Workplace conflicts are pretty common — even in the most collegial of offices, you’re bound to get a whiff of bad blood or competition between co-workers. And most of the time, these disputes manifest themselves in pretty subtle ways: dirty looks in the hallways, passive-aggressive one-upping in meetings, etc. Then there are the rare instances when a workplace conflict turns into a very public, very real argument.
I’ve never been in the middle of a full-blown argument at work, but I’ve definitely been on the observing end of a couple of memorable incidents. At a previous job, a female colleague called our male co-worker into a small storage room under the pretense of needing help with a heavy box — and then proceeded to shut the door behind them and air her grievances with him. Loudly. The rest of our team just listened in shock, and things were pretty awkward in our tiny office for a while.
Have you ever had a knock-down drag-out with a co-worker or manager in your workplace?
Airness
Giuseppe Zanotti
Tibi
just the other day, i work at school where we check out equipment (cameras..etc) and i was off that day and had to go use some stuff, another co worker was able to let me check stuff out without a card and the next time she gives me a huge attitude and pissed me off. but yea, she is kind and then out of no where stands her ground
1I have gotten in a couple serious arguments with coworkers. One was totally warranted; a paramedic had worked 22 hours and wanted to drive home. That's not safe, so I argued with him and tried to make him either stay and sleep, or drink some coffee so he wouldn't fall asleep at the wheel. That one ended up with me blocking the door and yelling at him, and him walking out the other door and driving home.
At least he didn't kill anyone.
The other was totally unwarranted, and my fault.
My paramedic partner and I took our ambulance
to the station because the brakes weren't working. The team leader made fun of us. Out of nowhere, I lost it. I yelled at him, dropped F bombs on him, squared off with him (haha, he could
have killed me), and ended up screaming at him to go F himself. He found it hilarious. The next day, I took a pregnancy test and it was positive, so at least I had an explanation for my
temporary insanity.
2Never had a full-blown argument. When I get mad, I get REALLY mad, so I tend to avoid confrontation in the interest of not getting fired and/or arrested.
If someone's bothering me, I just avoid any social interaction with them and only talk to
them when I absolutely have to for work-related reasons. I manage to make it abundantly clear that I'm irritated with them without being rude or interrupting anyone's work... the funny thing
is that a former coworker seemed to get MORE angry when I did that, it was almost like she was looking for confrontation and was upset when I didn't take the bait. 
No real problems with that in the department where I work now... I went from working only with women to a department with 5 men and 3 women. It's terrible to say, but when I was working with all women, there was definitely more of a tendency for petty arguments to arise, whereas my current coworkers are much more laid back.
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