5 toxic attitudes of coworkers
In the workplace, the fact of spending many hours a week with people with interests and roles different from ours can cause some toxic attitudes .
Is about ways of acting and predispositions of conduct that harms us and the rest of the team , worsening the work environment and causing the performance of the organization to be burdened, at least in part.
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As it is very easy for these toxic attitudes to become chronic, making all the members of the team adapt (and resign themselves) to live with them, it is convenient to detect them as soon as possible and cut them off at the root, for the good of all.
Let's see what these toxic attitudes of colleagues are and how to fight against them.
1. The least bad option
Certain co-workers can create a basically involuntary manipulation system , based on his bad mood. These people take advantage of their moments of bad temper to create small blackmails that puts at risk the overall functioning of the work team. Basically, what they do is try to make the other comrades make sacrifices to appease them, carrying part of their work as a strategy in which the lesser evil is chosen.
What happens is that, first of all, the reason why these people are in a bad mood does not have to have anything to do with what happens at work , and therefore on many occasions is not the responsibility of the rest of his colleagues. However, the consequences of their anger do have an impact on the work environment, creating the illusion that it is a business problem.
In this way, others will be willing to "carry" the consequences of bad mood and they will give preferential treatment to this person. In turn, there comes a point in the partner who is benefiting from this "learn" that his bad mood is rewarded.
In the event that we detect this toxic attitude, the ideal is encourage the Human Resources department to contact this person to explore the origins of their emotional state and see how it can be resolved without adversely affecting the whole organization. Facing this person with the same emotional intensity that she uses to complain is not recommended, because it can generate a rebound effect and make her appear even more angry, this time making us share in her anger.
Learn more: "Toxic Friendships: 7 Signs to Detect a Bad Friend"2. Making the conflict expand
Within an organization It is relatively frequent that certain frictions and conflicts arise between some people . The way in which these conflicts are resolved will be decisive in preventing the conflict from affecting the overall functioning of the company, but in some cases people may appear willing to inflate the size of these small struggles.
The reason is that, to break their position cornered in the conflict, some colleagues may want to break their isolation by participating in the dispute to people who, because of the role they have in the company, do not have to position themselves for or against someone.
That is why it is worth knowing how to recognize when these cases occur to act consistently according to the nature of the conflict: certain fights are resolved in private .
3. Exercising as a false manager
In the intrigues and pseudo-conspiracies that may appear within an organization, one of the most used methods is to try to win certain people by giving them gifts they have not asked for . Thus, for example, some people may act with paternalism towards us.
The condescending comments before us, or even the attempts to hear how these false managers speak well of us to other colleagues when "they are not supposed to know we are listening" are classics of bad taste that we do not have to tolerate if we suspect that they are not It is part of the spontaneous behavior of these people and they are part of a strategy to win our favor. In these cases, the ideal is to maintain a courteous treatment but not to show signs of gratitude before these gifts not requested . In these cases, assertiveness is everything.
4. Information traffic
In the globalized world, information is power, and Some people can spend a significant part of their workday trying to gossip about everything that happens in the work and personal life of their peers.
This may have its reasons in the utility that certain information may have when it comes to ascending in the company, or may be due to the simple pleasure of browsing. In any case, in the face of this type of behavior, it is good to communicate that there is no valid justification to believe they have the right to know everything about what co-workers do. Within organizations, the need for privacy remains of utmost importance, despite the existence of teamwork.
5. The criticism machine gun
Other colleagues can become very insistent with certain criticisms that are basically unfounded. In this case it is very possible that trying to make us accomplices of these criticisms is not part of any strategy planned to put us against someone: there are people who simply like to criticize.
In these cases, the ideal to make the dynamics of teamwork do not suffer is, first of all, be clear that the person in question criticizes without reason , and second, to make her see in an educated way that we do not think like her. It can also be useful to encourage her to formalize her complaints, since, on the one hand, she will make clear the reasons for her complaints, and secondly, she will be forced to adopt a position in which defending her position will require a certain effort , which may make you wonder how right you are.
