You do not need to join a cult to be influenced by the people around you.
You just need a recurring meeting.
One of the more inconvenient truths about work is that energy travels. Not in the crystals-and-incense sense. In the very practical, deeply annoying sense that the person who sighs through every call, rolls their eyes on camera, or treats every ask like a personal betrayal can start bending the room around them.
And no, this is not only about the office. You’re “real life” will reveal this as well…
Some people bring a steadying presence. Others walk in and the room pressure drops fast enough to make your ears pop.
Research from Kellogg, drawing on work by Dylan Minor and Michael Housman, found that proximity matters more than many leaders would like to admit. Strong performers can lift the people around them, yet the drag from negative or toxic behavior can hit harder and spread faster.
That should give all of us pause.
Because workplace CLIMATE is not shaped only by strategy decks, values language, or the one motivational sentence living rent-free on the wall of the conference room. It is also shaped by the people we sit near, dial into, report to, and brace ourselves for.
Which means protecting your own effectiveness is not selfish. It is professional.
If the vibe around you is chronically grim, slippery, performative, or just plain corrosive, your response cannot be limited to silent suffering with better posture. You need deliberate counterweight. This is where you pull out your SNAKS:
-Lean on the SKILLS that keep you steady.
-Ask your NETWORK to help pull you out of the mire; those who leave you feeling clearer.
-Choose ACTIVITIES that interrupt the spiral before it becomes your personality.
-Keep building your KNOWLEDGE so someone else’s negative energy does not get mistaken for truth.
That, as my mechanic dad would have said, is “maintenance.”
I’m curious: have you ever worked near someone, in person or remotely, whose energy changed your performance for better or worse?
