coworkers

Dislike Some of Your Coworkers? Do These 4 Things

By Chelsea Babin

You won’t always get along with your coworkers, however, you do need to find a way to cope with them for at least 40 hours a week despite your disdain. Whether you love all other aspects of your job or you’re just waiting it out until you find another, better opportunity, remember to do these 3 things to make working with coworkers you dislike a little bit easier.

1. Minimal Engagement: This may seem simple and, although it isn’t always possible to cut off your interactions with them entirely, it is possible to make a conscious effort to minimize your engagement with them. Working with someone you actively dislike can drain your energy and steal your focus from more important tasks. Minimizing your engagement with them will reduce your stress and help you focus on the parts of your job you actually enjoy, which will help you be happier at work overall.

2. No Trash Talk: It’s tempting to talk badly about someone who has gotten on your nerves or done you wrong, but it’s not a good idea, particularly with coworkers. Someone hired the person (or people) you dislike for a reason and kept them around for a reason. If you start trash talking this person (or people) with your coworkers, this will not only make you look like a negative, spiteful person it may also fall on the ears of an audience that doesn’t share your dislike. Additionally, spending your time gossiping about people you don’t like just takes away time that you could be spending becoming more productive, more skilled, or bonding with coworkers and loved ones.

3. Focus on Positives: This is a great motto for live but it’s also a great strategy for dealing with coworkers you dislike. Instead of focusing on the parts of their personalities or the things they do that you hate, focus on their positive attributes. While this won’t necessarily make you like them more it will help your brain associate more positivity with the coworkers you dislike and reduce your stress level when you’re around them. Stewing in negative thoughts and feelings can hurt your productivity and your health, so focus on the positives instead!

4. Do Them A Favor: While the coworkers you dislike may be the last people on the planet you want to do a favor for, you should do it anyways. Studies have shown that doing something nice for someone you dislike may actually make you like them more thanks to cognitive dissonance. Essentially, our brains strive for consistency and they want our actions to match our thoughts. If you’re thinking about how much you hate someone and yet doing nice things for them, the brain is more likely to associate positive feelings with that person to maintain the consistency it loves.

Can’t we all just get along? Your dislike for your coworkers may seem like a simple annoyance but, if left to stew and turn more negative, it can seriously hurt your productivity, your work relationships, and your career. Instead, try these 4 strategies for coping with coworkers you can’t stand and you’ll see that, with a little extra effort, you can be happy and productive in your job despite your disdain for some of your coworkers.