How to handle THAT Coworker

As you grow in your professional (and personal) life you are bound to come across people who you just don’t mesh with. Sometimes there is no particular reason or no event that transpired to trigger this feeling. The key in these situations is how you react to this person. Here are some tips on handling THAT coworker:

Strictly Stick to Just Business Talk: If it doesn‘t pertain to a current situation at work do not engage in any o-TOXIC-COWORKER-facebookother conversations with this person. If they engage you in a non-work-related conversation, be polite and keep your responses brief; do not keep the conversation going. The more you engage with this person the more they will continue to engage with you. For example, if they ask you “How was your weekend?”, simply respond, “It was good. Thank you for asking.” In this way you haven’t been rude, but hinted that you don’t want to elaborate.

You Are Only in Charge of Your Reactions: While you can’t control other’s actions and reactions, you can control how you react! If this coworker’s action is not what you would like, know that you can change the situation by how you react to it. Rather than get angry and sending an angry e-mail in response, keep your cool and think of how you would like to respond. Sometimes no reaction at all will diffuse the situation and give you the upper hand. If the situation requires a response, always do it verbally, this way it will allow them to hear exactly what you mean and you can both answer any questions right then and there.

Find Common Ground: Understand that this person is human and so are you! It really wears you down if you don’t like someone that you spend most of your time with. Every little thing they do can annoy you. Try to find something you can connect with them on to make them seem more down to earth. After work they too go home, have a family and/or friends, feel the same commuting pains you do, etc. Try to see the more “human” side of them and capitalize on that when they get under your skin. At the end of the day we all put our pants on one leg at a time . . . so the saying goes.

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