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To a certain degree, we can limit the contact we have with toxic people in our personal lives. At work, though, things can old very quickly when we have to figure out how to deal with them day in and day out.

Jessica Stillman at Inc. spoke to author Travis Bradberry, who outlined these seven suggestions on how to keep the destruction to a minimum when the poison is in the next cubicle or lurking in the break room.

1. Set limits

Combine your niceness with someone else’s love of endless complaint and you have a recipe for a whole lot of wasted time and unnecessary stress. Don’t feel bound to indulge the constant kvetcher at your company, advises Bradberry.

“People often feel pressure to listen to complainers because they don’t want to be seen as callous or rude, but there’s a fine line between lending a sympathetic ear and getting sucked into their negative emotional spiral,” he writes. “You can avoid this only by setting limits and distancing yourself when necessary. Think of it this way: if the complainer were smoking, would you sit there all afternoon inhaling the second-hand smoke?” How do you do this in practice? Just ask them how they intend to fix whatever it is they’re complaining about. That should either put the conversation on a more positive track or quiet them down.

2. Choose your battles

“Successful people know how important it is to live to fight another day, especially when your foe is a toxic individual. In conflict, unchecked emotion makes you dig your heels in and fight the kind of battle that can leave you severely damaged,” says Bradberry. “Choose your battles wisely and only stand your ground when the time is right.”

Full story at Inc.

Protecting your sanity.

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