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.\u00a0 Thus, it seems like a good time to look at ways to handle challenging coworkers.\u00a0 I have worked with all types over the years and hope that the lessons I learned can help you in these situations.\u00a0 Of course, these challenging coworkers are not all bad.\u00a0 Many of them make coming to work entertaining.<\/p>\n
Let’s start with the easy ones first.\u00a0 These are the employees that are competent\u00a0and personable; they are just not average.\u00a0 This different focus may be a love of things like gardening, fanaticism about anything (including and particularly\u00a0sports teams), or annoyances like loud talkers or those that share too much.<\/p>\n
I personally find these co-workers to be a great reason to go to an office.\u00a0 Yes, they may annoy you at times or even distract you from your work, but life is like that.\u00a0 We watch TV shows like “The Office” that highlight these characters and help us forget about our worries.\u00a0 Why not embrace these people as the spice of life that they are.\u00a0 Just quietly excuse yourself w<\/span>hen they are too “spicy” for you to be productive.\u00a0 If that doesn’t work, look at your phone like it just vibrated and then\u00a0mumble about a deadline or a meeting you need to attend.<\/p>\n The key to dealing with these co-workers is to deal with them in moderation.\u00a0 Try not to get locked in an elevator with them.\u00a0 In that case, you are on your own.<\/p>\n These are the coworkers that are more than an annoyance.\u00a0 They are incompetent, offensive, or downright poisonous.\u00a0 In any case, they are the ones you are sure you would be better without.\u00a0 Although this is often the case, I do have to warn you about judging your coworker.\u00a0 Sometimes there are non-work issues that have turned a reasonable person irrational, or politics at work that are the actual problem.\u00a0 These situations can be a great opportunity as you might be the person that acts like the princess and the frog.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n Oh, that life was as simple as I have made it out to be in the prior sections.\u00a0 Unfortunately, it is not.\u00a0 Sometimes we have employees or managers that are that annoying coworker, or maybe we get stuck on a team with them.\u00a0 They might even be tied to us in a way that we fail or succeed based on their abilities.\u00a0 You do have options in these cases as well.<\/p>\n First, try to keep the interaction simple and focused on work.\u00a0 It may be hard to ignore the things that make a coworker undesirable, but your job is not always fun either.\u00a0 Productivity and success at work may be able to offset the negatives.<\/p>\n Another approach is to be open and honest with the coworker.\u00a0 Let them know what bothers you and maybe discuss how you can be bothered less.\u00a0 When you assume the burden instead of putting it on them, you are more likely to get them to help you.\u00a0 They might even stop the annoying behavior altogether.\u00a0 For example, I know people that seem chronically rude that turned around almost overnight and have seen bad habits disappear quickly.\u00a0 It just took someone telling the coworker what the problem was.<\/p>\n One last thought.\u00a0 If you happen to work in a job that has none of these people there, then that makes you the one.\u00a0 Do not be worried about this though.\u00a0 As I noted earlier, the turkeys and hams of the world give us something to talk about at work.\u00a0 They give us a reason to go to work, if for no other reason than to witness what that turkey does today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 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.\u00a0 Thus, it seems like a good time to look at ways to handle challenging coworkers.\u00a0 I have worked with all types over the years and hope that the lessons […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":343,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-consulting-strategies"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Undesirables<\/h2>\n
Complications<\/h2>\n
A Perfect Job<\/h2>\n