You don’t have to be a stand-up comedian or have a repertoire of witty jokes. In fact, you don’t really even have to be funny. All you really need is the willingness to look on the lighter side of things.
Buck-passing isn’t unusual in the workplace. It can be tremendously frustrating, though, when you’re working with someone who consistently won’t accept responsibility for their actions.
There’s very little you can do to change a Drama Diva’s behaviour. It’s an integral part of their personality which manifests itself both at home and in the office. You do, however, want to be very careful before repeating one of their stories
casting blame may give us some short-term satisfaction, it significantly damages our opportunities and reputations. It disempowers us and tells everyone around that we’re not willing to take ownership.
Condescending coworkers are the colleagues who seem to look down their noses at everything you do. When they speak with you, their sentences inevitably end with that unstated, yet clear sentiment: “I think you’re an idiot.”
Sugar-coating coworkers are people who are so concerned with having a positive relationship with the boss that they will say and do most anything to keep the boss happy – to the point of creating negative outcomes.
For an organization to be truly customer-focused, internal customers – those colleagues who depend on us to get their jobs done – need to be treated with the same care and respect with which we show external customers.
If you ever find yourself doubting that you can make a difference at work, I have three stories that illustrate how easy it really is.
Workplace saboteurs aren’t common, but they are a huge source of frustration when you encounter one. Christine, from Melbourne, Australia, described a classic example:
Most of us have ‘internal customers’ – people in our own company who rely on us to provide them with some level of service or support. Unfortunately, just as there are difficult external customers, there are also difficult internal customers.
