The No Complaining Rule
July 09, 2008
When I first saw the title "The No Complaining Rule" I had flashbacks to family road trips to "up north" Wisconsin, full of truly Ollie Hopnoodle-esque moments. But the title refers to a new business book about positivity: The No Complaining Rule: Positive Ways to Deal with Negativity at Work by Jon Gordon, who also wrote The Energy Bus. The No Complaining Rule is constructed like a parable, with anecdotes that build to a point at which the fictional workplace develops "an actionable plan to win the battle against individual and organizational negativity.
![](http://800ceoread.com/images/books/96/9780470279496/1776495.jpg?w=120&mode=max)
The characters sprinkle in insights and hard facts to support their case for a no complaining rule. For instance, the Cost of Negativity:
Check it out. You might find the right approach to dealing with negativity in your work life.
- Negativity costs the U.S. economy between $250 to $300 billion every year in lost productivity, according to the Gallup Organization. And this number is conservative since it doesn't take into account the ripple effect of complaining and negativity.
- Ninety percent of doctor visits are stress related, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the #1 cause of office stress is coworkers and their complaining, according to Truejobs.com.
- A study found that negative employees can scare off every customer they speak with--for good (How Full Is Your Bucket? by Tom Rath)
- Too many negative interactions compared to positive reactions at work can decrease the productivity of a team, according to Barbara Fredrickson's research at the University of Michigan.
- Negativity affects the morale, performance, and productivity of our teams.
- One negative person can create a miserable office environment for everyone else.
- Negative emotions are associated with the following:
- Decreased life span and longevity
- Increased risk of heart attack
- Increased risk of stroke
- Greater stress
- Less energy
- More pain
- Fewer friends
- Less success