Annoying Colleague?
I’m not quite sure why I added a question mark in the title since everyone has at least one coworker who gets on his or her nerves. Or at least there is always something you wouldn’t mind improving about them. I’ll start with myself. I’m always begging for iPhone charger since my phone is always on the verge of dying. I can imagine it drives our interns mad. And Liesbeth’s desk tends to look more like a crime scene that hast just dealt with a criminal settlement.
Anytime she’s gone on a press trip I find myself tiding up her mess and bring back a bit of order to her utter chaos. But luckily Liesbeth and our health editor Jet (this girl too can work up quite a mess) have an occasional cleansing whim and their little workstation looks bright and beaming.
So, the moral to this very long introduction: even in a very fun team, there is always room for improvement. We’re going to skim through a couple of annoying archetypes and solutions to avoid irritations.
The lazy colleague
Het ergste vind ik de luie collega die doet alsof ze het zo druk heeft.
What I find to be the worst about a lazy colleague is that they always pretend to be extremely busy. Long ago when I was working for a TV show, I had an absolutely stunning colleague. But anytime I would be done after an 11 hour long workday with droopy hair and run down mascara (from what I recall it always seemed to rain when I was working there), I would walk into the editorial office and there she would be. Hanging out and drinking a beer with the guys. I also remember that for this specific show we were shooting, we had really cool leather jackets, but there were only a limited amount. This didn’t bug me since it wasn’t about me, but after another exhausting production day, there she was, her firm butt nestled on her desk chatting away with yes, you guessed it correctly, that jacket on.
What are you supposed to do with these kinds of people? Professional advice would be: ignore it. Bringing it up might only put you down. Just remember that you definitely aren’t the only person who is annoyed and that the person in question is only making it harder on themselves. You won’t make it far with that kind of a mentality. This girl has gone completely MIA and I’m pretty sure she doesn’t have a fun job quite like mine. And that leather jacket, I was able to buy it later. Since I had worked so hard for it.
The foul-smelling colleague
My hubby is always able to keep a straight face when he says to someone: “Here, have some gum. You need it.” And since he is so straight forward, instead of making it awkward, he turns it more into a ‘it can happen to anyone’ situation. If you politely ask someone to use a little bit of deodorant instead of dragging it out into a deep conversation, you ease the scene. My personal method is humor. By saying things like: “Jeeeeze how much garlic did you eat last night?” Or “Did you crash under a bridge last night?” you’re obviously overacting a tiny bit, but this makes it less personal. And you’ll notice that that person will quickly go on the hunt for some gum or deodorant. Or else just crack a joke about the situation and scoot over a few chairs.
The colleague who always gossips
Taking into account that everyone gossips every now and then and it doesn’t have to be bad per se, it’s not okay when you gossip about one person with someone who then gossips about you in return. A company psychologist advises to make a gossip mag. Mocking the situation makes it all the more bearable. When you hear someone gossip, top it off with an utterly bogus story. Tell them you caught three of your colleagues getting it on in broom closet and that now one of them is pregnant. Hopefully this will make your gossipy coworker realize that what he or she is doing is not very polite.
The colleague with kids
I’ve mentioned it before here, addressing how women should keep their cool when it comes to talking about your kids at the office. At least if you’re trying to climb up the business ladder. It can be rather irritating for all the employees who don’t have kids if you shut down your laptop at exactly 5 PM when you all earn the same salary. And if all they ever hear are stories about Sarah, Tim and Jamie, you can’t blame them for not being interested…
If you’re fed up with her millionth anecdote about her kids, tell her a cool story about your cat. And then demand her attention.
I must give a little credit to all the moms out there. They are masters when it comes to efficiency and have all their work completed before tucking their kids in at night.
