Out of all the stress and pressures we face in our lives, our jobs usually contribute to most of our woes. While our main source of income, our jobs can be hectic, tedious, or just plain boring — depending on the industry. And while it might be easy to complain, sometimes the constant complaining and griping can make our lives even worse.
A study done by Preply delved into words used in the workplace, analyzing how the use of negative language at your place of work and even at home can affect your mental health and the environment around you. In this post, we talk about how what you say can affect the atmosphere around you, as well as some of the most regretted phrases and industries that struggle with toxic, negative environments.
The Most Regretted Phrases
How you feel can often affect what you say. Sometimes, the stress and pressure of work can be so overwhelming that you can’t help some negative phrases slipping your lips. Over 93% of Americans surveyed had acknowledged that stress can negatively impact what they say to those around them, be that their family or coworkers. In fact, most workplaces enable this attitude, as 2 in 5 workers interviewed said that their workplace allows them to make negative comments without any repercussions.
One of the most common phrases that American workers regretted saying was “I don’t care,” often in a professional setting. It’s the number one regretted phrase, with 36% of workers agreeing. “Not my job” and “This is a waste of time” are regretted by 29% and 24% of the workforce, respectively.
What is interesting is that these people regret letting those phrases loose. While they may not have faced HR for what they said, they still realize how those negative words reinforce their own stress towards work. What’s even worse is that a negative phrase can also affect your coworkers and family at home.
Toxic Words Create a Toxic Environment
Over two-fifths of employees acknowledge that their words, under stress, have sparked misunderstandings or conflicts in the workplace. Over half of the employees surveyed admitted that the negativity of coworkers can cause them to lose their motivation, making them just as unhappy as the speaker. Speaking something into existence is not just a saying: If you feel horrible and vent about your stress at work, your stress will permeate and affect your coworkers in a negative way, creating that stressful, unhappy atmosphere you spoke about.
Negative conversations at work aren’t simply limited to complaining about the job or the environment. Gossiping about others is on the rise, as 2 in 5 employees admit to listening to gossip or talking about their coworkers. Associating the negativity you feel at work with one person might feel good at the moment, but it can still hurt you in the long run. You’re participating in an activity that feeds on negativity, and you won’t improve your mood by associating yourself with it.
Dumping your stress about work occurs in the workplace, but it’s also easy to fall into this trap at home. Americans spend an average of 11 minutes per day at home venting about work. While your home should be your safe place to talk about and deal with stress, it can create a toxic environment at home if you go too far. A study done by the American Psychological Association (APA) found that stress can cause anger and nervousness, which can ruin the peaceful atmosphere that your home should be.
How can you go about fixing this? The good news is that it’s just as easy to change a toxic environment into a positive one as it is to allow toxicity to permeate in the first place. Try limiting how much you talk about work at home and focus on the positive things that occurred at work. By refusing your stress a seat at the dinner table at home, you can prevent work stress and pressure from changing the atmosphere in your home.
Pay Attention if You Are in These Industries
Sometimes, the industry you work in can affect the stress and negative environment that follows. Within the industrial and manufacturing sectors, nearly 66% of workers reported a higher tolerance for negativity. With long work days and oftentimes manual labor, it makes sense that workers within this sector struggle to remain positive every single day. This industry is followed by the hospitality industry at 42% and corporate sectors at 39%.
When it comes to gossip, those in industrial and manufacturing environments are most prone to fall into that trap at 49%, followed closely by retail at 47% and hospitality at 44%. Compared to working from home, these jobs require face-to-face contact with people every single day. It makes sense that these interactions pave the way for gossip, so it’s important for people in these sectors to recognize that and guard against it.
Kindness is Contagious
The moral of the story is that when you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say it at all. Of course, in our imperfect world, this rule is very hard to live by. Thankfully, there are ways to express concern, frustration, or criticism in productive ways. Don’t fire off an angry email right away — hold off for an hour or two to collect yourself. If a coworker is annoying you, don’t talk to your other coworkers about them. Instead, try to solve the problem in a civil manner or vent to a willing partner or friend outside the workplace.
5 Reasons Why Toxic Relationships Affect Your Financial Decisions(Opens in a new browser tab)
Learning how to cope with stress in a positive way will have a positive effect on the rest of your life. You’ll see a difference in your relationships, both professional and personal, and experience better personal mental health overall. The stress and pressure may not go away completely, but handling your stress without creating a toxic environment for others will greatly increase your happiness in the workplace and at home.