Catherine's Career Corner
Post Views: 12861 Views

Are you frustrated dealing with a difficult colleague? Then, explore these 7 things to do. Our jobs make a huge impact on our quality of life. Over a lifetime, we spend about 90,000 hours at work. In a week, we spend close to 45 hours alongside others at work. So, imagine having to deal with a difficult colleague day in, day out while you work. If you’re frustrated dealing with a difficult colleague, then, explore these 7 things.

Frustrated Dealing With a Difficult Colleague? Do These 7 Things

By Catherine Adenle

If you’re frustrated dealing with a difficult colleague, it’s vital to explore these 7 things. Our jobs and the number of hours we spend at work make a huge impact on our quality of life. In a week, we spend close to 45 hours alongside others that we work with. So, it’s understandable if you are frustrated dealing with a difficult colleague while at work.

The Writer, Annie Dillard, once famously said, how we spend our days is of course, how we spend our lives. Trust me; the people that we have to spend every day with can make a big difference to how much we enjoy our job. With the number of hours, we spend at work weekly, if you get stuck with a difficult colleague then it can affect your whole working attitude, morale and increase your stress levels. If we feel frustrated dealing with a difficult colleague, naturally, our first instinct may be to just try and ignore the colleague or pretend that they are not there. However, this simply won’t be possible in the long run. It is much better to try and confront the issue, sort the difficulties out so you can both move on and be happy at work.

Sometimes, we use the term, ‘personality conflict’ to describe this situation. The term implies that the problem is largely unfixable since it is unlikely that either you or the other person is going to change your personalities. It is better to be and get down to specific behaviors, not personalities.

If you’re frustrated dealing with a difficult colleague, consider some background things:

  • The situations tend to occur over time.
  • Small annoying behaviors left unattended move to bigger more annoying behaviors.
  • Trying to ignore these things at the beginning has contributed to the problem.

Consider these basic principles:

  • In any working relationship, both people influence the other’s behavior.
  • In almost every conflict situation, both parties bear some responsibility for where “things are at”.
  • Focusing on blame will just drive you crazy. The key to these situations is to focus on what YOU can do to make things better. It doesn’t matter who is at fault if your concern is to make things better.
  • You have little control over the personality and even behavior of another person. Your best bet is to focus on your own behavior change.
  • Ask yourself: What am I doing that contributes to this unpleasant situation, and what can I do to change what I am doing?

If you’re frustrated dealing with a difficult colleague, try these 7 things:

1. Find One Common Ground

It is just not possible to be everybody’s best friend and you are bound to come up against some personality clashes. However, at the same time, you can usually find something in common with almost everyone. Whether it is your family situation, hobbies or simply the weather, try and find that common tie with your difficult colleague. If you feel frustrated dealing with a difficult colleague, doing this will help create a more relaxed relationship and hopefully break some of the tension between you.

2. Avoid Working Closely With Them

I don’t advocate this but if the situation is really bad and if it is affecting work, everybody and if you haven’t been able to form any kind of useful relationship with your colleague then try to avoid working closely with them. If you find them difficult then it is likely that they can sense the tension and would probably prefer not to work with you either.

3. Try and Celebrate the Differences
Just because someone isn’t walking the same path as you, doesn’t mean they’re going the wrong way. Sometimes people have very different outlooks on how something should be done, but they may both have valid points. Having differing ideas can actually make you work better as a team as you complement each other. If possible, when you feel frustrated dealing with a difficult colleague, try and see how your colleague’s difficult ways could work as an asset.

4. Now is the Time to Talk to Them
If you have tried to be nice, tried avoiding them and made an attempt to see how they could be an asset for you and you still can’t stand them, you need to talk to them. It’s probably the last thing that you want to do but sometimes clearing the air is the beginning of a much better relationship. Take them aside so you don’t embarrass them in front of colleagues and be honest about your concerns. Make sure you don’t put all the blame on them and instead concentrate on what you can both do to resolve the situation.

At a time when both you and the other person or calm, ask if you can talk to them (do it privately-this is between the two of you). Approach the situation in a non-accusatory manner (not easy if you are frustrated). Try something like this:

Follow his up with proper listening, so the other person knows that you are truly concerned and interested. When possible find things to agree on, and offer something..

Since you are clearly frustrated, it is likely that you are doing things that convey your frustration to the other person. You shouldn’t have to take abuse and smile, but neither should you be attacking or reacting in kind. It is important that you deal with things firmly, but nicely, and without any drama. No looking away, eye-rolling, no heavy sighing, no other activities. If the other person is rude or nasty to you, you can respond with quiet dignity and set limits regarding the specific behaviors, but if you react angrily, you will almost always make the situation worse.

5. Talk to Your Boss
Once you have tried all of these steps, if nothing is working then you may have to resort to talking to your boss about the situation. Make sure you have firm examples of when your colleague has been difficult and offer practical solutions about how you could make the relationship better.

The time to have dealt with this situation was early on, with a combination of politeness, firmness, and limit setting. In some situations, the conflict has become so polarized that you may need help in dealing with it, both practically, and personally, to change your way of looking at it. That is when to talk to your manager and explain the situation as objectively as possible.

Request help or suggestions, and focus on fixing the problem, and taking some responsibility for it. The outcome may be that the manager may bring you both together to talk about the situation and work out a plan, or even that you and the other person might get involved in mediation or some other form of intervention.

6. Don’t involve everyone
Immediately afterward, don’t make the situation one for public discussion or discussion with other staff members. This is disruptive to the organization, but worse, it will make it more difficult to fix the situation. When you gossip about someone else, you tend to focus on the worst parts and paint that person in a negative way. That affects your thinking and actually shortens your patience, particularly when you get covert support from others.

7. Know that you have both rights and responsibilities in these situations.

Your responsibilities include:

  • Approaching the other person in a polite, problem-solving way to work things out.
  • Avoiding actions that make the situation worse.
  • The willingness to recognize that you have probably contributed to the problem
  • Listening to the other person rather than trying to convince or bully them.
  • Seeking help from others in a dignified, open and constructive way.


Your rights include:

  • Setting behavioral limits and consequences when nasty, abusive behavior is directed at you.
  • The expectation that the other person will work in an open problem solving and courteous way.
  • An expectation that management will help, but may not be able to solve the problem without your cooperation and that of the other person.


Please note that there is nothing that will make you enjoy work less than having difficult colleagues. Try your best to find common ground with them and see the benefits of your differences. If that doesn’t work then talk to them about your concerns and how you can both work together to make the relationship better. If all else fails, approach your boss but make sure you have firm examples and practical solutions.

Do you have any other tips on dealing with difficult colleagues at work to share with us? Please let us hear from you. Leave your comments below.

Catherine Adenle
Founder, Catherine's Career Corner. The career site empowering and inspiring ambitious candidates of all ages and professions to thrive and work smarter on their careers. Gladly helping all career-minded people worldwide to explore their career, manage change and understand how new technologies are changing and enhancing the future of work.
Catherine Adenle
Catherine Adenle

Latest posts by Catherine Adenle (see all)

One thought on “Frustrated Dealing With a Difficult Colleague? Do These 7 Things

  1. Hey, Catherine, thanks. I have a situation that I am dealing with now at work. I will take your advice and do these things.
    Apt blog by the way. Thank you.
    Nene from Canada

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

18 + ten =

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.