How should you deal with a negative co-worker?

Combining the answers of Charlie and Nik gives the best solution as well as some other good answers here.
Since I was viewed for decades as a negative employee versus being called a realist I have to add to this post - in hope of helping other realist out there!
Since there are no Utopian corporations out there - there will always be flaws to complain about.
I've found out it is best to first, bite your tongue when the idiot directive from upper mgmt comes down. Then come to realize the cards are dealt, deal with them and spend your time by coming up with a fruitful idea.
Second, unless you have an answer, do not complain or report the problem. Its sales and sales is alot about presentation.
Follow these 2 rules and people will appreciate you more. Otherwise, even though you are being real and not negative, you will be viewed as a spreading cancer and you are unless you paint a positive picture.
So I come home and vent my real views to the spouse and family and do my best to help those suffering from the Pinocchio Principle in the workplace.

Good question and many good answers. In my experience, people occasionally get "branded" as being negative when expressing their point of view in a certain way. Sometimes it is their tone of voice or their choice of words or even their body language. To work with an individual whom you deem negative, try looking at their contribution as just another opinion --- just different from yours or others --- and not necessarily negative or wrong.

In my study of group dynamics (not to mention almost 40 years in various operating positions) I found that every team or group has a number of unofficial leadership roles that are played by various individuals. Included in these roles are the Emotional Leader, Task Leader, Deviant Leader and the Devil's Advocate. Both the Deviant Leader and the Devil's Advocate play the roles of boundary testing, challenging assumptions and the status quo and serve as a counter weight to the conventional wisdom. Unfortunately, the very nature of these roles can appear to be (and sometimes are) negative. That said, these people "carry the water" for the other group members who either do not want to or cannot fulfill those very difficult roles.

While it is often difficult to listen to these individuals and their "complaints", there is frequently great value in developing the patience and leadership skills required to sort through all the emotions and craft creative solutions.

In communications, as in many things, one size seldom fits all.

I had once an engineer who is very critical and a pessimist by nature. I learned a lot about being a pessimist - one is that you don't have a choice, like you can't choose being male or female.

He was an excellent engineer so I spent time to understand. He learned that his negative attitude is equally difficult than the the one from the always positive yes-sayer.

The "dream team theory" does a better job than I can do:
Your ideal team consist of four charcters
- A visionary (the ever positive, living in the future)
- A driver (the one who executes the plans is down to earth and gets things done)
- An analyst ( he is the critical part that does the reality check) - here is your 'negative'
employee.
- An integrator (integrating and harmonizing the different forces :)

The negative co-worker needs to know it's impact and the positive ones needs to know that negativity isn't something one chooses, more so we can turn it into something positive by having a critical point of view on things.

O p e n n e s s - is the key to both.

Tell them why their attitude and behaviors are having such a negative impact on their co-workers and the company's environment at-large, give them the opportunity (and guidance) to get it straight, and if they don't show immediate and sustained improvement exit them from the company.

I tend to agree with Nik on this one. Just because someone is negative doesn't mean that they're actually negative. There can be some underlying issues:
1. Cultural: You also need to investigate cultural issues here. For example, Indian managers often say that American expats are negative just because Americans tend to be more direct and ask people to adhere to deadlines.
2. Real issues within the reporting structure: Some folks are negative about the company or their supervisor because they're not getting what they want and they want someone to leave. At times, it's because they think the other person will get promoted or get better salary etc.
3. Company leadership encourages negative competitiveness: hard to imagine this but certain managers or business owners do favor one department (i.e Tech) over another (i.e. HR or Marketing). You can see this by salary disparities, and flexible work schedules etc.
4. Dis-empowerment: It takes a person a while from being a great new recruit to the company to being cynical and dis-empowered. Usually this happens when the person had been there for a while and couldn't change things. You need to see what effect this person has on new recruits, junior staff if there's any, and team morale.
5. Being practical: At times the person may be just a practical person and would say that something is not possible when it's not possible. Sometimes we take this as being negative, too. So you need to look at it from a certain perspective.

