Wouldn’t it be nice if you could get along with everyone at your place of employment? For a few idyllic workplaces, that’s par for the course. Many other workplaces, though, are chock full of the type of coworkers that grind away at your nerves.
To deal with them, you’ll need to understand them, so read ahead to learn about the types of draining personalities you’ll have to contend with while you’re on the job.
The Chronic Micromanager
There’s at least one at every workplace—the detail-obsessed coworker who tries to micromanage every action that you take. It’s their way or the highway, but their fixation on procedures is so strict that none can meet their exacting standard.
This is the type of coworker that will make you rewrite something a dozen times because they didn’t like the small word choices or something else equally trivial. Sometimes, you can deal with this type of coworker by giving them small amounts of control to placate them, but don’t give in fully because their demands will never stop.
The Bully
This type of corker seems mean for the sake of it. They like to talk loud, they enjoy getting in peoples faces and agitating them, and you wonder how they’re able to hold down a job. You’ll need to be firm with bullies and let them know that you won’t allow them to treat you any kind of way they’d like. Set boundaries, and take action if those boundaries are violated.
The Attention Seeker
You’ve usually got one person in every work group who tries to make work a competition. Instead of cooperating with the rest of the team, they’ll constantly turn everything into a contest about who has the biggest workload and is doing the most work.
Though you may want to just tell them to zip it, a better course of action is to just agree with them, encourage them to get back to work, and go on about your busy day.
Navigating Troublesome Coworkers Is Tough
It’s not easy working with aggravating coworkers, but understanding them can help you work past some of their behavior. Once you know how they operate, seeing through their schemes and outright avoiding their antics shouldn’t be as difficult.
Keep in mind that it’s not OK if you’re being bullied on the job, though, and if you’re a victim of workplace harassment you may want to turn to your managers or HR team to let them know about the situation and help get it resolved. Failing that, remember that as a last resort, you may also need to get the help of a lawyer to help deal with the situation.