Personally, I have had an encounter with the know-it-all co-worker whose name was Anne (Alison, 2011). Perhaps, all the employees in our workplace were hired based on merit and competence in undertaking their tasks and duties. However, Anne acted as if she knew everything around. Thus, when any of us tried to come with something new or tried to do something constructive, Anne was always on our shoulders trying to provide guidance and unrequired pieces of advice. It is not that she had the technical abilities that could match her words, but it was her nature. She was essentially annoying and it was even difficult for us to share our experiences with her. The worst of all is the fact that she thought she was perfectly better than us and that she could not bear to take workplace advice from us. Unfortunately, Anne was only 25 years old with only a two years job experience to her name. That is extremely weird because she could not even advise the most experienced workers about what was required of them. Unfortunately, Anne was difficult to handle and more so amongst the new employees. Not unless an individual was able to identify her weakness and determine the best communication measure that could be employed to handle her, she could interfere with your confidence in performing your core tasks Cava, R. (2004).
As far as my core goal was to offer my best for the best interests of my company, I handled Anne by displaying confidence and seriousness in my work. Whenever I came up with an innovation or intervention, I kept her off by demonstrating that I was confident in what I was dealing with. In fact, I used to challenge her with complicated questions that were difficult to answer when she seemed to intervene to keep her away. Besides that, I used to advise her about the relevance of listening to others when she came up with unnecessary pieces of advice. On the contrary, I never argued with her but instead; I chose to listen to her until she finished what she intended to express before I spoke my mind out. I did that with a clear consent of showing her the relevance of listening to the opinions of others first before expressing our desires. In retrospect to that, I was always careful in ensuring that she never used her annoying behavior to misguide other workers. Thus, when I noted her misconceptions to others I intervened by reminding her to appreciate the efforts and expertise of others in performing their duties Cava, R. (2004).
Use your promo and get a custom paper on
"Annoying Co-Workers".
I will handle a similar situation in the future by letting the know-it-all co-workers to roll off my back. Perhaps, avoiding unnecessary contact with such workers will be the best way of preventing them from getting on me. Besides that, I will always be careful with the groups of workers with whom to seek technical advice. More importantly, I will always turn such unnecessary opinion down if I have a feeling that they are not constructive. I will also handle such workers by bearing in mind that they are not annoying to me alone but to other workers as well. Nonetheless, my main issue of concern will be to focus on my duties and tasks at the expense of listening to the know-it-all co-workers. Consequently, I will try to avoid them as much as possible to make them understand that I am perfectly comfortable in the absence of their ideas and opinions. In the future, trying not to get annoyed with such workers will be the major tool of maintaining my expertise and professional performance at par (Alison, 2011).
- Alison, G (2011). How to Deal With Annoying Co-Workers. Available at http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/outside-voices-careers/2011/06/06/how-to-deal-with-annoying-co-workers
- Cava, R. (2004). Dealing with difficult people: How to deal with nasty customers, demanding bosses, and annoying co-workers. Buffalo, NY: Firefly Books.
