Hints and tips: Dealing with awkward people–Tip 6

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 sixth in a series of short blogs with  tips based on their work.

6.  Realise that you aren’t going to like everyone:  Whilst it is much nicer to like who you work with, it isn’t strictly necessary.  We also have a deep seated need to be liked and if we feel that somehow they don’t like us, then we either tend to work too hard to change this or turn aggressive towards them as we feel slighted.  Often these kind of judgements are projections and not real.  All people have to bring to work is professionalism and courtesy, anything else is a bonus.  So take the pressure off yourself and them and let friendship flower where it will, and work together to find out what you both need to work together comfortably.  Engines seize up without oil to lubricate them, and relationships need lubrication too… you just have to find out what type of ‘oil’ is required by each of you and when and when it needs applying.

The rest of this series:

1. Tip 1
2. Tip 2
3. Tip 3
4. Tip 4
5. Tip 5

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 12th, 2015 at 15:40 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.