How Do You Handle A Co-Worker That Drives You Nuts?

I hoenstly get along pretty well with everyone I work with

I spread rumors about them until they are so embarrassed they quit. Haha, just kidding...i wish. I try to avoid them as much as possible and if i charaterize them as unreliable, i know to always make sure my end is covered and never to trust them to do anything on a project that may affect my professional life.

I get along with everyone, but they ANNOY the sh*t outta me every once in a while....

So I've started not answering back when I dont feel like it and they leave me alone! wooo!

In my department our desks are all in the same room. I sit diagonal from the person who drives me crazy. So one day I decided she wasn't going to drive me crazy anymore. So now when I'm talking to someone else and she butts in with her "Huh? What? Tell me" I just look at her and say, "Nothing." It's far for effective tho less gratifying than shouting "I'm not talking to you!" I've also taken to pretending like I don't hear her and not making eye contact when I don have to talk to her. This all might sound a bit harsh, but imagine the person that makes you want to stab yourself in the eyes so you don't have to come into work, and that's what I'm dealing with. Perhaps a tad passive aggressive, but confronting her would only make her cry.

As I have mentioned before, I am the only employee where I work. I do still have a boss and there are agents in the office that I deal with.

For me, the most frustrating things are when they are inconsiderate by being late, are slopping with paperwork, and don't take the initiative to improve their business. I handle it by making them redo paperwork while explaining what is wrong. If they are late to a staff meeting they miss out on the information. If they are late to a meeting with me, then they lose out on the time to work together. I also just implemented an accountability program where we assess their goals and I get on their butts when they aren't following through with their action plans. So far, it's working rather well.

At my past job. Whoosh too many people I didn't like. I handeled it by saying "I quit". but for the other 9 months I was there, I made friends with someone who felt the same way, and he would act like immature kids making fun of them.

I would also put on a set of headphones without any music, and just ignore everything anyone said to me as if I didn't hear them. I really got this one coworker really mad. It was hilarious!

I had one lady get mad at me and complain to my boss that I was disrespectful when I asked to set the heat below 80 degrees. You can't always win. Especially when they're having sex with the boss...

Sad to say I cried in frustration when my manager spoke to me about it...I hate that! Now I just wear tshirts all year long rather than ask to put the ac on to bring it down to 74.

People that make the the MOST mad around the office are the people who lack self-awareness. They do super annoying things and end up pissing people off all the time (making you do things that arent necessary and to their own benefit, talking loudly and are inconsiderate, etc) and the worst part is that they have no people skills and can't tell that they are even making you mad! AHH! Sorry...venting...haha

I love my co-workers...except for that one guy!

I get along with everyone at my current job. At a past job, I found some people quite annoying. I kill them with kindness. It is the easiest way to deal with rude and b*tchy people.

omg. How about I don't get along with BAD TEACHERS! I work at a school that has garnered an amazing amount of awards. Yet, there are some awful teachers there who I can not stand. I have TRIED to give advice/suggestions through our department meetings but they REFUSE to do anything that would make them actually WORK. I'm cordial and that's about it. I pray that their students don't end up hating science.

I can stand most things, but I have zero patience for ditziness. The woman who "trained" me at my current job (which was a joke, since I ended up finding faster and more efficient ways to do just about everything she "trained" me on) was seriously so sloooooow I don't understand how she survives as a human being. Her thought processes just always seemed a couple of beats behind average, she seemed to realize that but treated it as a charming eccentricity, and my God did the woman love to talk. She'd babble on for hours about her personal life.

I just ignored her as much as I could while still being civil, which is what I always do around people like this. It didn't work all that well at shutting her up, but thank God she no longer works here.

There was this one lady who drove me absolutely nuts... she was 60 years old and talked CONSTANTLY. Somebody would come up to the window and she would strike up a conversation with them about her grandkids or her neighbor or what she ate for dinner yesterday or something else utterly ridiculous.

God forbid you ever told her where you lived, because if she knew a single soul in the vicinity, she would ask you if you knew them. "Did you know so-and-so? How about so-and-so? So-and-so used to live out there too. My youngest daughter had a friend who mowed lawns out there. Blah blah blah."

Plus her voice was annoyingly high and nasally. And if anything went wrong, she immediately blamed you or somebody else in the office. And if it was her fault and you told her so, she would grouse about how nobody liked her and everybody attacked her all the time.

