Complain Up

I once heard Dave Ramsey (money guru and a great communicator) talk about complaining up. The idea was that at your job there are going to be times when you feel like complaining. Instead of complaining to someone who can't do anything about it complain to someone who can. For example it doesn't solve your problem to complain to the secretary or a fellow employee. Instead complain up to your boss or someone who can do something about the problem.

The problem with complaining to the wrong people is that it leaves us feeling better but we've dumped our problem on someone else. It ends up spreading the negativity because no action is being taken to make the situation better. Instead of being selfish and dumping your complaint down on someone else complain to the right person in order to try to solve the problem.