Coping with Crazy Co-Workers

The unemployment rate is near 10% which means, most likely, your annoying co-worker won't be leaving anytime soon. You won't be leaving either, so you're stuck with them. How crazy are our co-workers, and how can we cope with them? Maybe this video will bring to mind a few of your crazy colleagues.

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Here are five ideas for turning crazy co-workers into valuable resources.

1. Remember the Old Proverb

"Your blessing is your curse and your curse is your blessing." The very things we love about someone become the things that annoy us when taken too far. And, the things we hate about others are actually positive traits when utilized appropriately. For example, your annoying neat-freak co-worker's compulsive need to clean your desk could be re-focused toward something helpful. Give her the assignment to clean and organize the supply closet or the refrigerator in the employee lounge. Cope with her behavior by using the annoying trait for a good purpose.

2. Turn Them Into Teachers

Coping with a "wannabe" or a once-upon-a-time English teacher? Does her red pen bleed all over office documents? Does she live to circle the office's writing mistakes? Take away her red pen and put her in charge of a once a week mentor's moment. She can teach grammar and punctuation skills to the staff and help improve everyone's writing. Keep control of the situation though, and limit her to just a few minutes at a monthly meeting. Or, better yet, let her create and share a weekly emailed PowerPoint show with three slides that address a specific problem she noticed during the week.

3. Capitalize on Chronic Complainers

In today's stressful workplace it's challenging to embrace complainers, but if a complaint about a process or system has validity it should be fixed. The secret to coping with a chronic complainer is to thank them for bringing the problem to your attention, and then, put them in charge of finding the solution. Ask them to email to you three mutually beneficial ideas for solving the problem, and offer to discuss the ideas later. They may never bring a single solution to you, but they will stop bringing complaints to you when they realize it will be delegated back to them for solutions.

4. Use Crazy Co-workers As Motivation for Self-improvement

Sometimes, we learn from our mentors. They set a good example for us and teach us new things. We can also learn from our tormentors. We learn what NOT to do. Observe your crazy co-workers and keep a journal of what they do to you and your colleagues. List the annoying actions under the heading "Never Do This To a Colleague." Use their bad behavior as motivation to learn better skills. Buy a book, go to a workshop, or read a career-related blog and learn how to handle things better. When you find a helpful resource share it with everyone.

5. Remember, You Are One of Them

One man's trash is another man's treasure. There's probably someone in your office who finds you annoying or crazy and they're coping with you. Maybe we're all a little annoying or crazy. And, just maybe, that crazy co-worker isn't so bad.

Sources:

Gina Maddox is a professional speaker and the author of "The Working Woman's Rant & Rave Guidebook" available at www.rantandraveguidebook.com