How To Deal With Annoying Co-Workers | 6 Tips

For most of us, having a job is something that we have to do. Some of us enjoy our work, some of us not so much. But like most things in life, there are pros and cons to everything we do. Co-workers often fall into both categories. Some co-workers become dear friends and help us to survive the work day. Firstly, let’s take a minute to recognise these gems. Say thank you! Or give them a gift that says it for you. If you need inspiration check out 40 Inexpensive gifts your co-workers will love.

Other co-workers however, are unbearable. These are people we would never choose to spend time with in our personal lives but we don’t have a choice whilst we are at work. I have come up with some ideas for how to deal with annoying co-workers.

There are a lot of different characters in the workplace and I can’t possibly predict exactly who or what you are facing. I do think though that the ‘techniques’ I am about to share will work almost universally no matter what the situation. Some of the below suggestions are pretty petty, I’ll be honest however I only use the petty approach as a last resort.

Forget Your Ego And Position Yourself As A Rookie

This may sound strange but I’ve found it to be extremely effective. This works best when dealing with people who are more senior than us. It could be a supervisor or manager, who ask us to do things that are, well, ridiculous. In the past, I had a manager who used to assign tasks to me, that added no value whatsoever but were very time consuming. I soon realised that he was doing this simply because he was not fully thinking through his asks. In order to stop wasting everyone’s time, before doing the task let him know I was ‘eager to learn from him’ and started asking him some questions.

“What value will this task bring to our team?” “How does doing this align with our objectives?” “Would my time be better spent working on Project A, as previously discussed?” “Why is this a priority?”. Usually this simply encouraged him to think his ask through fully. If it was still important, I did it. However, a lot of the time, it helped me to avoid needless tasks. By positioning ourselves as a rookie and asking questions it encourages co-workers to think his/her requests through a bit more whilst managing to avoid coming across as difficult or uncooperative.

Questioning Instead Of Telling

Let’s face it, we’ve all been in a situation where we deal with objectives from co-workers. In my experience, these co-workers are usually the ones who constantly come up with problems and never seem to want to offer any solutions. Instead of jumping to defend our work or ideas by arguing with their negativity, try sitting back simply asking “What do you suggest we do to resolve the issue you just surfaced?” OR “What do you think would be a better course of action?”

We can ask this to anyone regardless of whether or not they are above us, below us or on our level. The beauty of this is that we don’t have to actually implement their suggestions, if we don’t want to.

However, it sets an expectation that if you want to bring a challenge, you will also be expected to offer a solution. In my experience, this simple trick drastically reduces the amount of challenges and objections I receive. And there is an added bonus. If in fact my idea or plan really was terrible by asking questions I realise without coming across as an inflexible know it all.

Just Smile And Nod

Sometimes, people just want to bitch and moan. When I am on the receiving end of this at work, I can sometimes find myself thinking “How is this my problem?”. The truth is, it’s not. But no matter who it is that is moaning to me, they just want to be heard. They probably don’t even want my advice. Sometimes we can get sucked into these situations, and at work we can even feel like we are obligated to help in some way.

Instead of instantly assuming that role, I’ve found that it is sometimes better to just smile and nod. Allow them to vent and express their grievances. I find it best to remain disengaged. don’t offer advice or opinion. Quite simply smile empathetically and nod. I am honestly not sure if they’ve realised I am not so engaged and they wrap it up OR if they have got what they needed so they can move on.

Either way, smiling and nodding has allowed me to drastically reduce the amount of annoying work conversations that I don’t want to be a part of. It has also meant that I have accidentally inherited a lot less work which means I can limit the amount of time I spend with said annoying co-worker.

Feedback

By now, I am sure there are some of us here thinking “all of this advice is fine but we can’t always avoid annoying co-workers, sometimes we have to deal with them, day in day out’. This is true. In this scenario, unfortunately, we need to face this head on. The truth is no one sets out to be annoying or difficult to work with. It definitely helps to assume good intent. If you are finding someone difficult to work with, it can help to arrange a feedback session with them.

This is a great opportunity to highlight some positives about this person as well as some areas you find challenging. A compliment in another area softens the blow quite a bit. We must also try to remember to bring solutions and suggestions though, not just problems. And also try to ensure that the feedback is related to work as opposed to negative feedback around their personalities. It is a fine line, sometimes, but it pays to stay on the right side of it.

The idea of proactively giving feedback to a co-worker can be daunting, however in my experience people are more receptive to it than we might think, provided it is delivered in the right way.

Lies and Sarcasm

I know this is petty but don’t say I didn’t warn you. If all of the other suggestions fail, sometimes we turn to petty lies and sarcasm. Often this is not even work related. This is reserved for the people who are a bit too interested in everyone else’s business. The office gossip some might say. The more people want (non-essential) information from me the less I want to share it.

In this case it can be fun to respond with jovial sarcasm and/or clever quips. Sometimes I like to feed their need for information by filling their minds with complete and utter nonsense. It always surprises me when I hear my own lies about myself back from multiple different sources, even though the original coworker swore they wouldn’t tell a soul.

Don’t Take Anything Personally

Never forget that this is just work. I know we spend a lot of our time here and I know we want to do good work. However very often I hear friends and family make work personal. “I don’t think my manager likes me” or “She said this which makes me think she doesn’t trust me to do a good job”. This is work and nothing more. It is easier said than done but if we can all strive to stop taking things personally at work, I can tell you first hand it makes it a lot easier to bear on a tough day.

Work is work. If we are lucky enough to make friends then great. But we don’t have to be best friends with everyone. And what we definitely don’t need is additional needless drama to make things even more difficult. I am sure we do all really do strive to be nice to everyone, to ensure that we all have a good working environment. That being said, people can test us from time to time. These little techniques I’ve developed over the years have helped me to remove myself from the distractions and stay focused on task. Let us know in the comments, what your recommendations are for dealing with annoying co-workers.

If you are past all of this and you just want OUT, you might enjoy our other work related articles such as 5 Signs It’s Time To Start Looking For A New Job Or How To Spot A Good Manager During An Interview.