Venting is normal - despite all the ‘mindfulness’ and ‘meditation’ in the world, work is likely to create frustrations inside your mind which you just need to get out, and where better to spill them than onto the desks of your co-workers? Often, no matter how much you love your job, you’ll likely go through a phase where you need to get it all off your chest, and that’s okay… until it’s not okay. Constant venting can be a source of negativity in the office, and cause you to lose valued friends in your co-workers, or even become an adversary to productivity, and nobody wants that. So, before anything gets out of hand, why don’t you check out four ways you can work on your venting in the workplace, to keep everything in check?
1. Don’t Yell - Whisper!
When you do vent, you don’t want to bring the whole office’s mood down to your level, just to feel a small release of frustrations. So try to stop your venting having such a great impact, with a few quick tips. Don’t vent in the middle of the office - keep it close and personal, and behind closed doors if possible. Try not to do it too often - if it’s once a day, that’s way too much, and even once a week is pushing it. And when you do vent, keep it to a few close co-workers, possibly those who are rather stoically minded and won’t crack under the extra pressure of all your problems. Finally, make sure you consider whether it’s worth it every time - you’ll have to stop working, go somewhere private, find a select one or two co-workers and be careful on how you vent to them, so make sure you only vent when you really need to. These precautions should help you to decide whether you really need to vent or not, and, if you do, they’ll keep the impact minimal.
2. Don’t Complain - Resolve!
“If you’re venting, then something’s wrong,” claims Matthew Armstrong, a HR at Last Minute Writing and Gumessays, “nobody’s arguing that point. So, if something’s wrong, then why not spend the time you would’ve spent venting coming up with solutions to your problem? I find that this works on small problems which you can actually solve just as well as large problems that you genuinely can’t, since it takes your mind off complaining and either makes you realise you can’t do anything about it, and then find ways to deal with it, or it sorts out the problem! Honestly, it’s a win-win situation, so stop yourself just before you vent and start thinking about what’s causing the venting in the first place. If you need to, you can even bring in a co-worker to brainstorm, as long as there’s positive energy in the conversation and not the negative energy that is typical of venting. This way, you’re turning a negative into a positive, without ruining the rest of the office’s day.”
3. Don’t Speak - Write!
Finally, a good coping method is often to keep a ‘stress journal’, where you can write down everything that you would have vented to a co-worker. “I have often found myself scribbling down vicious notes in a journal which would make your eyebrows raise up to the roof, but it helps to relieve my frustrations, which are common in high-stress workplaces,” says Victor Buckbridge, a tech writer at Business Assignments and Writinity, “and I’d recommend any other worker to do the same. Nobody has to see your journal but you - definitely no one should be writing in your journal except you - and it’s a great place to tell all of your fears, angers and anxieties to a ‘brick wall’, so you don’t end up annoying and saddening your co-workers. Ten minutes out of a lunch break every day, or every other day, can be the difference between you lamenting your sorrows to anyone who comes within five feet of your desk and you working productively for the rest of the day. Honestly, try it - you won’t regret it!” Your journal doesn’t have to be fancy - it doesn’t even have to a notebook. It could be a few paragraphs on the back of an unused sheet of paper, but as long as you take the time to write down your thoughts, you’ll be getting back on track and being as productive as ever in the office in no time!
Eula Skiles loves her work as a content marketer at Research Papers UK, and has recently begun assisting various companies in how they create strategies for marketing and concepts for their plans at Draftbeyond.
