Office Politics: The Winning Strategy with Coworkers From Hell? Aim at Justice Instead of Revenge

Coworkers from hell? Just too many stories to tell!

Working in the Academic world, unfortunately I ended up dealing with so many evil co-workers, that would be hard to count them all as their nasty, malicious deeds. Their wickedness and meanness go beyond all imagination. Witness, directly or indirectly of so many cases, I often thought that I would have much more to publish about this subject than about my scientific field of choice. That’s the real problem!

All the evil in your work environment takes so much of your attention away from what should be your unique and absolute priorities. Stealing from you the Best of your Time and Energy is the major aim of those who make a hell of your work-day.

Are You thinking to take more time away from your priorities for preparing a revenge? Oh No! By all means, that’s not worthy at all! Your Time is precious! Don’t lose it behind useless things and senseless people. Don’t play his/her game. Then, I doubt that anyone can think in his/her right mind to feel content in acting as the shameful guy from hell.

Provoking a reaction from you is definitely the second aim of your evil co-worker. Don’t fall in the trap. Do not respond to provocations. Give a second thought to what happened with him/her and act calmly and reasonably not out of the impulse of the moment. Right Action and not Reaction must be your aim!

Act out of right-judgment, right-mindedness and insight. Rather than settle for revenge, by all means do what is Just. Indeed, Justice and not Revenge must be your final goal.

First of all examine the gravity of the situation you found yourself involved in because of the evil deeds of your coworker from hell. By that calm analysis you’ll determine the severity of the measure that you MUST take. You are not supposed to live with the consequences of his/her evil deeds on you.

In many cases, it may work trying to render things public. Probably this can discourage the coward co-workers, who realize that they cannot get away with it and have more to lose than to gain in terms of image by getting in your way.

Invite the help of third parties for resolving conflicts which may derive. Try either in your own Institute or Company, through the Human Resources department, for example, or outsource your help. You might need it. Remember to keep everything on file, record just anything important for eventual confrontations.