According to psychologist Paul White, author of a recent interesting article at entrepreneur.com, the following reasons are the most common. Read what you can do to prevent your colleague's bad mood from infecting you.
1. Feeling unwell
The underlying cause might be, amongst other things, tiredness, headaches or some other hidden pain. This will make people feel more grumpy, though they will say nothing out loud.
2. Personal problems
Mental stress can take its toll and make people appear more irritable at work. The source may be family issues or financial difficulties. Again, people might not want to talk about it.
3. Anxiety
Cultural norms require that we do not come across as whingers. The result is that we bottle up our emotions; this in turn leads to oversensitivity and irritability in our dealings with others.
4. Frustration
Frustration can mean two different things: in one sense it is a euphemism for anger; in another it suggests a sense of helplessness at being unable to influence events. Either way the net effect is for people to overreact in any type of situation.
5. Feeling undervalued
Employees who think their efforts are going unappreciated by managers or co-workers may become disillusioned and more sensitive to any criticism.
The best thing you can do
Use moderate language, prefacing your comments with such expressions as “It seems that ...” or “I get the impression that ...”, followed by “Is everything all right?” You should avoid such brutal directness as “Why are you being so insufferable?” Do not expect an immediate positive reaction either. However, once the colleague has had time to reflect, they may appreciate your taking an interest in them.
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