How to Handle Complainers

Everyone has had to deal with complainers. Some areas of life seem to attract more complainers than others, but I found something that really is genius concerning how to deal with complainers.

Make Complaining Feel Like Work

1. Acknowledge their feelings:

“It sounds like you’re not happy. Tell me about that”

2. When the point has been made, task them with finding a way to improve the situation.

“I think I see why you’re not happy. What do you think can be done?”

3. If they sound defeated or say nothing can be done, shift to the task of finding a way to cope:

“So it pretty much sounds like you’re stuck with it the way it is. Besides telling me, how are you going to come to terms with that?”

4. After a while, it will be second nature to guide the complainer along in this way, until he will begin to do it for himself when he is in your presence. Over time, he will hear become tired of hearing the refrain:

“So it sounds like you’re still not happy. What’s going on?"

Comments

Unknown said…
Great advice! Thank you for sharing it.
2:06 PM
Debbie said…
Who's complaining these days?
8:58 PM
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