Everyone is different and all people have both positive sides and features of character which might make it somewhat challenging to communicate with them. The way one find its difficult to build and maintain relations with a particular person is also an individual issue. Yet, some traits of personality might make it especially unpleasant to deal with particular people in the working environment. This article will show you the specificity of some of such people so that you will know how to react to them.
A person willing to benefit from others
Some people are more ambitious than others and there is nothing wrong in it as long as the ambitions are fulfilled by work. Unfortunately, some people tend to build their career while using others while not focusing on the work which can be done for promotion at work.
As you can imagine, dealing with such a person in a working environment can turn into a real struggle. Whenever he or she fails to complete a task, this person will always find someone responsible for it. At the same time, if something great happens, such a person will easily make the boss believe it was solely the result of the work of this individual. Needless to say, such a situation is extremely demotivating for work for other people. Other co-workers lose interest in working efficiently since there is no contribution from the side of their particularly ambitious colleague who is still pretty successful in benefiting from the work of others. In addition to it, there is no interest in working hard when the success can be stolen by another person.
What can be done in such a situation?
Unfortunately, even though it is obvious there is no particular value in such a person for any company since the effectiveness of work of such a toxic person relies heavily on the work of all other people, it still does not guarantee your boss will understand the problem.
If this person is open and willing to improve the productivity of the company, one of the options is creating a special system for estimating the productivity of the team which will show precisely the contribution of each person. You can dig into such systems and ask your boss about including one of them into your working environment.
Still, you might realise your boss is also such a person who enjoys intrigues and using other people for one’s profit. In such a case, it might be impossible to deal with a toxic co-worker.
A solution for any situation
No matter what your boss is, you should develop a new habit at work based on documenting all of the events happening at work. For example, for any signed contracts or appointments, you should have a copy. Save all of the letters, messages and possible documents as they might be needed as proofs in conflict situations.
People with a tendency to procrastination
Some people are more prone to procrastination and this tendency can also vary depending on particular periods of life of an individual. Actually, in the majority of situations procrastination is caused by some emotional issues and does not imply that a person is bad or even a bad specialist. Yet, it is rather challenging to work with such a person.
While the person can be very pleasant to deal with, there is always the same problem accompanying working with him or her. Certainly, it is always the problem of meeting deadlines of any project in which such a person is participating. You can imagine that even if such a person is capable of doing everything in time, the way the person is dealing with one’s job makes all other participants of the project become rather nervous.
The problem becomes even more challenging if such an individual has to do the job at the beginning or in the middle of the project rather than at its last stage. It can seriously block the work of other people not letting them to work on their responsibilities until the stage of the project involving the toxic co-worker finishes.
How should you deal with such a co-worker?
Usually, the problem continues because other employees are trying to help their colleague and do not let the boss find out the truth about the performance of such a person. If you are tired of working in such a way, you might be willing to stop supporting this person. Eventually, the boss will find it out and take the necessary steps.
Yet, if you do not want to make it in such a radical way, you can give this person one more chance. This time, set shorter deadlines for his or her task than are really required.
Sometimes the only solution is to change the job and the co-workers… people can be unreformable