Learning how to manage conflicts can help you maintain a more harmonious work environment. Posted July 27th, 2010. They gossip about their coworkers, their managers, and their company's prospects for success. Approach the coworker as a friend. Sometimes getting to know your challenging coworker's perspective can make it easier to get along with them. The information on this site is provided as a courtesy. Casual conversations with uplifting people throughout the day can make you feel happier at work. How to Get Along With Difficult Coworkers Extend an Olive Branch to Difficult Coworkers. When limiting your interactions, make it subtle in order to be mindful of their feelings. If you answer yes to these questions, then the chances are that you’re one of 54 million Americans who have been targeted by a bully at work. Remember you are all there for the same goal. Almost everyone has to work with a challenging coworker at some point in their career. These alliances are also crucial for dealing with difficult or destructive coworker behavior in the workplace. Why they’re asking: You’re going to come across people who are difficult in every office (ever). Employers need to know whether you can get along well with others. This may especially be helpful in communicating with hostile female coworkers. While thinking about this coworker, think about the way you act toward them. We all have at least one: the coworker, client, or boss you just can’t stand. Avoid answers like: "I don't usually have disagreements with coworkers because it's my way or the highway. Common interview question: “Tell me about a time when you worked with a difficult person.” or “Tell me about a time you worked with someone challenging”. If … Focus directing your energy and passion toward things that really matter. But, in the event that a coworker is a difficult person, you'll need additional skills in your interpersonal skills arsenal. By using The Balance Careers, you accept our. Follow these 12 steps to handle a difficult coworker: If your coworker is making it difficult for you to feel comfortable at work, it may be time to confront the situation. How to Answer Job Interview Questions About Working With Difficult Team Members. If you want to attain some happiness at work, you must address these issues. Sometimes being self-deprecating can make things easier. Effective relationships, with the boss and coworkers, create success and satisfaction on the job. Bosses can make or break an employee's day. Tips for getting along with difficult coworkers 1. You can obliterate destructive gossip from your workplace. As you learn how to work around their quirks or difficult behaviors, you can focus more on your own work and coworkers you enjoy. Use the same tone you would use to raise any other work-related problem. The point is you need to get across that you took initiative to find a solution. When sharing how they make you feel, use "I" language so they better understand your perspective. It's best to deal with these kinds of conflicts in private rather than bringing other coworkers into it. Learn how to deal with coworkers who micromanage, obsess, pester and generally create more work for everyone involved so that you can accomplish more and stress less. Perhaps you and another employee strongly disagree about how to tackle an... Keep it Professional. When people realize they aren’t being listened to, they give up. Getting along with this person is an important part of developing your conflict resolution skills and learning to overcome adversity. In every workplace, you will have difficult coworkers. When you spend so much time with the same people, you are bound to experience some form of conflict, which can often make accomplishing your daily tasks more difficult and even inhibit career growth. Have you encountered any of these examples of needing to deal with difficult people at work? Be Kind. They frequently take a partially true fact and blow it all out of proportion to its importance or intended meaning. The interviewer wants to know if you're a team player and capable of resolving minor issues that may arise. Related: Interview Question: "How Would Your Coworkers Describe You?" Be The Better Person If you find that a co-worker is always breaking bad on other employees and has a proclivity for office politics and gossip, try to distance yourself from that person. Using "you" language may make it difficult for them to accept responsibility for their actions. 10 Tips for Dealing With Difficult People at Work, Tetra Images/Brand X Pictures/Getty Images, Christopher Robbins/Digital Vision/Getty Images, ONOKY - Eric Herchaft/Brand X Pictures/Getty Images, 10 Tips for Building Relationships With Your Coworkers, How to Deal With a Bully in the Workplace, Dealing With Difficult People Is a Must for Your Career Success, Use These Ideas to Know How to Deal With Your Difficult Boss, Surprising Examples of Lapses in Workplace Ethics, Take 5 Steps to Successful Conflict Resolution in the Workplace, How to Answer Interview Questions About Getting Angry, How to Assess a Potential Employee's Conflict Resolution Skills, The Respectful Way to Confront a Problematic Employee, How to Know If You Have a Hostile Work Environment, The Best Ways to Deal With Your Annoying Coworkers, Your Top 10 Tough, and Common, Human Resources Questions and Problems, Progressive Discipline in the Workplace and How It Works, improve your own work environment and morale, Overcome Your Fear of Confrontation and Conflict, better and more comfortable with the necessary conflict, need professional feedback provided professionally, Tackle Annoying Employee Habits and Issues. Try to show this person that you want to work with them, not against them. Dealing with difficult coworkers, bosses, customers, clients, and friends is a skill worth perfecting. That's where gender neutral attire comes in. Difficult people are found in every single workplace. First, you objectively state what happened that resulted in the difficult situation with the person. We’ve all dealt with coworkers who are obscenely competitive about anything and everything. The moment you choose sides in any kind of office incident is the moment you lose your ability to get along with some portion of the people you work with. Dealing with difficult situations at work is challenging, yet rewarding. If your coworker is making it difficult for you to feel comfortable at work, it may be... 2. Limiting the amount of time you spend with this coworker can help you cope with the situation. At lunch or during meetings, stay by coworkers who you find kind and uplifting. 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