Home Health & Hospice Week

Negative people can be downers, but you can help them channel their energy more positively. Accommodating the occasional bad mood can do wonders to help avoid conflict and maintain team harmony. But how do you work productively with someone who seems constantly overcome by a cloud of negativity in everything she says or does -- a "negaholic"? According to Cherie Carter-Scott, a human resources consultant and author of The Corporate Negaholic: How to Deal Successfully with Negative Colleagues, Managers and Corpora-tions, having just one negaholic teammate can "slime the entire group by de-motivating, demoralizing and de-inspiring." To help turn around your coworker's negative attitude, Carter-Scott suggests that you: Get to know the person. Strike up a conversation before a meeting begins, for example. Include him in your conversations with other coworkers. "This is the type of person who has always been left out in the past or was the last one [...]