Stay away from Uncle Grumpy

Expertview
Firms must find the reason for peeve
Firstly, one has to be careful during the recruitment process itself. They need to judge several aspects of an individual’s personality. They must verify things like how positive the individuals are and how motivated they will be in their assignments. This has to be ascertained through personal interaction and written tests. In this manner, we can get a good idea about the candidate’s temperament. Secondly, there are several issues that may affect an employee’s crankiness. They might be facing many issues with the management, there could be some bias existing at workplace. Sometimes they have issues related to work. But at the same time, small things trigger unnecessary irritability these days. The management needs to have proper training for employees. They need to have regular seminars to boost the employee morale and have a good rapport with them. Also, apart from work related seminars, the firm should organise extra curricular activities and events.    
—Sejal M, manager, HR, Enso Secutrack Limited

Happy employees mean more productivity
Happiness is a skill, not a state of mind. Therefore, it depends on how a person looks at his life or people around. One cannot avoid people with grumpy or irritable moods as we cannot choose their disposition. But an individual can certainly decide personal mental framework. For example, if one has an irritable colleague then one can imagine that person to be a cartoon character, say Tom (cat from animation series). This helps in looking at a situation differently and doesn’t affect one’s mental health or work. One should try to minimise their contact or avoid the person as much as possible, especially those who are chronically grumpy. As for companies, they try to put pressure on employees to get out the maximum work from minimum resources available. A monthly get-together is not the solution. Corporates need to find innovative ideas to keep their employees happy. For example, small breaks wherein employee can de-stress.  Owners shouldn’t focus on merely making money, but try to keep employees happy.     —Harish Shetty, psychologist

Negative sentiments affect ambience
I agree with the survey, if a colleague or team member is in a grumpy mood then it definitely affects others too. I have experienced it. Once a colleague was yelling at a client and that affected my mood and I couldn’t work properly. Other than professional problems, personal issues can also work as spoilers. Apart from focusing on infrastructure, company managements should have policies which make working environment more humane. For instance, some companies don’t allow personal calls or have banned social networking sites as well as personal emails. This is not correct, one needs to perk them up if they are feeling low.    
—Shaili Jani, account manager

Need transparent grievance cells
If a person, with a fresh frame of mind, enters office and is greeted by sulking colleagues then it is obvious that his or her mood is bound to be affected. I have a laidback attitude and I don’t allow a colleague’s foul mood affect me or my work. It also depends on the support system one has at a workplace because if friends are happy then it doesn’t matter if others aren’t. In India, very few people have the courage to go and share their problems with their superiors openly and this sometimes affects their work. We need grievance cells where employees can share problems without worrying about what others will feel.   
—Bhavana Shukla, senior account executive

Deal with issues professionally
If people around you are whining, these negative sentiments will spread and others are bound to be influenced by it. But this is a common thing and needn’t affect anyone’s performance. While working in a MNC, BPO or any corporate office, where there are a lot of people, there are bound to be differences among people. How each individual tackles this is important. Whatever situation arises, everything at workplace should be handled professionally. One should avoid spoiling relationships with colleagues, as the working ambience should be pleasant.  
                 —Nirav Savla,  marketing executive

Handling subordinates can be tricky 
I prefer to work and function in a cordial environment. Petulance is one of the biggest workplace irritant and so it’s best that one avoids any kind of crabby or irritable nature. This is because any kind of negative vibes will spread and affect work in turn. It’s important that people are friendly and don’t have ego hassles. A good working environment is the most motivating thing for any employee. I think light music sometimes lightens the work environment. I get peeved when my subordinates don’t follow instructions properly and want to have their own way while taking some important decisions. But I still share a good relationship with them.  
—Manish Bora, manager

Team building means healthy workplace
According to science, a human being is a social animal and what happens around him will affect the individual. At times, I get tired of irritated colleagues since it affects my productivity. Bearing grudges, sarcasm, communication gap between colleagues, discussing personal problems at workplace are few things that lead to bad atmosphere in the office. Corporate firms should be fair and must judge the situation not the person. They must promote team building activities, if they want a healthy workplace. One shouldn't forget that everyone is working towards the same goal which is the progress and growth of the company.    —Delzeen Watcha, marketing manager