How To Deal With Difficult People At Work

As one of the most evolved species in the evolution chain, we humans have a knack for understanding individual traits with precision. While it is often easy enough to distinguish from one another in most aspects of our lives, it can be challenging to do so on the professional front. There are several types of people who you encounter on a regular basis at work, making it hard to distinguish one feature from another. If you still aren’t able to figure out individual characteristics to be aware of, then this list might just help you!

1. The Narcissists 

You know the kind of people whose words start with I and end with Me? Yeah, you know who I mean. The people who really don’t do a lot, but get noticed anyway because of the way always go on about themselves? These people fall into the bracket called the narcissist. Unfortunately, because the rest of the workforce doesn’t know how to deal with them, they are pushed into leadership roles. How do you deal with them, then? By beating them at their own game of course!

2. The passive aggressive people 

Passive aggressiveness is a form of anger, but not an outright form. You may be tempted to try and get to the bottom of what’s making them angry and try to resolve the problem. But from personal experience, do not go there! They will promise to help you with a project but then they don’t. Or they’ll show up 15 minutes late. They always drive everyone crazy at the end of the day and you’re left wondering what you could have done differently. If you just have to work with them, then try turning your aggression up a notch. Always gets them in the wrong places and the output of your work is usually perfect!

3. The guilt trippers

Guilt trippers lay on the emotions way too strong. Its like you know you were guilty, but when they start telling you what they think, you’ve lost the game altogether. If you’re working with a colleague who’s like this, then the best way to deal with them is to divide your work equally. This helps in creating balance and ensuring the blame game isn’t possible! You win. They win. The project wins!

4. The Whiner 

You know how you have worked really hard on a project and deserved recognition for the amount of effort you put into the task? Yes. That seems fair. However, there’s always this other person’s voice in the background (no. Not your subconscious,) which keeps cribbing about how they would have been perfect with this project but just weren’t given the chance to prove themselves? These are the whiners. They will cry. They will crib. They will make life hell for you and your team because they just couldn’t speak up. So the next time you hear a whiner crying, give them a harder task and make it an ultimatum of sorts! Pressure really does help!

If you are working with people like this, then make sure your boundaries are just yours and that you have made your 9 to 5 hours comfortable! If you have other kinds of people you deal with, then please comment and let us know!