Thwarting ‘toxic takers’
Anytime you thrust people together, whether work related or family related, you come across a “toxic taker.” Toxic takers poison your environment, and you need to take action against them. Here are some survival tactics.
Category: Difficult People
Boss a beast? Don’t get mad, get calm
Imagine two employees, both working for a difficult boss. One gets yelled at by the boss and leaves his office looking calm and unruffled. The other flees to the bathroom in tears or kicks the wall. The difference?
Watch your back with workplace saboteurs
She steals credit for your work, blames you for something that you didn’t do or attempts to damage your reputation: the workplace saboteur. Saboteurs are most apt to strike in a weak economy like the current one, business psychologist Wendy Alfus Rothman tells The Wall Street Journal.
Stressed? Blame it on the boss’s gender
Your boss’s gender can affect just how much pain he or she seems to inflict. Researchers at the University of Toronto compared men and women working in one of three situations: (1) for a lone male supervisor, (2) for a lone female supervisor, or (3) for both a male and a female supervisor.
Fight ‘desk rage’ With O-I-E
Tempers are flaring at work more often these days. About half of U.S. workers report yelling at a colleague this year, reports the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. How should you handle a co- worker’s “desk rage”?
Hold a gripe session to corral complaints
“I work with a constant complainer. And now, other admins have started to join in. How am I, as the team leader, supposed to put a stop to it?” Hold a gripe session, providing a forum for negative employees to vent.
Dealing with ‘difficult’ co-workers
Even if you’re not the person’s manager, you can gently coach a “difficult” co-worker toward positive behavior. Try taking the employoee aside after a meeting and follow these steps.
My colleague betrayed my trust, now what?
Any admin worth his or her salt knows that trust is a cornerstone of the job. Without trust, it’s tough to forge a true partnership with your boss. But what happens when the trust between co-workers is broken? …
Should you rat on a web-surfing co-worker?
“My co-worker makes me crazy. At least half the time, when I walk past her desk, she’s surfing the Web, and it doesn’t look work-related … I’m on the verge of talking to my manager about her. Should I?”
Slackers…Complainers…Chronically Tardy…Keep bad apples from spoiling your bunch
You know the saying: One bad apple can spoil the whole bunch. If you’re a manager, you may occasionally encounter a bad apple. So what does a leader do to stop “problem” employees from spreading their negative influence?