Recently I took a stand against negativity in my workplace. I had decided to be the light to those who were clearly more interested in gathering together negative thinkers and being shining examples. They are everywhere, in every company. In fact they are our neighbours, sister in laws, shop attendants , politicians, teachers, ministers and nurse aids. Its those people in life who prefer to see the glass half full no matter how much good is going on around them.
So there I was trying to ascertain the difference between lowered moral within the company or an attitude issue of that particular person/group of people. There happened to be one of those people I was referring to in our group discussion. The discussion wasn't going very far and many people were too afraid to open up about their angst and issues. Our company cares so our HR lady sat listening attentively waiting to hear if we had any gripes or concerns. Naturally to start to process off (as I was involved in bringing this issue to HR) I decided to comment on the lack of general joy and happiness from certain people. So before you think I've turned hippy and want everyone to greet me 24/7, let me just differentiate between miserable and busy. I don't expect the world to owe me a favour but when the same people have the same attitude issues I want to help, not rescue, help.
Trying to gauge the difference between "Peter Popple" whose having a bad day versus "Suzy Sunshine" who is clearly on something strong and loves saying hello to everyone I wanted to find out the cause of "Ivan the Irritable's" grumpy greetings and whether they were due to lack of personal joy or if he was just a sour puss to be handled at a distance.
From that meeting onward that very same department I had been making an example of, which included "Ivan the Irritable" and his "Clan of callous cowards", decided to take it upon themselves to greet me in the most falsely enthusiastic approach possible. Oh and I may add, at every opportunity possible, in sequence, like a cats choir - "Gooooood moooooorrrning how aaaaaaaare you!?"
Needless to say I took it with a pinch of salt and smiled to myself, a little flattered and a little weirded out. Then after a week of playing this game I realised that I was in fact being bullied when a colleague I never speak to, in the same general region of the aforementioned department, called me out of the blue to ask why I had reported him for being unfriendly.
Well people its needless to say that I just completely took the pain to heart and rectified the situation with immediate effect. I explained my story and he understood the fabrication and laughed it off. So by this stage I had two choices. 1. Embrace my label of 'teachers pet' or 2. Take on the world with a smile.
The following week the instigator was in the reception area with his usual 'meowed' greeting. At that exact time the guy who had confronted me about the rumours was walking past. I took this opportunity to again rectify the situation, but this time call up the bully on his actions. His eyes widened as I put him in the corner with his lies, he actually just smiled sheepishly and didn't say another word. A small victory for me but what was I going to do about the other 4 brats? Again, 'Take on the world with a smile' was my mantra.
For the following 2 weeks I kept greeting as I do, smiling at the cats choir as they walked past snickering to themselves, until one day a colleague who knew about the situation actually answered on my behalf when asked "hooooooooow aaaaaaaaare yooooooooooou today?" replied with a loud 4 letter response.
2 down, 2 to go. I decided to change my strategy and turn up the kindness and light shining to a nauseating 10 out of 10. Favours were asked - and favours were granted with enthusiasm. I held my head up so high and even gave myself a toothache! I had decided to dictate my own happiness because when your light shines brightest and you come from a place of authenticity, only good will follow.
Its been a month and while 98% of my colleagues comment on my contribution to the atmosphere I've answered my own question. Some people are just in fact "sleeping angels" who would rather revel in misery than let their light shine.
So if you're in the same situation and you're stuck between dimming your light and blinding your audience, go boldly and brightly on your way to joy.
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