My strategy for dealing with whiners, or as we Aussies call it, "whingers" (g = j sound, not hard g, and not "ing" sound) is to listen to what they are complaining about and then ask, "Yes, but what are you going to do about it?" After each bit of whingeing when they pause for breath, just repeat the question.

Whingers tend to want something to whinge about so fixing a problem would often give them nothing to whinge about, OR they tend to perceive situations in the way that people watch scripted tv shows, like daytime soaps. They sit back and watch situations they are in as if they can not make a difference to the people or outcomes around them and ask questions like "Why are they doing that?" or "Why don't they do this?" which shows their own sense of lack of control or influence.

By asking what the whinger is going to do about a situation I put the onus back on them to take some control of the situation or to take some productive action.

It usually shuts them up after a while or pushes them into a more proactive way of looking at the situation.

Good luck!

Helen