Of course, upon a thorough investigation, the person is found to be negative just to be negative, I'd follow what Charley had said. Try to fix it, if they don't change, start the exit procedures.

Great answers here already and I would say this can be seen as a great opportunity because although the message being sent from this individual is negative, it is conveying a greater message that there may be real issues in the work environment to be addressed. Grab the opportunity and create a forum to get feedback not just from this individual but your entire team.

A subscriber to my blog recently sent me a very similar question that had a slightly different twist. It's been one of my most commented on blog postings, you can read more about that situation here: http://www.workplacecommunicationexpert.com/?p=2655

good advise above.
i will re-evaluate the demand of the negative worker.then satify them based on current resource.meantime other demand of the negative worker can be motivated,then take mearsures to adress.

Having just spent 5 days around a negative individual I decided to state a positive when he was surfacing a negative (which was pretty much constant). It really challenged me to allow him, his point of view while engaging myself to work with what was possible in what WAS working. Truth is, he was right about the negative aspects of the situation, however his "rightness" did not change anything. If I could affect any of the negative conditions such as unclear expectations from the boss, I did. Otherwise I continually shifted my focus to positives and stated them. It was effective! By day 3 he stopped making his negative statements and by day 4 I heard him attempting to say positive things to others as I had been doing around him.

Hi,

Agree with a lot that has already been said. However, one of the things I stress in my workshops is to stay away from saying (and sometimes thinking) a person has "a bad attitude." Attitude is so vague and well, vague. I may think my attitude is just fine while another person will think it's bad or simply wrong.
What I do encourage managers to do is to write down and be very clear with themselves what are the behaviours they would like the other person to change. What are the cues or markers that will let them see that the other person is indeed changing their behaviours. Be clear on how the behaviours are affecting other people or performance. Finally, be clear on what you as a manager are willing to do to help the other person meet the changes you want to see. Then, when all this is clear, sit down with the other person and be very clear with them on what you need and want to see from them in terms of a change in behaviour and also what they might need from you to meet those goals.
In the end, clarity, process and support can do a lot to help someone change unproductive behaviours in the workplace. One last word of caution, someone's negative behaviours may be a very real and valid response to a work situation, a manager must also be clear with themselves and willing to take a look at the situation and create positive changes within the work environment as well.

One of the oddities in life that one learns is that often very talented and knowledgeable people can have a negative attitude towards people and/or the company. I have seen this in one instance in a project group of five members. One person had excellent input and background but was so negative towards the company and the project goals, that he became an energy drainer and hurt the groups progress. The other four of us told our executive project sponsor about this. Efforts were made to counsel the employee, but eventually this person left for another company. It was unfortunately the best alternative.

First of all it is necessary to remember that nothing works unless there is a negative and a positive all the way down to the Atom... People with views different from the “Foo-Foo-Fa-Rah” and “Everything is Grand” Club are often accused of being negative as opposed to being positive.... There is no flow of electricity without an excess of electrons... people are no different than a basic Atom with one Proton, one Neutron, and one Electron... Any additional Electrons will be expelled for the Atom to be in Balance and when it does not have a Positive Valence...
As far as so called Negative people are concerned there is a need for them or they would not exist... They merely see things in a different Light and do not accept the "Don't Rock the Boat" Status Quo Crowd...
In my 71 years of studying people I discovered a long time ago that Positive equates to Placid and Negative equates to Thought Provoking Power in any Field of endeavor unless you are a child that never gave up on playing Patty Cakes in the Mud...
Harness what is thought as Negative into the Disruptive Force it is conceived to be so Balance will Prevail...
To all the so called "Positive" people than cannot tolerate positive re-enforcement with Negative connotations from your own point of view then You really need to consider getting out of the dark closets in which you dwell and out into the Sunlight on occasion to become neutralized.... And get over the self imposed more important self that you have become either through Thought or Training....
Negative is Positive, or is it the other way around...Either way, both will always be required...

Negativity or “The No Person” is one of the ten behavioral types we described in our book, Dealing With People You Can’t Stand, How To Bring Out The Best In People At Their Worst (Brinkman & Kirshner, McGraw-Hill, 1994, 2003, 2011).

