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A 2007 survey by the administrative staffing firm OfficeTeam found that 29% of respondents said they work with someone who is rude or unprofessional on the job. Some more serious aspects of this behavior have been given the name "desk rage" – a term which has periodically appeared in news articles over the past few years. For example, a July 2008 Reuters article on the subject quoted statistics that found nearly half of Americans report yelling and verbal abuse on the job, with roughly a quarter saying it has driven them to tears, and 2% to 3% of people admitted to pushing, slapping, or hitting someone at work. So while some people's negative experiences with their coworkers are chiefly annoyances, others' experiences are horror stories of assaults, or of backstabbers, saboteurs, liars, two-faces, gossips, slackers, thieves, bullies, harassers, or incompetents. As with any dysfunctional relationship, those among coworkers are sometimes one-sided and sometimes otherwise. And because we tend to spend more time in contact with our coworkers than with our bosses, coworkers have more opportunities to drive us crazy – and worse. Finally, there are different types of problematic coworkers that one may have to deal with (and I don't just mean the backstabbers versus the slackers): • Some are problems,
and know they are problems, and act maliciously,
whether to yank their coworkers' chains, or because
they are protected because the boss is their buddy,
or to exploit the fact that the boss is ineffective,
etc.
• Some are problems,
and know they are problems, and behave as they
do because they don't care about the job, their
coworkers, the people they serve, etc.
• Some are problems,
but think that other people are the problem, so
don't feel the need to change, but may improve
after a reality check from someone in authority.
• Some are problems,
but don't know they are problems, and would do
better if someone would (politely) let them know.
• Related to the above
point are those who are problems, but only temporary
ones. That is, they are normally decent, but they
are having some type of personal problem which
they are taking out on others. These people, too,
usually benefit from someone letting them know
that their behavior is not acceptable. Coworkers & Workers' HealthWhile coworkers can drive us to distraction, can they actually affect our health as a bad boss can affect our health? Yes. Statistics Canada's January 1999 document Work Stress and Health, found, based on 9,023 employed adults aged 18 to 64, that low coworker support is related to incidence of migraine among men, and to work injury and psychological distress among women. However, a June 2004 report published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine found that while coworker and supervisor support were inversely related to the risk of being injured in an occupational accident, the relation did but did not reach statistical significance. At the same time, the report did find that conflicts with one's supervisor or colleagues had a significant effect on risk of being injured in an occupational accident. Regarding mental health, a January 2006 study of workplace bullying, health, and stress found that those who are bullied reported more symptoms of somatisation, depression, anxiety, and negative affectivity than did the nonbullied respondents. And a five-year follow-up study of almost 5,000 Danish workers found that those who are subjects of "nasty teasing" experienced psychological health effects. Further, a July 2007 paper published in the International Journal of Nursing Studies reported that coworker and patient support were statistically significantly related to all three of Maslach's burnout dimensions (emotional exhaustion, depersonalization of others, and a feeling of reduced personal accomplishment), while supervisor support was only associated with high emotional exhaustion. Coworkers can also impact cardiovascular health. A study in the March 1, 2005 issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology, which followed 14,337 Belgian men for three years, found that the social support a person gets from supervisors and coworkers can affect incidence of coronary events. Meanwhile, a study from the March/April 2003 issue of Psychosomatic Medicine reported that workplace social support is associated with workday ambulatory blood pressure, especially during stressful work periods, with the more support, the lower the blood pressure. In the case of workplace sexual harassment by a coworker (or supervisor), a person may experience stress, anxiety, headaches, sleeplessness and fatigue, alcohol use and abuse, and worse, which obviously would also impact the workplace in ways such as stress-related absences and inefficiencies, difficulty concentrating, staff turnover, and more. Coworkers & the Workplace's "Health"So not surprisingly, coworker interaction also affects functioning in the workplace. A 2007 study of 901 workers in the UK found that satisfaction with one's coworkers related significantly to employee engagement in their work. Similarly, research from 2003 found that while supervisory conflict was significantly related to emotional exhaustion among employees, coworker conflict was significantly associated with depersonalization among employees. Clearly, if workers are not engaged in what they're doing, work quality will suffer. Meanwhile, a March 2004 study of 263 American hospital nurses and 40 non-American nurses found that perceived social support from coworkers not only decreased levels of reported stress, but enhanced the level of reported job performance. And bad behavior can cause other bad behavior, while good behavior can somewhat moderate it: A 2003 investigation of 230 young males and females found that low levels of job control and social support, and high levels of job dissatisfaction, were independently associated with increased work-related anger. However, social support moderated the impact of low job control on anger directed at coworkers. What to Do?How specifically to deal with nightmare coworkers depends on the exact nature and seriousness of the problem, but in general: • Remember that you
don't have to like each other; you just have
to work together.
• Remember that we all
have bad days and we all behave like idiots sometimes.
Don't let one instance of bad behavior cause you
to react badly and therefore make a bad situation
worse. And don't hold the behavior against the
person forever.
• Similarly, if someone
is being uncharacteristically nasty, ask if there
is anything that you can do to help – it
may be a case of overload or stress that you can
alleviate.
• Don't sink to the level
of someone who is behaving badly.
• Try to work things
out yourself privately and politely, with a focus
on solving the problem. While not everyone has
the comfort level to do this, and it's not guaranteed
to work, sometimes the person stops the problematic
behavior once they're made aware of it –
or once they know people are on to them.
• Keep notes of what
is going on. If you want to take things to a higher
level, you'll need documentation, not just generalizations.
• If the situation is
something that you can't handle or don't feel comfortable
handling, go to your supervisor. Sometimes the
supervisor will inexplicably support the dysfunctional
coworker, but usually the supervisor will be helpful.
If the supervisor isn't helpful, and the situation
is serious, you may want to go over her or his
head.
• To improve your own
skills and comfort, seek out CE courses or inservices
on topics such as conflict management, dealing
with difficult people, communication skills, etc.
(or suggest that the unit/department hold inservices
on these topics).
• Don't dwell on the
problem coworker; concentrate on what you like
about your work (e.g., the challenge, your patients,
your other coworkers).
• Continue to do your
job well, while minimizing contact with the problem
coworker. Don't hide when the person comes around,
but generally keep contact on an as-needed basis.
• Maintain your self-esteem.
• Leave your work at
work.
• Be aware of the signs
and symptoms of burnout
and work to avoid it – or if it's too late
to avoid it, work to deal with it.
• If you really like
the workplace, job, patients, etc., except for
a coworker or two, see if you can change shifts,
units, or departments.
• And, of course, the
final option is to quit.
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