Hints and tips: Dealing with awkward people–Tip 3

A pair of psychologists called Alan A. Cavaiola, PhD, and Neil J. Lavender, PhD surveyed more than 1,100 employees and captured their thoughts in a book called “Toxic Co-workers: How to Deal with Dysfunctional People on the Job”.  This is the third in a series of short blogs with  tips based on their work.

3.  Check your expectations:  Cavaiola, who teaches psychology at Monmouth University in New Jersey, says it’s also not uncommon for people to have unrealistic expectations about co-workers. We may expect them to act just as we would or say what we might have said but this simply isn’t realistic…it isn’t even desirable.  We all bring our own strengths and weaknesses to work and every situation we enter and we deploy those differently.  If it results in what we perceive as a ‘win’ then we don’t complain, but if the reverse is true, there can be a problem.  So, check whether your expectations are reasonable before deciding to confront anyone.  Were they properly briefed?  Have they been appropriately trained?  We can only start our journey from the place we are now…

The rest of this series:

1. Tip 1
2. Tip 2

This entry was posted on Monday, February 2nd, 2015 at 08:00 and is filed under Hints, Tips & Techniques. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.