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8 negative thinking patterns in the workplace—did you ever fall into one of them?

Anson


Negative thinking patterns, or more professionally speaking, cognitive distortions, are one of the main causes of unhappy feelings in the workplace. 


The psychological definition of a cognitive distortion is as follows:


“a thought that causes a person to perceive reality inaccurately due to being exaggerated or irrational.” 


These distortions often occur unconsciously, and many default to them without even realising it for a long period of time. In this article, we would list and explain each one of them, such that you can remind yourself of the possibility that you might have fallen into one of these inaccurate perceptions of reality the next time you feel down and upset at work. 


  1. Overgeneralization 


Overgeneralization is the case of applying the disastrous conclusion of one incident over over everything else. For example, let's say you attended a job interview and was not selected. If you jump to the conclusion that you're doomed to be unemployed forever, then this is overgeneralization. This incorrect perception can lead to you feeling very bad for days for a conclusion that is not even accurate. 


  1. All or nothing 


This refers to viewing results as either black or white ; 0% or 100%. No middle ground exists for this type of thinking. In work,  this usually results in a person magnifying some small mistakes (e.g. 2%) he/she has made in a project and totally disregarding any success (e.g. 98%) he/she may have achieved in the process. This results in unfair mental torture for the person as he/she is experiencing negativity that could be avoided if the incident was viewed from another angle. A minor setback in a project could result in disproportionate sadness for the person. This can lead to even more setbacks in the future as the person's performance is affected by the negativity. It is therefore important to be aware of this distortion and remind oneself to not think this way in the face of setbacks. 



  1. Mental Filters 


This involves filtering out all the good things that happened and solely focusing on the bad. It differs from the all or nothing mindset in the perspective that it applies to interpersonal relationships as well. In the workplace, it can cause a person to possess feelings of negativity towards his/her colleagues due to the sole focus on negative or hurtful things they did. Helpful incidents would be filtered by this mindset. In the long run, these feelings of negativity would be projected onto others, affecting the work environment and team spirit. 


  1. Discounting the Positive 


While sounding similar to the previous distortion, this one differs in the prospect that it actively rejects good things rather than simply ignoring them. For example, a commonly seen workplace phenomenon would be to refer one's achievements to good luck rather than actual skill. This causes similar negative consequences to the “all or nothing” distortion ; unfair negativity would be generated in oneself. It is important to find what factors apart from luck contributed to a successful outcome; even those that may not be at first sight apparent. Appreciating one's own strengths or skills is very important for building up one's self confidence. 


  1. Jumping to conclusions 


This refers to making emotional-based predictions that may not be true. These predictions can further be classified into two types. 


The first type is known as mind reading. This is when you assume certain things or thoughts about others that are not true. A person who sees his/her colleagues talking with hushed voices and presuming that they must be badmouthing him/her is a typical example of this scenario, when in reality they might simply be discussing something else. This would again lead to incorrect and unfair perceptions of work colleagues and affect interpersonal work relationships negatively. 


The second type is Fortune telling. This involves making false predictions about the unfolding of future events, often as a self-made excuse to try avoid doing something unpleasant. For example, if a person states he/she would not study for an exam that is scheduled for 2 months later because he/she “doesn't possess the innate ability to pass no matter how hard he tries” then he/she is fortune telling. Beliefs like these would hinder a person's progress in work severely as he/she would hide behind them to avoid taking on any challenging tasks. 


  1. “Should” Statements 


These are distortion thoughts of setting things that you “should” or “must” do. However, as what we set may not be always realistically achievable, the possible consistent failure to complete these tasks may leave us feeling depressed, guilty or worried. It also severely suppresses self esteem as these failures give the feeling that you are constantly failing every day (as you aren't able to complete the “should” task every day. )

For example, a person coming with a thought that he/she “should” be able to get 100 marks in an exam and failing to do so everytime is a demonstration of this scenario. 


  1. Labelling


This involves making untrue judgements about yourself or others’ personalities based on minor or even completely unrelated characteristics. An example is a person stating another person B must have a “playboy personality” because he “dyes his hair gold”. Such labelling leads to vastly inaccurate judgements towards others. This distortion can be resolved by looking for evidence that counters negative judgements towards others every time they appear. Only after careful thought and consideration with a calm mind should we continue holding such views.  


  1. Personalization and Blame


 This is to blame yourself (and solely yourself) for a negative situation or result that occured. 

In reality, we all understand that there is no single factor for a bad result. Taking the blame solely on yourself is unfair and, like previous distortions, cause additional negativity. A common example of this in the workplace is a manager thinking he/she is unfit to become a leader because the project he/she directed was unsuccessful, instead of trying to find out the 

root causes of the problem. We should thus remain calm in cases of failure and try to analyse the problem with a logistic approach instead to avoid this distortion. 


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