No Sniveling

Complaining not only ruins everybody else’s day, it ruins the complainer’s day, too. The more we complain, the more unhappy we get. ~Dennis Prager

For years when I was teaching, I had a brass plaque on the wall that said, “No Sniveling.” Sometimes, new kids had to ask what ‘sniveling’ was, which always triggered a lesson on how to use a dictionary (never miss a ‘teaching moment.’ Nooooooo). It wasn’t very long before my students learned that I meant it. There was NO SNIVELING in my classroom.

In the adult world, we can’t always banish a whining peer to the far side of the room or consign them to a seat in the hallway. We have to get creative – and assertive – to deal with those people in our lives who only ever have negative things to say. Complainers are such a pain.

Turns out, studies appear to link complaining and death. After 30 minutes of listening to someone complain, the neurons in the hippocampus begin to die. Yes. You read that right. Listening to complaining and whining kills brain cells. I don’t know about you, but I’m not sure I have any synapses to spare. I can’t remember the password for my voicemail. What kind of trouble will I be in if I let some whiny co-worker go on so long my brain starts dying?