Posted by It’s completely natural to want to vent at work occasionally. Whether it’s an annoying project that you’re working on and feeling stumped, the stress of a deadline, or something else, you’ll eventually vent to a co-worker. Just because it’s natural, though, it doesn’t mean it’s okay, and doing so constantly can create negativity in the workplace and annoy your colleagues. So we’ve come up with a list of the 4 ways to redirect your venting at work to make it productive.
1. Limit the Impact
Think about how you want to be perceived at work. Do you want others to view you as a leader? Intelligent, positive, creative? Whatever your career goals, it’s important to avoid being seen as a complainer. Unfortunately, that’s what people will think if you’re always venting to everyone that stops by your desk. You also don’t want your work environment to become negative and your toxic attitude to spread to others.
If you need to vent, there must be as little impact as possible. Keep it to a minimum, and don’t vent to the same people every time, or in an open office where everyone can hear. Another alternative is to set boundaries. Make a deal with a colleague where you can only complain when you walk to the other person’s office and shut the door to vent in private. This often makes you think twice before making a trip to their office to interrupt them, but if you feel that you need it at least, it’s private.
2. Think About Solutions
One of the issues with venting is that no matter how much you vent, the situation will not change until you come up with a solution. Venting isn’t about coming up with a solution, but it’s about blowing off steam. When you notice that you’re venting with a colleague try to spend your time thinking about how to fix the problem.
For example, if you find yourself having spent 10 minutes venting to your colleague about how the human resource department doesn’t work well with you on a hiring process, take a step back. Think about how you can improve your communication with the HR department to help them see the hiring process from your perspective and repair the rift. This ensures that you can healthily share your emotions while also finding solutions.
3. Write
You might find it helpful to write down your stress in a journal. By writing down specific things that are frustrating you, you can understand what your triggers are and learn how to avoid them or rise above them. You’ll also find that by writing down things that frustrate you or stress you out, these issues become much smaller and more manageable.
This goes for everything at work that gets on your nerves whether it’s one colleague, in particular, a regular meeting you find pointless and more. Write it down and reflect on how to best approach each situation.”
4. Focus on the Positives
It’s a lot easier to find negative things to complain about than positive things to applaud. Instead of being pessimistic, hold your emotions in check by making yourself aware of things that are positive in your office. Set yourself the challenge of being more attentive to the good things around you, like a friend who did well on a project a successful meeting you attended, or a great training you went through.
When you begin to notice these things and openly praise the people responsible, you will be seen as a more positive person and contribute to a better working environment. You can still vent when necessary, but you should try to find as many positive things as you can for any negative, stressful thing.
Through creating a good balance of positivity and venting, a good stress journal to evaluate yourself, and some strong boundaries in place, you can vent in a way that doesn’t impact your team or work environment. By doing so, you’ll also begin to notice a positive change in your overall attitude.
5. Be a good listener
You will probably be in a situation many times when someone else needs to vent as well. The workplace can be a stressful environment, and it’s not just like that for you, it’s like that for many other people. So, the reasonable thing would be to help someone else out.
While you may feel compelled to help others solve their problems, it’s not a good idea. The best thing to do is to listen and understand someone else’s difficulties. Try not to complain about your problems at the same time. Rather, just hear them out and see what they’ve got to say.
How do you stay productive when you are venting at work? Leave us your thoughts on the comment sections below. Head over to Jobstore.com and unveil your next job opportunity.
A marketing and recruitment writer at Essay Roo and UK Writing, Ellie Coverdale loves beach days and walking her dog on the boulevard. She has been included in many large-scale tech research projects, where she has learned a lot of practical knowledge. She loves sharing what she has learned with her reader. Furthermore, she is also a writing teacher at Boom Essays.