Difficult colleagues can be found everywhere. You will encounter one or two in every job and in every workplace. Working with such a colleague is not easy and certainly not pleasant. Sometimes there is even mobbing involved and a difficult colleague can make you really ill. The problem occurs in most companies, but not every company has a good way to protect other colleagues from too much nuisance. Dismissing the culprit is not always the best solution for the company. Often the difficult colleague is a valuable asset to the company in terms of capabilities. Often he/she has been working in the company for a long time and good, demonstrable evidence is needed to effect the dismissal of that colleague.
Hardly anyone can work well with a difficult colleague
Teamwork is fun and is also required of employees in most companies. Teamwork means that we work together, look for solutions together and ensure that a job is completed within the specified time. However, this requires a good atmosphere and mutual understanding.
Spoil the atmosphere
However, if there is a colleague within the team who spoils the atmosphere within the team due to his attitude towards others, this can be a problem for the company. However, the problem can be even greater for other colleagues, who cannot successfully complete the project within the specified time. They cannot then show their best potential.
A colleague who constantly criticizes is not pleasant
Difficult colleagues often provide unnecessary and unmotivated criticism of others, while they themselves perform less than is desirable within the team. They usually have a good way with their words, are quick-witted, have a response to everything and thus completely sweep under the table colleagues who are more sparing in their use of words. It is not always about work, but especially as individuals, the victims are literally attacked.
Sometimes a colleague can no longer handle the continuous negative criticism
If this happens once in a while, it is not so bad, but if it becomes a common, daily pattern, it can be very negative for the other colleagues within the team. So much so that those colleagues more often stay home sick and no longer work openly and with pleasure on their joint project. The company is also disadvantaged as a result.
More work for the other colleagues within the team
Due to the unkind attitude of the difficult colleague and the obstruction within the team, there is more work pressure on the other colleagues. They feel the responsibility to complete the work successfully and therefore have to do more per person to compensate for the lax, critical attitude of the difficult colleague.
Resentment and annoyance among the rest of the colleagues
This naturally creates resentment and real annoyance, which will not do any good to the relationship between the other colleagues within the team. Such a difficult colleague is therefore a notorious disruptor. Often other colleagues notice this, but usually do not dare to interfere. They are afraid of becoming the subject of ridicule and bullying themselves.
Mobbing by a colleague makes collaboration very difficult
Sometimes there is even mobbing involved. The unkind colleague singles out a person from the team and bombards him with his personal and business criticism and his contemptuous and dismissive attitude. If the other colleagues within the team are collegial, they will go against this and let the difficult colleague lose out, but that often does not happen and they have long been happy that they themselves are not the direct object.
Don’t let a difficult colleague get his way
That’s a shame, because it allows a difficult colleague to simply get on with things. If the bullied colleague resigns or becomes ill due to annoyance, the difficult colleague turns his attention to the next victim. Often on the new colleague who has replaced the other. This way there will be no end to the nuisance.
The company also suffers from mobbing
A company’s production can suffer significantly from the negative attitude of difficult colleagues. However, dismissal of a permanently appointed employee is usually not possible due to the rules laid down in law. Often the judge has to be involved in order to dismiss such a person and the company must come forward with good reasons if the dismissal really wants to be pronounced. In addition, dismissal often costs the company extra money.
Be careful when hiring employees
To begin with, companies must be careful when hiring their staff. Attention must be paid to the applicant’s manners and social behavior. Within the first year, a report must be drawn up on his collegiality and his working attitude. Not only through conversations with himself, but also with his colleagues and superiors. The results must be positive.
Pay close attention to the attitude of new colleagues
If that person has been given a permanent appointment, but over time turns out to be a difficult colleague, a conversation must take place in which the cause of the negative attitude that he shows towards his colleagues is sought. Sometimes the cause lies in personal problems and something can be done about that attitude through conversations.
What you can do about a difficult colleague
Try to talk to that colleague privately in the first instance. Ask why he has such an attitude towards you and the others. Explain why it affects the entire team. If that conversation does not help and the situation remains the same, talk to your superior, someone from the HR department or a designated person within the company about the problems that this colleague is causing during work.
Provide solutions
Also explain that the problems affect the work of you and other colleagues. If no improvement is possible, the difficult colleague could perhaps be transferred to a position within the company where he might feel more comfortable.
Don’t allow a difficult colleague to bully
Answer yourself. Even when it concerns others. Don’t let yourself and other colleagues be intimidated, but make sure you stand up to it. Never accept unmotivated criticism and leave it alone, but firmly reject it. If the difficult colleague notices that you cannot be intimidated, he will eventually criticize less, because otherwise it will fall back on him like a boomerang. However, arguing is never good. If you get angry during a conversation, you will always lose the battle. So always give a calm, but thorough answer.