Squawkers are hard to deal with. They complain just about everything and keep making others unhappy by their bellyaching. A complainer, generally, expresses dissatisfaction, pain, uneasiness, resentment, grief or does fault finding.
Have you ever thought why do people do that? Usually, this comes from the underlying fact of such people being unsatisfied with their life; sour and bitter about it, so they let out their frustration and anger. From here it starts and often times it becomes a habit. Complainers can also come from a background where they want people to acknowledge their needs and concerns. Complainers don’t really want the things changed, they just wanted to be heard and understood, most of the times.
There are certain wrong things people try to do about complainers, which obviously do not work. Most people just try to cheer them up and this is not the right thing to do as it seems like you are not taking their issue seriously. A complainer might try harder to make you feel the misery he’s experiencing. Suggesting solutions is second mistake that many people make. All the solutions are rejected and complainers put all their energies to convince that solutions won’t work. Oftentimes ready-made solutions do not work for most situations because a person might not everything that needs to be taken in account. Ignoring, complaining along with them or even against them doesn’t work.
The main areas to focus on while dealing with a complainer is to listen to them, empathize and ask them what do they want. Complainers don’t want to be ignored or argued with, they just want to be heard and acknowledged. So, use your listening and empathizing skills.Complainer often and not don’t want solution, so don’t worry that listening won’t solve the problem. Every person has a need to others to listen to him and acknowledge what issues he is facing. When you are listening they will let out their frustration and anger. You can encourage them to share more, so that the process is actually effective.
Empathy is a tool that will work. Try walking in their shoes and understand the situation. Let them know you understand their situation. It will ease them. Try using empathetic sentences like if I were going through that, I would also be experiencing similar emotions. Reword their concerns back to them; this will assure them that you are listening to them closely. They will feel assured that you are paying attention and understanding them.
Ask them what they want, how would they like it and if they want you to do anything for them in this regard. This is surely going to make them feel that you are concerned and they will walk away happy and relaxed.
Keywords: complainer, dissatisfaction, unhappy, solution, concerns.
