Whether it’s a new job or a new colleague to your workplace, there’s always bound to be at least one co-worker that just doesn’t gel with you. Whether it’s their annoying eating habits or their relentless enthusiasm for a subject you really don’t care about, it’s important in these situations to act professionally for the benefit of not only yourself, but also for your career and how others perceive you. Whilst challenging colleagues make the working day harder to get through, they don’t always have to present themselves as an obstacle to your sanity, just follow these top tips to make sure that your time at work isn’t spent predominantly being disgruntled by others:
Don’t Ignore Them
As tempting as it is, once you’ve established that you two are just not going to get on whatsoever, that’s still no reason for you to completely ignore them on a day to day basis. Greet them as you would greet any other worker in the morning, as you don’t want to make it obvious to other colleagues that you have a problem with them for the sake of workplace morale. You may struggle at times, but remaining friendly and positive towards them is essential. This is because colleagues and employers will notice your spat with a co-worker if you make it obvious, which ultimately will look negative when it comes to evaluating your abilities and skills as worker and team player. Whilst it may seem tough, ultimately you’ll learn a lot more about the following subject…
Remain Diplomatic
The main skill you’ll need when working with others isn’t Microsoft Outlook or a fancy degree, it’s diplomacy. Diplomacy will help you get along with every type of worker possible as it encourages workers to keep calm and consider the opinions of others, instead of caving in to bitchiness and ferocity when dealing with a colleague that you don’t like. By remaining diplomatic, this will decrease the likelihood of your actions or opinions coming across as harsh or stubborn with co-workers you dislike. Simple acts of diplomacy include sticking to neutral topics of conversation with co-workers you know have strong opinions or keeping quiet when they say something that irritates you. Patience is a virtue when it comes to dealing with challenging co-workers, so by remaining diplomatic this will make life so much easier.
See Them In A Different Light
Everybody’s different, and if they weren’t the world would be a terribly boring place. Appreciate the diversity of your workplace and treat exasperating colleagues as a learning curve, where you’ll pick up skills on tolerance and patience. Consider what it must be like to be in their shoes, not only to feel better about yourself because you’re not as annoying, but also to question whether there’s a reason why they act the way they do. Maybe they have a larger workload and are therefore under a significant amount of stress to get it done, or perhaps they have some personal problems at home. A lot of people feel they are not themselves when they are in the workplace, so you may find on corporate fun days or any indoor team building activities organised by your company that actually your annoying colleague isn’t all that bad. They may come out of their irritating shell through using ice breaker activities or seasonal nights out, so try not to remain fixed in your judgements and instead ask your employer if you could arrange more of these activities throughout the year.