Every office has them
Some people you work with are a pleasure to be around. You are happy to see them, and glad to help them accomplish their work. Others, know exactly what buttons to push so that you get mad as hell. Its like they wake up in the morning with the sole purpose of getting through the day by doing the least amount of work and pissing the most people off.
So what are you going to do about it?
You will have to forgive me if I have exaggerated the description of your difficult situation. However, there are many of us who have had to deal with people like I just described. The question is; How do you deal with difficult co-workers? Do you just ignore them? Do you fight back? Which strategy is the best for dealing with people you have to work with but you really wish never existed?Having worked as a project manager and somewhat of a pragmatist, I like models. I like structured ways of dealing with messy problems. PMI (Project Management Institute) teaches that you should confront people on projects when they are not contributing to, or are impeding project results. I actually believe that the model PMI espouses for risk management fits nicely when dealing with an obnoxious jerk in the work place. There are 4 things you can do with risk as a project manager.
- Mitigate
- Avoid
- Transfer
- Accept
Mitigate - You could address the co-worker directly each time an instance occured in an attempt educate the team member about their behavior. In effect, you would be working to reduce, over time, the frequency with which this person behaved this way. There are many strategies that you could apply to try to achieve this.
Avoid - This is pretty self-explanatory. They stay on one side of the office and you stay on the other. You don't interact with them unless it is absolutely necessary, and when you do, you keep it to an absolute minimum. This also includes quitting your job. While not the best alternative in a down economy, it is an alternative. Maybe there is something better for you out there anyways. (See Knowling when to quit your job) This may be especially useful if the difficult co-worker is your boss. (See How to deal with a bad boss)
Transfer - I like this one. :-) Find someone else to deal with their crap. This works best if the bad apple works for someone else that is your peer. Then you can just keep asking the manager to handle your interactions with the office jerk. Alternatively, you can find another way of isolating him/her so that other people who get along with him are the ones who interact with him.
Accept - While this is my least favorite, it is a viable strategy. You could just suck it up and deal with it. You can change the way you think about this person and this situation and not let it get to you. After all, you are an adult with a focus on the future. You can get past a workplace fool. This article does not get into the why behind the issues. It merely presents some tactical ways of thinking about the situation. Understanding why the person is doing what they are doing may help you get past it.
Final thoughts
This is just a basic take on how risk management strategies can be applied to dealing with workplace idiots. You may have some other ideas (non-violent please) that you have used in the past to get through the day in the midst of difficult people. Please reply and let me know how you handle the fools in your work life.
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