Naysayers are colleagues who believe that all is doom and gloom: whatever the team does, any efforts to improve a situation, create happy outcomes or otherwise simply move forward, are sure to fail. Naysayers drain energy, pollute the culture and slow down change.

As champions of employee interests, it’s important for HR professionals to grasp why some people walk around with such a bleak outlook. With this greater understanding, HR can also help others to learn from naysayers, provide support, encourage reconciliation and lobby for better workplace conditions.

How to spot a naysayer

Found in almost all organisations, naysayers are easy to spot.

In meetings, naysayers sit silent and stony-faced; or they dismiss every idea with a catchphrase of ‘Yes, but’. They demonise and whine about the board, the chief executive, their boss – anyone, in fact, above them in the pecking order. Their peers and subordinates are invariably useless.

Naysayers are the first to claim that the staff survey is a witch-hunt or that ‘management’ never looks at the results. They know that any plan is ‘nothing but hot air’ and remember how the same idea failed a dozen times before. Always underpaid, naysayers are nostalgic for a golden era that never existed.

Such doom-mongering undermines good work. It causes frustration and distress in colleagues and keeps the organisation stuck in the present. The risks are hard to contain: naysayers enjoy gossiping in the canteen, quietly attracting conspirators in their mission of gloom.

Understand employee pessimism

Still, thoughtful organisations can benefit from the unremitting negativity of such team members. Whilst doom-mongering is irksome, tackling the vexation calls for a dispassionate approach, not least on the part of HR.

This reframing is easier when one views interaction with a naysayer as an encounter with pessimism. Pessimism refers to seeing mainly the negative side of a situation, or to believing that bad things are more likely to happen than good.

Four roots of pessimism

A colleague may be pessimistic at work for various reasons.

First, the Life Orientation Test-Revised (or LOT-R) reveals that some individuals are generally more confident than others that future events will turn out well. In any workplace, you can expect to find team members who are more inclined than their peers to be either optimistic or pessimistic.

Second, it feels as though the world is going to hell in a hand-cart: tech assails us from every pocket, cherished institutions are failing, the economy is uncertain, a sense of powerlessness is rising. Whilst downturns are not new, for many the breakneck speed of decline justifies their pessimism.

Third, personal life events outside work – past, current and anticipated – may foster a pessimistic outlook. A colleague may be struggling with her marriage or concerned about her children. The cost of living may be a worry. Health may be the source of her anxiety, or she may regret poor choices in life.

Fourth, workplace experiences often encourage pessimism. A poor line manager can be most depressing, as can unhelpful colleagues. Work that feels dull and meaningless exacts a heavy toll. Limited growth prospects are dispiriting and a disabling culture drags everyone down.

How to value naysayers

Working with naysayers can feel like banging one’s head against a brick wall. Optimistic colleagues, in their frustration, may yearn to swipe doom-mongers from the room. HR’s duty of care to all employees is to avoid such melodrama and, where possible, encourage everyone to play nicely.

Pessimism is hard for the optimist and even harder for the pessimist. A little understanding and support can bring benefits, resolve tensions and enable teams to learn from the experience – all making for a better workplace.

Depending on the root cause of the pessimism, here are four ways to deal with (and value) naysayers.

1. Pessimism in general

When a colleague is pessimistic in general (incidentally, you can run the LOT-R test for free), assess what can be done to reassure them that their future is in good hands.

You cannot solve for dispositional pessimism. Still, conversations with habitual naysayers reveal strategic opportunities to create fresh value and ways to develop leadership, culture and teamwork. Thoughtful pessimists worry about questions that others may miss.

2. World problems

When a naysayer is concerned about the state of the world, this opens up an invigorating conversation about purpose and relevance, and how the organisation creates stakeholder value.

The naysayer’s ‘We are wasting our time here!’ attitude exhausts everyone. But consider how the refrain also prompts managers and team members to ask questions where answers were previously taken for granted. Pessimism often casts reasonable doubt on current strategy and practice; welcome it.

3. Personal troubles

Life events beyond work have a material bearing on the attitudes a person brings to the team. When a colleague is struggling at home, encourage the organisation to show that it views people as more than cogs in a machine.

With the shift towards ‘authentic leadership’, you cannot cherry-pick experiences and tell employees to leave the bad stuff at home. Suitable interventions here are obvious: demonstrate curiosity, listen to what is said, take action and follow-up.

4. Workplace worries

In the workplace, our experience at Marble Brook shows naysayers are animated by:

• Weaknesses in the organisation – of purpose, strategy, systems and culture
• Friction within the team – deep silos and limited cooperation
• Shortfalls in manager skill – absent leadership and inadequate support

Clearly, workplace worries are where everyone must look beyond the doom-mongering and deal with underlying issues. It is also vital to provide support to naysayers and their colleagues, and to give everyone forums to rebuild their relationships.

Beyond pessimism

Of course, not all doom-mongering is justified. HR leaders must draw the line with toxic behaviours or those that disrupt others for no good reason.

Likewise, when everyone is facing the headwinds of an uncertain future, unbridled positivity may be inauthentic or come across as insensitive or alienating. To avoid this other extreme, find ways to be a non-irritating optimist.

Sometimes naysayers are right: not every problem is an opportunity!

With a troubled economy, many today feel less than optimistic about their own jobs and lives. It is unsurprising, then, that habitual naysayers are viewed as an albatross around the necks of both team members and the organisation itself.

Thoughtful HR leaders, however, can support these individuals, who are rarely incorrigible, to see a brighter future. At the same time, organisations can learn from naysayers’ concerns, as a means to enhance leadership, culture and teamwork, and to build a better workplace.