The Cranky at Work

“If someone at work is snotty or glum or flippant, I find it affects my ability to concentrate on what I’m doing,” says Susan Lenser, of Los Angeles, a former TV reporter who now works as a temp in an office with 40 employees. “I wonder, ‘Are they angry at me?’

“I make a point of being in a good mood. I leave my problems at the door.”

“When I’m cranky, it brings down everyone I work with,” says Eleanor Zeddies, a supervisor at a Burbank coffee shop. “The other day I was in a cranky mood, and my co-worker at one point said he didn’t want to talk to me. If my workers are in a bad mood, I try to talk them up, joke around. Or I’ll let them go do dishes and work off steam without having to wait on customers.”

“During busy times, people tend to get in a bad mood,” says Steve Miller, who works at the same coffee shop. “I know from someone’s body language what kind of mood they are in.”

And what if the boss comes in in a bad mood? “I get him something to eat,” says Astor Gonzalez, who staffs an information desk and tends to security in a Burbank high-rise office building.