ACS career tips Working with difficult people
CREDIT: SHUTTERSTOCK
Sometimes you find yourself working with someone with whom you just don’t get along. Maybe their personality is grating, or their political views are different from yours. Maybe they are a font of useless knowledge. Whatever the reason, you constantly conflict. Still, you need to figure out how to work together.
who can help you, or is there a colleague who gets along with both of you and will run interference?
Work with others. Are there others who are
having the same issue? Talk to others, discreetly of course, and feel them out about the issue. Maybe they have found a way to work with this person Evaluate. How you and you can adopt choose to deal with that approach. Maybe a difficult person deseveral of you can work pends on many factors, together around this including how much other person. Docuyou need them, how ment everything. You long the project will go may be able to enlist on, and how significant the support of your the impact on your supervisor to talk to professional life will In a challenging work situation, try their supervisor. You be. When you first real- to see eye to eye. can also band together ize there is a problem, to make management take a long, objective look and determine aware of the scope of the problem. If noththe source. Is this a change in the other ing else, it will make you feel better to know person’s behavior that may reverse itself, or that you are not alone. have they always been this way and are they unlikely to change? Do they not know what Leave. If you are unable to do your job efthey are doing, or do they just not care? fectively because of this situation, it’s time to leave. You can ask to be transferred to anWork with them. Find a time to speak with other project or department, or even start them calmly, privately, and nonconfrontalooking for a new job. At the very least, you tionally. Maintain your calm, and use “I” can refuse to work on the next project with language: Describe your experiences and that person, or set some specific ground what you see without attacking or accusing rules in advance with your supervisor. them. Use concrete examples and offer specific suggestions for ways they can change It’s no fun to go into work and battle every to help you. In an ideal world, they will be day, and you shouldn’t have to. Take the enlightened and apologize for their past necessary steps to identify and deal with behavior, but in reality, they may become the problem, and the short-term pain will defensive. be more than made up for by the long-term gain. Work without them. If you can’t get them to change their behavior, can you Get involved in the discussion. The ACS Cachange yours? Can you minimize reer Tips column is published the first interactions and still get your week of every month in C&EN. work accomplished? Can you Post your comments, follow the downgrade from in-person discussion, and suggest topics conversations to phone calls, for future columns in the Caor from phone calls to e-mail, reer Development section of without introducing new misACS Network (www.acs.org/ understandings? Look for othnetwork-careers).—BROUGHT er ways to get the resources you TO YOU BY ACS CAREER need. Do they have an assistant NAVIGATOR
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C&EN | CEN.ACS.ORG | MAY 1, 2017
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