How to deal with a toxic co-worker

Posted on October 4, 2014

Do you feel exhausted the second you walk into your office in the morning? Do you sometimes come home from work feeling completely and utterly emotionally drained? If it’s not the work itself or the job that’s bringing you down, it could be one of your co-workers. There is a type of co-worker: one who is unhappy with his or her job and shows it in a negative way each and every day. This fosters an extremely negative work environment. The question becomes: How can we handle toxic co-workers so that our work is not interrupted and we are not emotionally taxed at the end of every day?

Listed are some ways you can handle toxic co-workers.

1. Set time limits
Offer a moment of sympathy – and no more than that. You can offer to listen for five minutes or simply explain that you’re overloaded with work.

2. Keep it professional
If you must interact regularly because you work closely together, develop clear agendas for meetings and have a set end time. If it veers off course, change the subject back to the work topic at hand.

3. Confront the problem
If you feel comfortable doing so, it may be worthwhile to tell the person you cannot listen to his or her issues anymore. Explain why you cannot engage with him or her on personal matters anymore, perhaps because chatting a lot at work translates into longer hours, disruption of your concentration or missed deadlines.

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Source material from U.S. News