Does your workplace have its very own Eeyore? He's that chronically crestfallen donkey who mopes around with Winnie the Pooh. In Eeyore's view, everything has gone wrong, can go wrong, or will go wrong.

Real-world pessimists would be harmless if they stuck to themselves, but they rarely do. They're team members and colleagues sharing your workspace and assignments, and their negative droning can drag down just about anyone.

In responding, don't be like Tigger, who's also a part of the Pooh posse. Tigger is the overly-caffeinated tiger who's always bouncing around trying pat solutions to life's problems. Instead, work to better understand the situation and deal with its complexities. Here are four strategies:

• Avoid the urge to dismiss the pessimist's negative outlook. It's tempting to counter with a simple, "Aw, it's not that bad" -- and to turn your attention to the positive people. This is certainly an efficient approach. But it risks alienating the pessimist and making her feel even more negative. Start a dialogue with the person so you can better understand their perspective. Keep your ears, your mind and heart wide open. A little empathy can go a long way. And it just might uncover some underlying issues that explain the gloomy outlook.
• When a pessimist starts to generalize, ask why, and gently press for specifics and solutions. Pessimist: "There's no way that plan is going to work!" You: "Why do you say that?" Pessimist: "It's unrealistic." You: "In what way?" Pessimist: "The assumptions on which it's based are completely subjective. We don't have enough hard data." You: "Which assumptions in particular?" Pessimist: "The ones about buying trends in the young-adult market over the next two years." You: "How could we get better data?" As you can see, it's a matter of asking questions to turn the generalizations in specifics -- and to get the person engaged in solving the problem.
• As ideas and action plans begin to take shape, people often get carried away with enthusiasm and they fail to see potential pitfalls that can hobble the plan as it's implemented. You can guard against this by putting the pessimist to work in the important role of "healthy skeptic." Ask for her candid feedback while things are being put on the drawing board. Ask questions like: What are we not considering as we build this plan? What could go wrong in implementation? If the responses are general, use additional questions to uncover specifics.
• When the pessimist insists that things won't work, share one or two recent success stories as evidence that it just might be possible. For instance, if the person is bemoaning the fact that a team approach will simply take too much time, share the story about the team from last year that used a "blitz" approach to complete their project in one week.

More Info: Want tips for dealing with other challenging types in your workplace? Then visit the "Difficult Dozen Help Zone." It's a free online tool from BetterWorkplaceNow.com. It takes just a minute to use, and you get a free e-mailed report full of recommendations. Go to: http://BetterWorkplaceNow.com/help