To think that the word negative is a pain in the arse.

[Royalsighness]

A lot of people use the word "negative" as a passive aggressive way to put others down for disagreeing with them?

I work in an office where this word is banded around all the time, it's basically a short way of calling someone shitty without having a specific reason. Has anyone else been on the receiving end of this sort of thing?

It very much depends on the context - if you use it about someone who disagrees with you but can't or won't explain why or come up with a better solution, then I think it is a useful way to sum up their attitude. If you use it about someone who has a different working style to you and gets the job done in their own way, but it's not the way you would do it, then it's annoying.

Yes I have. By my boss this very week in fact. He sees any form of questioning as being 'negative', even when just asking why certain bonkers decisions are made without consulting the people they affect. But he's very much a 'do as your told, I'm your boss' sort of guy.

I don't know, it is possible to be a negative person which is fine (I am one), but I can see how its draining for others so pointing it out can sometimes be necessary. As with poster above context is very important.

Context is all. I have certainly used it of a colleague who continually responded to suggestions, proposed changes and plans etc with an immediate stream of the potential problems he saw with each, but never came up with better proposals himself. He genuinely thought he was being helpful, but yes, 'negative' was an accurate description.