Creating Positive Vibes at Workplace

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How are you today? Good thanks. Are you running late today? Good thanks. Are you listening to me.? Good thanks. I call this faking or formality and have seen this at few work places. Worse than this is that you are walking in a corridor and someone you meet, walking right opposite to you, one of you company worker completely ignores you. It’s as if, you don’t exist at all. I guess lot of things can contribute to this like the Company work culture, work load, peer pressures, personal problems but, what I noticed that matters most is that nature of a person. Yes, it’s our personal choice as how you want to treat others. Of course, there is a saying “Treat others like the way you want to be treated", but for most people seem care less. But, what I have learnt and seen is that small things can make a big impact in people, place and the whole work environment. Small things like smiling at people, greeting them and listening to what they say, how they feel can make enormous impact on people.

One day at my workplace, I got into the lift and before the doors closed and I was about press my level 3 button, I noticed someone rushing. I quickly pressed the Lift - Open doors button and waited for the gentleman to get into the lift. That's all. He was so thankful and said, "Thank you so much, not many would do that. May you win a Million dollar lottery." I smiled and said" Thank you for your wishes. I don’t know about the lottery but, it does make me feel good”. So what was my investment for feeling good? Its 10 seconds of my time. There was a study by some Psychologist who determined that even if one person in your Facebook friends or even a friend of your friends list is unhappy, you are also unconsciously affected.

There is something called as "Emotional contagion".

The phrase "emotional contagion" embodies the idea that humans will synchronize their personal emotions with the emotions expressed by those around them, whether consciously or unconsciously, and thus that an emotion conveyed by one person will become "contagious" to others.

Psychologist Elaine Hatfield theorizes emotional contagion as a two-step process: Step 1: We imitate people; if someone smiles at you, you smile back. Step 2: Changes in mood through faking it. If you smile you feel happy, if you frown you feel bad. Mimicry seems to be one foundation of emotional movement between people. And, there are so many other theories but, the bottom line is that you can make the difference (Only if you decide to do so).