Reader Submission by Louis

One of my coworkers is a huge pessimist. He always sees the bad in every situation. Last month I went on vacation for a week and when I returned, the office atmosphere was completely different because his negative attitude started to rub off on the rest of the office. I felt like there was a giant gloomy cloud stuck above the building. I came back to find not much work was done, there was little communication among the team, and everyone seemed stressed as a result. I think it’s safe to say that this jerk’s pessimism was the cause for this disaster.

There’s not much I can do to change his attitude, so I tried changing mine instead. I was the ultimate optimist. I remained extremely positive in every situation, hoping to counter-balance his negativity. I think it actually worked because the office seemed more productive than usual and everyone was always pretty cheery. Pretty sure I even saw him smile for once.