Dear Entrepreneur,
Complainers and negative people are bad news because they wallow in their problems and fail to focus on solutions.
They want people to join their pity party so that they can feel better about themselves. People often feel pressure to listen to complainers because they don’t want to be seen as callous or rude, but there’s a fine line between lending a sympathetic ear and getting sucked into their negative emotional spiral.
You can avoid this only by setting limits and distancing yourself when necessary. Think of it this way: if the complainer were smoking, would you sit there all afternoon inhaling second-hand smoke? You’d distance yourself, and you should do the same with complainers.
A great way to set limits is to ask complainers how they intend to fix the problem. They will either quiet down or redirect the conversation in a productive direction.
With love,
Chidi