Here are a few other tips and perfect phrases for dealing with negative coworkers.
Then move them in a more positive direction:
I know the new boss is difficult, but she’ll really give us the push our unit needs to move ahead.
Yes, the new hires do chat a lot. But I think we can mentor them so that they become really strong workers.
It’s true. We have been waiting a long time to start the new project. But at least we’ve had a chance to catch up on some of the other work that’s been lagging.
Yes, everyone agrees with you on that. However, you must admit that …
That’s an interesting point. Only the way I see it is …
You have mentioned before that you feel this way. But I think we can find several benefits in this situation even though they may not be immediately evident.
Don’t let them get stuck on how bad things currently are:
If we take these additional steps, who knows what we’ll find.
If we can learn to work with them, we might see improvements.
In similar situations, though, the results have been really good. For example, …
Maybe you shouldn’t be on that team. Perhaps the boss can move you.
I think if you approach all customers as potential friends, then …
Even though we haven’t been trained to manage these situations, there are a lot of books on the subject that can help.
Maybe we should find other ways to reach these goals.
What do you think will solve that problem?
You were involved in a similar situation last quarter. How did your team work it out?
What happened the last time you used that procedure? It was successful, right?
Spelling out what you’re looking for as closely as possible will help them focus on the answers:
What were the three things that helped when you were in this situation last year?
How much profit did you need to make to recover last quarter?
What are the three phrases that have worked with other customers—and that we can use here?
Move ahead/forward
Keep going
Keep it up
Shoot high
Achieve
Progress
Accomplish
Produce
Look at the difference in these expressions compared with the up-looking ones:
Down- and behind-looking expressions: If we don’t pull off this deal, we’re in deep trouble.
Up- and ahead-looking expressions: If we get this deal, we’ll really be ahead.
Down- and behind-looking expressions: We can’t stay behind the other units in sales.
Up- and ahead-looking expressions: We need to exceed the other units in sales.
Now look at these perfect phrases for dealing with negative coworkers.
I understand how you feel, but we really need to move ahead with the project. So what do you think we should do?
Actually, the boss knows what she’s doing, and she must have a good reason for initiating this project.
We need to decide how we’re going to make this project a success, regardless of how you feel about it.
Moving ahead, how do you think we can make this work?
I really need to find ways to accomplish what we need with this project. Do you have any ideas?
At this point, I really want to hear what you like.
I really see things differently. This is what I think: …
Actually, I think most of these things are pretty good.
Do you have any solutions to these problems that you’re raising?
In spite of all these problems, I think we’ve come really far.
I’ve heard you mention this before. Maybe you should try a new perspective.
I see these issues you’ve been raising in a totally different way.
Maybe you should start thinking of what you can do to improve the project/workplace/situation.
Before you object, hear what I have to say.
How do you think we can make this project work?
Please tell me what you like about …
What about this project do you find interesting?
How do you think we can make this project better?
How can we make this idea become a reality?