I HATED HER SOOOOOO MUCH.

I totally agree, Savvy! Condescending co-workers/bosses are the worst. I'd say the majority of those kind of people are so completely threatened its laughable. There's one at my office, makes me want to explode sometimes.

I just avoid the people I don't like at work...luckily, there is no one that I have to work closely with that I don't like.

Ignorance is bliss...

I have this one co-worker who is constantly flirting with one of the men in our office. He is totally oblivious to her but she says the most inappropriate things. I sit right around the corner from her so I hear everthing she says. All I can do is roll my eyes and share some of the funnier comments with the rest of the girls at lunch.

Wow, such lovely comments. I have just being promoted and have to deal with my new boss, who is all right, but does not have balls! Then I have my former boss who I am now his peer due to the promo, that is an annoying tosser,bully, and likes to think he knows all. Then there is the contractor that licks my old boss's a*se who I am having problems telling what to do. Well my solution is that I am going to become super aggressive coming out when I am not happy about things and letting them know my feelings and not backing down! People like to take advantage and the minute you let them they will walk a mile. I prefer to be tagged the agressive woman than the weak one. Any one agree with me???

I just like to beat my annoying coworkers into submission with a stapler.

The people I cannot stand to work with are people who spend their every waking work moment sucking up to our boss instead of actually doing their duties. It shows such a lack of integrity to claim a power position and then not do any of the work it requires. The higher this person is, the harder everyone else's work becomes.

I just try to ignore people that really bother me. I'm not really an aggressive person so I don't try to goad them, but I can't fake it either so I would rather just not deal with them.

freegracefrom

Basically, I think we choose our job but not our coworkers, so we're all kind of stuck with each other through no choice of our own. In all of my jobs, I've just counted to ten when someone is getting under my skin, and basically ignored as best I could the people who I really couldn't stand. Kill 'em with kindness and be too busy to talk to them. Worked for me.

I could not agree with you more jadenirvana, well said!

Marci, Kill them with kindness?! hmm they will chew me and spit me out if I did that in my office. I have done similar and never works. People are not always that rational. Without sounding ageist and chauvinistic. I work with a sarcastic old cynical man, who is horrid, lazy, deceitful and manipulative. Then I have a boss who is too scared to do anything because he thinks he needs the knowledge of this f**l, which is not true. I then have a sub who sucks up to the f**l and does no work. This is my problem ;-(

Kill them with kindness worked for me, too. Our Office Manager was a kind of bitter older lady who could NOT stand the very few young women who were in professional (vs. clerical) positions in the office. She would always try to "subordinate" me by doing things like telling me to answer the phones so she could leave early or trying to get me to do clerical work for her. I was always extremely nice to her, but frankly I didn't have time to do those things and I would tell her that and my boss would back me up. The really funny thing is that right before I left, she decided she loved me but HATED my (young, female) replacement. Transparent much?

God yes.. but now as a nanny the worst I have to deal with is naughty terrible two behavior

Which is sometimes worse

Ignore them.

Even some of my nicest coworkers tend to think I'm their PA, and give me all the sh*t they don't want to do.
Either I pretend I didn't hear them, or say yes with a smile, and then do what I want.

I work in a mostly female staffed office, I have learned through trial and error that there are always going to be people who are difficult to be around, Sometimes there are those that really hate their lives, hate themselves, feel powerless, or just are plain mean and you cannot avoid them. They feed on the rush that “better” than everyone else feeling, you know the “Susie was 10 minutes late, I am here on time everyday!” or they nit pick, or they wait with baited breath for you to make a mistake so they can be justified in jumping on your case. I don’t let them have that power. I don’t gossip, I don’t share anything personal with them, I don’t cower when they pounce and therefore I am not an easy target anymore and they have moved on.

I just tune them out.

I really enjoyed reading this.I thought I was the only one that was having a hard time at work.This makes me want to make a diffrence in my life.Thank you all.

I work with an older lady, who tries to do EVERYONE'S job, not just her own. In trying to do all of this, she screws up on her own paper work. I am the receptionist. My job is to answer phones, book appointments, and take payments. She always comes up to my desk, and tries to push me away from my own desk to take payments from her clients, instead of letting me do my job! I could smack her! Also, she tries to tell the other professionals in the office how to do their jobs, and most of the time, she is telling them wrong!! I can't take much more. I think I am gonna have to tell her bout herself!!!!!!!!