This is part one in a ten part series helping reduce the rage in your workday. To read more about the series, click here. Click here to subscribe and don’t miss a post.

Think of your average day. Take today for example. How many times did you complain about your job? Did you mention it over breakfast? In a morning email to a friend? To a coworker over coffee? To that bum on the street you gave quarter for his funny dance? That’s a good dance, what’s that called? The heroin withdrawal? Oh. Sorry.

Complaining takes up more of your day than actual work. BREAKING NEWS;  complaining does nothing to make the situation better. It makes matters worse.

You do have to get it all out to move on. It’s therapeutic. Just this once, the Rage will allow you to bitch and moan about your job. As long as you do it constructively.

Here are four ideas to complain constructively:

Write it all down

Remember those old school inventions the pen and paper? They still exist. Stop stealing them and use them to jot down everything you hate about work. Everything. Every minor detail that gets your cheap TJ Maxx socks in a bunch. Nice socks, they sell adult clothes where you bought them? Now, eliminate every problem that you have absolutely no control over and forget about them. It’s not going to change. No use dwelling on the fact there will be no raises this year or that everyone in management is legally brain dead to how the company does business. Everything that isn’t crossed out is a nice list of things that can be fixed.

Now that you’ve got a nice list of fixable issues…

Find a problem solver

Did you ever stop to think that maybe some of the problems around the office could easily be solved by telling someone with the power to make change? Novel concept. You’d love to clock in on time but your computer runs slower than your grandmother in flip-flops. Ask IT to come take a look at what’s slowing down your system? Got a constant migraine from the industrial lighting over your cubicle. Ask the office manager if they can switch the bulbs to energy-saving and less wattage bulbs that won’t blind your eyes like grandma not wearing her Depends, or ANYTHING, underneath her house dress. (You told her not to run. She fell and let the world know she prefers commando.) Once all the little peeves are under control, you can focus on the bigger issues. First thing to do is….

Find a new sounding board

Coworkers are great accomplices in the daily bitching about work because they are in the same penitentiary..umm..predicament. Wrong P word. Is it really helping? Listening to all the problems in every other department compounds your misery. Instead of venting to coworkers who aren’t really listening and just waiting for the silence in the conversation to cry about their dead-end position, consult an unconnected third party to gripe to. Also, as much as they are available and love you, your family doesn’t care any more. They cared in the beginning. Now it’s just static. They know you hate your job. It’s obvious by your limping lifeless body that hangs out at the dinner table every night. Try online forums or message boards where other people are going through the same issues at their place of employment. Check out website like Job Vent or Vent! Vent as anonymous sounding boards.

“But in” with some positives

You’ve got a ton of complaints. The negativity takes it toll. It can’t be all bad. Try and think about the positive right after you’ve blurted out the negative. End every complaint with a positive “but”. Not to be confused with that eye-bulging hot new intern who has not only a positive butt but the most amazing assets this side of Denise Milani. For example- “The boss makes me stay late every night BUT I do avoid most of the traffic going home.” or “This place smells like my gym locker room BUT at least their aren’t as many naked old men walking around.” End everything with an upbeat thought. Sounds like self-healing mumbo-jumbo but it goes a long way in keeping your sanity in check.

It’s done. No more complaining. No more whining. No more long lunches with coworkers who drag you down. If someone starts complaining at the lunch, change the subject. Explain why you are an adult eating Lunchables. Just get them off the negative.

I mean I understand they are delicious but you don’t even have kids.

Next Week: Build and destroy alliances

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