Nearly every office has a person who shoots down ideas before they even get off the ground: the naysayer who always pinpoints the reason your idea won’t work. The only way to defeat a naysayer is to be ready for her. Know how to respond to every one of the blockades she puts in your way.
Didn’t have the right snappy comeback to a colleague’s subtle put-down or the boss’s accusatory comment? “You have to be able to respond on your feet at work, and I think some people are becoming less adept at it,” says Kathleen Kelley Reardon. Some of her suggestions for comebacks:
For all the talk of teamwork in corporate America, your co-workers should be oozing with collaboration. Right? Yet that’s often not the case. What do you do about another administrative pro who gives you the cold shoulder? How do you draw more collaboration out of that co-worker?
A co-worker makes Donna feel uncomfortable by spewing judgmental comments about her life choices. Donna wonders what to do about it. Is the HR department obligated to fix the problem? Or does this situation call for a frank co-worker-to-co-worker conversation?
That colleague looking intently into your eyes as he answers your questions may be telling you a fib. Pamela Meyer, author of Liespotting: Proven Techniques to Detect Deception, says to look for these common tip-offs that someone is lying:
Question: “Our group has one person, ‘Cindy,’ who is called the team lead. This is not a supervisory position. Although she is just supposed to assist our supervisor and fill in when he’s away, Cindy constantly tells me what to do. Because our open-door policy says we can go straight to the vice president, I plan to discuss the situation with her. What do you think?” — Not a Pushover
From the ranting heard at political protests and on reality TV, it’s clear these are angry times. The problem is that many of us don’t know how to effectively handle an angry ranter when confronted with one. We can learn much from customer service professionals, who have honed their skills in defusing a hothead—and not taking it personally.
It’s easy to have your good mood shattered by a nasty customer, an out-of-the-blue criticism or a computer system that refuses to cooperate. Think of angry customers as a creativity test. Satisfy them without letting their discontent bring you down. Four tips:
Workplace noise is a pet peeve for one in five employees, and it can even damage productivity. But is it a peeve worth escalating to human resources? Most HR workers would say that employees should resolve the noisy co-worker issue on their own.
Feel exhausted, even on a vacation day? That’s one sign you’re being bullied at work, according to a “you know you’ve been bullied at work when …” checklist by Workplace Bullying Institute. Other signs that you’re in the bully’s bull’s-eye:
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