We all come across different kinds of people everywhere in our life. It becomes more challenging if you have some really difficult people at work. Did you come across a coworker who takes things to extreme levels? What extreme coworkers am I talking about here? Maybe the person screamed at other coworkers. May be out of extreme anger threw things here and there. May go on telling tales on how the person sacrificed her sleep to give extra time at work or over the weekends or worked on a holiday. Another extreme case I have observed is, not leaving the work desk at all for even the smallest break or even to have her meal. Maybe the coworker survived the entire day on coffee. Did this Extreme Coworker did any of these and expected you also to be as weird as them because that according to them is the way to prove your loyalty and work you do for your job? How do you Deal with these coworkers?
Dealing with Extreme behavior of Coworker at work
We all come across difficult Coworkers and then there are Extreme Coworkers who know they are behaving extremely and even expect you to deal with them. They will make you feel that to be successful, you have to be like them. A toxic coworker and work environment cause stress. If you haven’t come across an extreme person as I mentioned above consider yourself really lucky.
How to Deal with Extreme Coworkers
Whats your purpose in the job
Always remind yourself of why are you in your current job. Does the job fit in the career path you have thought for yourself? Is it ok to tolerate the extreme coworker’s behavior?
When you think about your work and your job, I am hopeful you will find many reasons you would have to like your job. Are you satisfied with your current work assignments, are you getting a good salary, not all the coworkers are extreme. You have some likeable coworkers at work space as well . Think about the other benefits you have from your job.
Imagine what it is going to be like if you or the troublemaker moves on to some other assignment.
Focus on work
Keep reminding yourself that you are expected to do the best of your ability. To perform your best, focusing on your work and letting go of any kind of distraction is important. If your distraction right now is a loud person who is going on telling his/her success stories bragging about the sacrifices he has made for the job, get your noise-canceling headphones on and enjoy your work.
This may give the person a signal that you are trying to focus on your task and his/her bragging is not going to affect you.
Ask for a change of location
If the presence of the toxic extreme person is causing you stress and the headphones are also not helping, you may want to request for change in your work location. Depending on the size of the office this can be somewhere on the same floor in the same office. You may have some hurdles in between you and your other cordial coworkers but this difference from the extreme coworker will make a really positive impact for you.
Now, you don’t have to go and place the request to your boss for change in location mentioning the real reason. You can mention the reason to be anything like wanting to be sitting closer to the window, or farther from the breakout area or the noisy area where you are sitting now. However, if you are comfortable in telling the truth to your supervisor, he/she may come up with a solution which is going to be helpful for you.
Practice self-care
If there is no way to escape the extreme behavior of a coworker at work, try to find out ways how you can cope up with the stress outside your work. Make time for therapies, make time for a short walk in nature to relax your mind, sneak out a break in the middle of the day to get some fresh air, take some other coworker for a coffee break and enjoy.
Move on
If working with this person is really bad that you are unable to manage with any of the above given ideas, it is time to look for other opportunities. Another thing to note is that if your feel extreme behavior is becoming part of the work culture at office, the place is probably not good for you and you must look for opportunity to move away from the negativity.
I have worked in the past with very few extreme coworkers, bosses, and colleagues who out of extreme behavior made the work environment truly difficult. I had been extremely lucky to have survived and come out of these toxic circumstances.
Have you ever faced extreme coworkers at your office? Someone who yelled, bragged too often, and also expected the same from others as well? How did you Deal with these kinds of people? Have you been an extreme coworker? Ever been told that? How did you deal with that situation? Comment below your thoughts.
This post is written as part of the BlogchatterA2Z challenge.
