Today in The Wall Street Journal Sue Shellenbarger discusses a type of coworker you’ve surely had the occasion to work with, assuming you’ve been working in an office environment for any time at all. This is, Shellenbarger writes, the “workplace whiner.” Not only are such coworkers an inherent productivity problem—did you know that just listening to someone complain constantly can undermine your own performance?—but also, God almighty, they are annoying. You’re just trying to complete that spreadsheet peacefully, a bagel and coffee by your side, and suddenly you have to listen to innumerable gripes about the office water bubble temperature, really?
Shellenbarger points out, though, that it’s not always so easy just to shut your ears and try to ignore. Listening and nodding can backfire and make you the subject of the complainer’s next complaint. Telling someone they complain too much rarely goes well. And while the experts recommend “setting an example” and attempting to bond, that’s not too appealing in the fifth hour of your coworker’s screed about his or her latest perceived injustice. You can buy headphones, of course, but will they even work? All of a sudden, you’re complaining, too!
Tips in Shellenbarger’s piece to combat all this include changing the subject, zoning out, asking your whiny coworker what he or she plans to do about the issue or suggesting taking it to a superior, moving your desk to a complaint-free zone, and so on. Some bosses have even incorporated cash reward programs for workers able to keep from complaining or gossiping for a certain amount of time. But this got us thinking: Is the workplace whiner the worst sort of office inhabitant? There are plenty of others, too, and they are indisputably grating in their own ways. The list goes on and on, but here are a few.*
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