Deal with genuinely negative people by spending as little time with them as possible. Just as you set limits with the co-workers whose negativity you believe is baseless or unwarranted, you need to set limits with genuinely negative people.

Causes of their long term negativity are not your concern. Every negative construction executive has a story. Don’t impact your positive outlook by listening to the stories, or reviewing the history and the background about the grievances purported to cause the negativity. You reinforce the negativity; negativity is a choice. Negativity mongers need a new job, a new construction employer, a new construction career, a new outlook, or counseling. They don’t need you.