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Bad Habit Slimdown, Week 27: Venting

venting-at-workBy J. Mason
Online Career Tips Editor

Besides a punching bag, what is a better way to get out stress besides venting? We all have that person at work we complain to when things don’t go our way, or something went haywire. This is fine, and a healthy way to rid yourself of stress, but too much of it can make you come across as a complainer always looking to deflect their issues.

Regardless of how extroverted you are working with others can be frustrating. Not everyone works at the same pace, has the same schedule, or priorities. This becomes an issue when you’re relying on them to get something done, or they are consistently in the red for production results. Most of us deal with this by sighing heavily, muttering under our breath, or having a spell of verbal diarrhea with our closest work friend. It’s nice to get things off your chest and spin humor into the issue. Sometimes your colleague may have some solutions for you, or an explanation as to why your emails never get returned from the pest you’re complaining about. If the problem gets worse your venting may take on a life of its own. You don’t want to be seen constantly at your friends desk dishing about the same thing every week. Nip that behavior in the bud!

Cutting the venting out of your work routine isn’t an overnight thing. For some of it’s addictive, like a coffee at 2pm or texting on our phones when work is slow. Breaking down your habit of venting can happen a few ways.

  1. Stop venting cold turkey.
  2. Ask your venting buddy to throw up a white flag when you’ve over shared for the week.
  3. Go to the source of your issues and work to resolve them.
  4. Refocus your energy when something irritating happens.
  5. Turn your frustration into action.

If you don’t take action on the problem you can’t predict when it will get resolved. Make a point to talk to the problem, and if that doesn’t work then go up the leadership pole. Talking to someone else about an issue won’t fix anything, and it wastes precious minutes that you should be spending on your work. Make a conscious effort to be the bigger person in the situation and focus on what you need to get done. Also, remember that Facebook and Twitter count as venting! Don’t post something on there if you’re worried your co-worker or boss may get upset over. No matter how mad you get during your work day using social media as your soapbox is not appropriate and comes across as very immature.

How did you do with last week’s bad habit, messaging at work? Just turn it off if the flickering reminder is something you can’t avoid when you’re working!

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