Whether it's a business relationship, marriage, friendship, school, sports, etc. one thing you will always have to deal with are other people's personalities and attitudes.

Just like emotions, personalities have their own set of traits. I personally like to place these traits into 3 categories:

Crappy

Average

Good

One area many businesses tend to fall behind in is controlling or managing their employee's personalities or behavior. I am not saying a company should ever CONTROL another person's thought process or behavior, but taking steps to improving the work environment for ALL employees should be a top priority.

Let's analyze my 3 personality traits:

Crappy

This is the type of employee who walks into work everyday and just seems bothered or upset ALL the time. Why? Who knows, because this particular employee keeps to his/herself, rarely socializes, rarely attends company outings/events, and rarely has proper manners.

Simple things as "hello" or "goodbye" are non existent to this particular employee.

Some people are just built to zone out noises, distractions, etc. and often times, the "crappy" personality actually tends to put the most work or productivity in. So, there is no way to knock someone for getting their work done, except their personality takes on the characteristic of a rock.

Average

Workers who have an "average" personality tend to hover on tha line of crappy and good. I would say this is more of your typical employee on a day to day basis. This individual can come into work with an upbeat attitude, get their work done, socialize, make the environment feel friendly, and typically makes the workplace feel like a warm place to be. However, the opposite can occur where the individual has a bad day and as a fellow coworker, you know it's in your best interest to stay out of their way. Every job will have employees who have bad days. It's natural.

The "average" personality for a worker, as I said, is much more common and typically has the common sense of when to brighten or dim a typical workday.

Good

This employee always has a smile of their face. They are always courteous, always upbeat, get their work done, socialize, and tend to always have a positive ora around them.

However, the one negative side to having this personality is that of "being walked on" by other coworkers. Those that tend to represent this personality can come off as naive, be told what to do without the fear of "back talk", and overall be taken advantage of.

Power Drainage

If all employee's came in on a day to day routine of having an "average" personality, workplace environments would be more positive, upbeat, would have higher employee morale, better customer service, and the company would most likely improve its services.

I have found that those who represent the "crappy" personality tend to drain the workplace's "power", so to speak. When working near someone that always appears in a bad mood, makes snide remarks, has bad etiquette, and is not courteous to other co-workers, the overall "ora" of the office tends to go down. People become more quiet, socializing goes to a minimum, and sometimes employee productivity can actually decrease.

Some of you reading this may think I am crazy for posting an article like this. You may be thinking:

What in the hell are you talking about. First off, you shouldn't be socializing at work. You are at work to WORK. Next, Work is not a place to be happy joy-lucky. Get in at 8am, get your work done, and leave at 5pm.

My only response to something like that is - There is nothing like an upbeat workplace environment. There is nothing like going to work knowing you will be productive, but knowing that you can talk to someone without fear of being put down, joked about, knowing you can smile and laugh. There is also a good feeling when you do something for someone and you get a "thank you" or "your welcome". Some of these phrases are non exisitent in certain people's vocabularies. I am not sure why.

Many programmers and developers who are hardcore at what they do tend to have the "crappy" personality. Granted, most of them do a fine job on their work, but at the same time, talking to them is like talking to a wall. There mere existance sucks the energy out of a workplace environment. Just being around people like this puts you in a bad mood.

Me: "Hey John, have a good weekend man"

John: ""

Me (in my head): Hey, no problem. F*ck you later"

Again, I don't have the answer to this. If you are one of those workers who has the "crappy" personality/attitude, I would love to hear some input as to why one is sullen/depressed/non-friendly almost 100% of the time to fellow co-workers.

Management

In my personal, not professional, opinion, I think managers need to step up to the plate and say, "Hey John, look, I realize you work very hard but are you in need of a break/vacation? Several co-workers are concerned recently about your attitude and they feel you are draining the positive energy out of this workplace environment.

Maybe that is not the right way to go. If you are a manager and/or you have had experience with the above scenarios, what do you recommend to resolve poor personalities/attitudes in the workplace?

I seriously do want to try and understand where those with crappy attitudes are coming from. If you have any insight, please feel free to comment.