Negativity and its first cousin Whining are particularly insidious in an organization. That's because those behaviors tend to spread like the flu through a team and before you know it, everyone is doing it. Even worse, it can become a team habit.

The difference between whining and negativity is whining is a feeling of being helpless, the victim of people, circumstances, or ironically the present circumstances not measuring up to their own high standard of perfection.

Whereas negativity is hopeless. They have given up in the face of the same thing. In fact negativity is really fossilized whining, it goes on and on and on and finally they say, “what’s the use why bother.”

When people get negative they have all the sureness and arrogance of a Know-it-all seduced by the dark side of the force. ;-)

The first thing to do is knowing what not to do. Do not bother trying to tell them it’s not so bad or offer a solution. That causes them to go deeper into their quicksand of how bad it is. This is called a polarity response. Two-year-olds and teenagers can have a polarity response as a developmental phase. And when people are negative they have polarity. (Interestingly enough when people are whiny they do not have polarity.)

So if you want to have a little fun and mess with their head then jump into their quicksand with them and playfully start splashing around saying, “You’re right, it’s hopeless, why bother, nothing will work, we might as well just end it all right now.” And they’ll respond with, “Well you’re right but all we have to do is this…” Like magic they will talk solutions to you.

Another thing you can do with negativity is harness it for the greater good. I remember a woman telling me about her husband Bob who was terribly negative, always what’s wrong, nothing ever right. She said the Cub Scouts are planning a trip to Washington DC and the organizers wondered if anything go wrong so they decided to invite her husband Bob to a planning meeting.

Sure enough Bob ripped the trip apart in generalizations but as they kept asking questions they got him to be more and more specific. Then they said, “Thanks a lot Bob, see later,” and sorted for themselves what was an exaggeration and what should be attended to. This is called giving yourself an attitude adjustment by not letting the negative person be a wet blanket as well as using them as a resource.

Here is a link to the whining and negativity category on my blog for your convenience. There are a number of posts there related to this subject: http://rickbrinkman.com/blog/category/difficult-people/whining/

And certainly the book “People You Can’t Stand…” would also be a useful resource. http://www.rickbrinkman.com/store/books/dpcs.shtml

It is also available in audio book form at my website http://rickbrinkman.com/store/audio/dpcsAUDIO.shtml or as a download at iTunes or Audible.com.

I just wrote about this because I mishandled managing a chronic naysayer for a project I was working on. This recommendation is excerpted from a project management "lessons learned" based on my experience. It doesn't fit perfectly here, but I hope it helps:

"Sell, sell, sell! Or, if you’re a rower, stroke, stroke, stroke! For the project leader, everyone is important, even the most ardent, shrill, bombastic detractor. Love people! Make them feel good! Remind them how important their opinion is for the project’s success, even if it’s not. Put them on a pedestal, and make sure it’s not a gallows. Over time, naysayers who naysay for the pleasure of naysaying will find the gallows on their own."

Here's a link to the blog "Boy Did I Screw Up My Project, and How You Can, Too!" http://www.customerthink.com/blog/boy_did_i_screw_up_my_project_and_how_you_c...

Hi,

It depends on the employee's postion and situation. The employee's manager can have chats with the employee to find out the reasons of his or her negative attitutes. Provide help or any training programs to the employee and then reduce the negative effects on others.

Also here are some articles regarding office advice.
www.edustarzone.com/CareerAdvice.html

Alex... That's what I'm talking about... You described it perfectly...Everyone knows that Einstein said about doing the same thing over and over again but expecting a different result... This best describes the Negative person who is offering positive solutions to problems that occur over and over... Engineers are the best at this... This is also why they do destructive Testing... They will test materials until they fail... then they know where the breaking point is...
They don’t sit around and say "Oh MY" we can't pressure up on that vessel until it part's... we might break something... That’s the point… No breaking, no numbers to calculate...

Emily... That is just what we need Emily... More Training from some village selected clown from the local zoo who hasn't a clue about a perceived Negative person’s training or background... Maybe the Government could make it a Law while they are at it… along with the 99 trillion Law’s already on the books…