Dental Bun Podcast
Embrace the sassy, classy and messy bits of dentistry with the perfect blend of life and work wisdom.
Dental Bun Podcast
Workplace Vampires
Ever felt like your workplace is a haunted house, teeming with energy vampires lurking around every corner, waiting to drain your spirit? Join me on the Dental Bun Podcast as I recount my own eerie encounters with those negativity-driven coworkers who thrive on gossip and emotional chaos. Through candid storytelling, I unravel the profound impact these energy vampires can have on our mental and physical health. We will explore effective strategies for setting boundaries and reclaiming your personal space, transforming the workplace from a horror show into a haven of positivity and well-being.
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Welcome to the Dental Bun Podcast. My name is Janice and today we are talking about vampires. We are definitely heading into the spooky season and the vampires live among us. They are living next to you, in your operatory, or maybe they're your boss. So today's episode we are talking about vampire energy suckers, those co-workers that sss the life out of you with their negativity. And so grab a hair tie, grab a drink. We are about to begin how we can navigate our workday and survive the energy vampires that live among us. So in this episode we are going to identify those energy-sucking coworkers. We're going to discuss the impact that they have on our mental and physical health and offer actionable steps to protect yourself from the dream. All right, so let's dig in Like dig in.
Speaker 1:Well, when we talk about those vampires, we have to identify them, because sometimes they creep up on you and you don't even realize it. They are the ones that are a little bit of the negative, nancy. They stir the pot when there's negativity going on. They run those gossip mills that are so juicy, you just kind of want to get in there. And then, of course, you have the ones that are outwardly rude, being unkind with their words and, of course, causing emotional stress just on everybody. Those people in our office thrive off hate, they thrive off sadness and they live in this world of negativity. You're trying to have a positive look on your life and this person is just a Debbie Downer. Everything bothers them. They mentally drain you because they're in this dark place, and then, of course, they're taking up your time. They're wasting your time. You're trying to get things done and here they are bitching and complaining about whatever it is that is going on in their life, sometimes valid, however, because they live in that dark space. It just happens too frequently and this is where we have to put some armor on and protect ourselves. So the health impact of this vampire that lives in your space is detrimental to your health. They increase your stress at work. When you have increased stress, you don't feel good, you don't want to work, and then, of course, the wanting to be at work just goes down.
Speaker 1:Separating yourself from those energy vampires is necessary. They on their own have to deal with their emotions. If you want to take that on, go for it, but I do not recommend it. They need to sift through all of that to get into a place of positivity. Sift through all of that to get into a place of positivity. Your job is to get into your own space and make sure that you're nice and healthy and you can kind of deflect that negative emotion and allow yourself to live in a healthy space at work. When they're draining you like that, it can lead to mental fatigue and burnout, lack of motivation all of these things that we all are experiencing just in our dental world alone. We don't even need the vampire sucker to experience that. They just intensify it. We have our own lives that we're worrying about that. We don't need that crap from them.
Speaker 1:I worked with a hygienist and it was the worst experience of my life. She came in with negativity and self-pity every day and when she got into that mood she would start slamming things. She was like a freaking elephant next door and my BP would just go up because I'm like we just got here, how can you even be mad? And at the time I didn't realize that I needed to just ignore her. I needed to set those boundaries. I didn't need to feed in to that. But almost every day that she came into work there was something wrong. I'm just like, oh my God, like what is going on. I just want to work. I don't need to hear all of this. I've got all my own shit going on. I don't need that. I worked with her for years. I still have stress when I think about things with her because that is how much she affected my workspace.
Speaker 1:She sunk her teeth into the negativity that it didn't matter who it was or what it was that she was bothered with. That was going to be the focus of the entire day. She would not let it go. The tipping point for me where I was like, oh my gosh, I just I have to put up these boundaries. I walked her out to her car and she was upset that day for things that happened in the office. Her eyes were watering. And then she says I'm so upset and now I have to go home and be a bitch to my family and I'm like my God, like seriously, like you're seriously going to take this home and continue to that stir and those emotions. And right then and there I was like there is no helping her feel better. I need to protect myself because she needs to do some self-work and her poor family? They don't even know what's happening. They're probably very excited to see her and now she's going home and being a jerk face there too.
Speaker 1:It's so sad that when I look back at that the amount of power these people can have in the workspace and how many people they can affect when you let them permeate into the office like that it is truly a cancer that sometimes your leaders do have to get in there and fix. And sometimes those people are such dominant personalities that if you have a strong leader that's going to get in there and do some work with them, then you're screwed basically. I mean you just are because no one is going to have the courage to go in there and redirect them. So for you, if you work in an office like that, you have to protect yourself. You really really have to protect yourself.
Speaker 1:What are the long-term solutions for working with someone like her? If you have that vampire coworker, that's just miserable all the time. What can we do to help ourselves? You want to set those boundaries. You want to create a plan where you can communicate with them, either directly and go hey, I'm not talking with you about that today, I'm just not or, if you're not very confrontational person, you know that that day, if they're in that place, that you're just not going to interact with them. You're going to focus on your patient place that you're just not going to interact with them. You're going to focus on your patient. You're going to maybe focus on other people in the office and divert energy elsewhere so that she or he doesn't have that energy bucket to suck out of.
Speaker 1:The second thing is, if you want to practice it's called emotional shielding Seek refuge with your other coworkers. They're the ones that are experiencing this with you. You do have to lean on your other coworkers to help divert things to where you guys don't get stuck in that situation where the negativity starts happening and then hopefully, at some point, this person is no longer part of your team. Yeah, another thing is deflecting with humor. I used to imagine her like next door because she's slamming and shutting things. It was so loud and I just would think she's an elephant over there just freaking, banging around and it would just crack me up because I'm hearing everything and I'm just like this is just like a wild animal next door. I also learned control my time and my environment because the more she tried to pull me over there, the more that was time away from what I was doing and of course, that creates me to be late with my patients, or whatever it may be. I just needed to stay in my little box. I also had to figure out how to recharge after my day.
Speaker 1:The stress that you're experiencing every day, even though you're the one who's not coming to the table with the negative emotions, you're just kind of hearing it over and over and over that's stressful. You are still releasing that cortisol through your body which is damaging to your health and for that reason, when you leave your office, you do have to figure out how to power back up from that. You can start when you get in your car. You can take some breaths, put on the radio, on a channel that you enjoy listening to, and then, as you drive home, start to decompress, start to get into that good head space, start to look at the rest of your day in a positive fashion so that you can get yourself out of that funk.
Speaker 1:Long-term strategies for us is very hard If this person continues to work in our workspace. You need to look at how we can increase those happy hormones in our life the dopamine, the serotonin, the oxytocin, finding time for yourself within the day, separating yourself from the madness, taking a walk at lunch and then, of course, getting some downtime, even if it's just a couple of minutes in your car before you get home, are all going to help you just recharge. So if you're listening to me driving on your way to work and there is a vampire waiting for you, I do hope you utilize these actionable steps of putting those boundaries up, leaning on your co-workers, putting a little laughter in your day and then, of course, working on keeping yourself healthy with exercise and joyous activities. Thanks for joining me today on the Gentle Bun Podcast. I hope you have a wonderful day at work.