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Co-Worker
from Hell
by Dr. Lynne
Curry
We’ve all
worked alongside the co-worker from hell – the office star so
anxious to score she steals others’ victories; the snake in the
grass who’s out for himself and sabotages others; the shirker so
adept at dodging work that everyone else ends up overloaded. Some
days these co-workers get under our skin and on bad days they push
us into acting in ways we hate.
Although you can’t
eliminate problem individuals from your work life, you can choose
how much of your day they ruin. If you believe that things won’t
get better until your co-worker from hell makes a change, you
resign yourself to a waiting game in which your co-worker retains
partial control over your work life. If, however, you decide you
can improve the situation regardless of your co-worker’s
behavior, you take back control over your work life.
To get "out
of hell," start by identifying how you’re reacting and
contrast that with how you want to react and what you want to
accomplish. Once you decide on a goal for both yourself and the
situation, you can strategize a new, more effective game plan.
Let’s say, for
example, you work alongside an office snake who tries to make
himself look better to your boss and others by making you look
worse. Most office snakes succeed because the employee under
attack doesn’t want to sink to the snake’s level and others
can’t quite believe that the snake could operate with so little
integrity. As a result, the snake successfully poisons his target
and the rest of us spend valuable energy trying to figure out what
just happened.
If you sense a
snake in the office grass taking aim at you, step up the frequency
and quality of your upward communication to your boss. You become
a more daunting target, thus less vulnerable to attack when you
become more visible through upward communication. As a secondary
gain, by countering the snake with preventative action, you often
enhance your relationship with your boss.
If the office
star makes you sizzle, realize her star trip needn’t destroy
your own chance to excel. Focus on your own goals and duties and
decide what you need to do to earn an "A" in your own
mind and your supervisor’s view. Also, realize that while your
local office star may turn many off by overzealously claiming
credit, she offers a good reminder to you that you don’t always
get ahead by working hard alone. In short, turn your irritation
into inspiration by learning to let others know what you can do
and have done.
If you work next
to a shirker who pretends to be busy while her work migrates to
your desk, place the migration on display. When you first meet
with your office shirker about an upcoming project ask, "What
do you intend to be your part of this shared responsibility?"
If the shirker offers to take a lion’s share and later reneges,
respond, "I can take over this portion that you’d offered
to do, I just need to check with my supervisor about shifting my
other priorities."
Because peer
pressure often proves more effective than supervisor action with
work shirkers, if your co-worker evades work by claiming a phony
overload, let him know you see through the smoke screen by
innocuously asking, "I’m curious, what it is you work on
all day?" If, however, this fails, enlist your supervisor’s
support. By asking your boss, "I’m wondering, ‘Robert’
and I seem to be picking up a lot of ‘Paul’s’ work. If you
could clarify each of our chief responsibilities, it would help a
lot," you signal that a problem he needs to deal with lurks
below his normal radar screen.
In short, if you
currently work with a co-worker from hell who pushes you to act in
ways you don’t want to, don’t. Even when your co-worker
creates the problem, you can create the solution.
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