How to Deal with Difficult People in Your Workplace?

Let’s face it, we often find ourselves stuck in a situation where we have to deal with the people we hate every single day. These are the difficult people that can make our day turn into gray.

But what happens when these difficult people are in your workplace? Your overall performance will be affected, your relationship with your other co workers will hit rock bottom, your stress level will go up, and often, you find yourself having doubts on your abilities.

On some people, the only thing that they can do is to just quit the job.. but what if, you absolutely love everything about this job with the exception of the people surrounding it. If that’s the case, whether you like it or not.. you must do something.

How do you deal with difficult people in your workplace without losing your sanity?

Tip #1

Realize that these type of people will NEVER change.

 It’s like a human being born with arms, you can’t take the arms off or they’ll lose its purpose. They were born with such mentality so you should accept it. So don’t ever think of changing them, because it will never ever happen.

Tip #2

Try to separate work friends from your personal friends.

Not because you spend 8 hours a day at work and have lunch together, you expect them to be with you through tough times. If you found a real friend within your work friends, consider yourself very lucky.

Tip #3

Don’t take anything personally.

I know that just the thought of them can make you choke already, so I can imagine that not taking all their words and actions to heart can be hard as hell. But come to think of it, are their words and actions so important to you that you have to spend every minute thinking about them? Definitely not worth your energy.

Difficult people will make you feel inferior no matter what. Believe it or not, they will try to find the most minute imperfections that they could find in you and polish it more to their liking. That’s what they do. And they are good at it… surprisingly. So keep your cool. For all you know, it annoys them when they see that you’re not affected.

Tip #4

You must understand that difficult people are filled with insecurities. They will gossip their way out.  You must learn the art of letting the message go in one ear and out the other ear. Laugh with them. Smile but don’t indulge yourself with their negative energy. 

Tip #5

Be a good listener.

Most difficult people think that the world revolves around them. They love to talk about themselves. That’s how they boost their ego. That’s how they fuel themselves to keep them going. So, for the benefit of having a healthy working environment in your workplace.. just listen to them.

Tip #6

Revenge!

Jerry Seinfeld once said  in an episode of Seinfeld, “The best revenge is living well.“  I don’t think that getting back at them is the best way to go. So the only thing that you can do is to live your life well. Be successful and be happy. 

I must say that following these tips will drive you nuts for the first few days.. or weeks… or months. It’ll be hard but you must do your part and TRY.

And when worse comes to worst…if everything else fails, maybe it’s time to find another job and move on.