It is the time of year where we eat a lot of turkey and ham as well as talking about being gracious to those around us.  Thus, it seems like a good time to look at ways to handle challenging coworkers.  I have worked with all types over the years and hope that the lessons I learned can help you in these situations.  Of course, these challenging coworkers are not all bad.  Many of them make coming to work entertaining.

The Turkeys and Hams

Let’s start with the easy ones first.  These are the employees that are competent and personable; they are just not average.  This different focus may be a love of things like gardening, fanaticism about anything (including and particularly sports teams), or annoyances like loud talkers or those that share too much.

I personally find these co-workers to be a great reason to go to an office.  Yes, they may annoy you at times or even distract you from your work, but life is like that.  We watch TV shows like “The Office” that highlight these characters and help us forget about our worries.  Why not embrace these people as the spice of life that they are.  Just quietly excuse yourself when they are too “spicy” for you to be productive.  If that doesn’t work, look at your phone like it just vibrated and then mumble about a deadline or a meeting you need to attend.

The key to dealing with these co-workers is to deal with them in moderation.  Try not to get locked in an elevator with them.  In that case, you are on your own.

The Undesirables

These are the coworkers that are more than an annoyance.  They are incompetent, offensive, or downright poisonous.  In any case, they are the ones you are sure you would be better without.  Although this is often the case, I do have to warn you about judging your coworker.  Sometimes there are non-work issues that have turned a reasonable person irrational, or politics at work that are the actual problem.  These situations can be a great opportunity as you might be the person that acts like the princess and the frog.  You don’t have to kiss the person, but maybe your personality or interaction is what turns that frog of a coworker into a prince, or at least a good coworker.

Complications

Oh, that life was as simple as I have made it out to be in the prior sections.  Unfortunately, it is not.  Sometimes we have employees or managers that are that annoying coworker, or maybe we get stuck on a team with them.  They might even be tied to us in a way that we fail or succeed based on their abilities.  You do have options in these cases as well.

First, try to keep the interaction simple and focused on work.  It may be hard to ignore the things that make a coworker undesirable, but your job is not always fun either.  Productivity and success at work may be able to offset the negatives.

Another approach is to be open and honest with the coworker.  Let them know what bothers you and maybe discuss how you can be bothered less.  When you assume the burden instead of putting it on them, you are more likely to get them to help you.  They might even stop the annoying behavior altogether.  For example, I know people that seem chronically rude that turned around almost overnight and have seen bad habits disappear quickly.  It just took someone telling the coworker what the problem was.

A Perfect Job

One last thought.  If you happen to work in a job that has none of these people there, then that makes you the one.  Do not be worried about this though.  As I noted earlier, the turkeys and hams of the world give us something to talk about at work.  They give us a reason to go to work, if for no other reason than to witness what that turkey does today.