Which toxic attitudes are you exposed to in your work environment?

For most of our lives, we spend long hours in offices, plazas and workplaces with different people. While trying to produce efficient business results together, we are also trying to realize ourselves. We see our colleagues more than our families; we spend more time with them than our friends and loved ones.

Since humans are social beings, we can never completely separate work from socializing. We socialize with our colleagues during lunches, cigarette breaks, meetings and events, up to a point.  So how do these people, with whom we share less emotionally and more spatially and temporally, affect our life motivation, attitudes, emotions and perception? 

The fact that we share less emotionally may create the idea that there is less interaction. However, the people we spend a lot of time and space with, even if we share little emotionally or personally, have a significant impact on our mood and perception. People's thoughts, conversations, attitudes and behaviors are contagious. If we are aware of this, we can manage the situation and prevent it from affecting our lives.

To maintain daily motivation and happiness at work, try to notice the people in your work environment who have the negative attitudes mentioned below and spend as little time with them as possible. If you are aware of these attitudes, their impact on you will be reduced even when you spend time together.

Complaining is highly contagious. This is why it is one of the most common negative attitudes in stressful and pressurized environments such as the workplace. If you pay attention, you will notice that after spending time with people who complain, you start to complain about things too. This attitude causes you to become more and more alienated from your work environment and to always see the negative-deficient-insufficient. It feeds your negative outlook and makes you unhappy.

People who constantly talk about how things should be are another person to avoid in the work environment where you spend most of your day. People who are never satisfied, who tell you who should be doing what and how (but aren't) will lead you to the perception that nothing is as it should be. If you are exposed to these conversations on a daily basis, over time you may find yourself in a state of helplessness and pessimism. This prevents you from taking initiative and striving for your goals, and leads to hopelessness.

Comparison is a competitive attitude. Comparing others in your presence creates pressure on you without you realizing it. You begin to feel more and more that you live in a world where something or someone is being compared. This prevents you from feeling comfortable. In a work environment where you don't feel comfortable, you find it difficult to be creative and productive. You feel the eyes on others on yourself as well.

Whether those eyes are around or not, if you focus your attention on your own world and the work you are doing, you can work more peacefully and produce productive and creative work.