How to Handle a Rude Co-Worker

There is bound to be conflict in any workplace. It doesn't matter how much you like the people you work with or how well you get along, eventually there will be some kind of conflict. However, there will be times where you run into a co-worker who has no boundaries or respect for your space and time. When this happens you have to handle it properly or things may get out of hand.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

1. Do not go on the defensive. This will only make things worse. Take your time and plan your actions. Yes you may feel attacked, but attacking back is not going to make things better. It is going to put the other person in even more of an attack mode and things will get ugly.

2. Document the behavior. That does not mean stop doing your job to scrutinize the other person. That just means if you see a rude behavior or rude instance, document it and the consequences that resulted. For example, lets say you have a receptionist for your work area. She makes a habit of ignoring customers while she yaps away about her son, mom, dog and whatever else is going on her life. She just pretends like the people are not there and waiting to be helped, so you have to step in and help the customer. It isn't that you don't want to help, but if you are constantly keeping an eye on the reception area and stopping your work to assist the customers, this is affecting your work. She is showing she has no respect for your time. This needs to be documented because any lack of work done on your part will be a direct effect of the receptionist's rudeness to your time.

3. Try one-on-one communication. Yes, try to deal with it one-on-one with the person first. Don't attack said person and do not focus on the negative. Do not be bossy or condescending. Take the emotion out of the argument and just put the facts out there.

4. Go through the proper channels. If one-on-one doesn't work, then take it to your supervisor. Once again do not focus on the negative and keep the emotion out of the argument. Give the facts and specific examples to support your claims. Do not whine. You want your supervisor to listen to you and believe you.

5. Pick your battles. Sometimes it is just easier to let the little things go. You do not want to be constantly confronting your co-worker about his behavior. You also do not want to be running to your boss every day with another story about the employee. That is almost as bad as whining. Ask yourself if the offending behavior is affecting your work and your quality of work. Then ask yourself if it is having an adverse effect on any of your other co-workers, or worse--clients or customers. If the answer is yes, document it. If the answer is no, just let it go.