What if it’s Me?

LTAW February Theme is Loving My Work: We get up every morning to another day on the job. Do you jump out of bed saying YES, I can’t wait to get there or do you roll over, turn off the alarm for the third time and wish it was Saturday already. “I love my job, I hate, my job, I love my Job, I hate my job.” Inasmuch as February is the month of Love we are focusing on Getting to LOVE as it relates to your job.

So by now you know that around most people have a coworker who grates on their nerves. We’re sure you do, too. But what if it’s you? What if you are the one that annoys the life out of your coworkers? And how would you know?

If you’re the culprit behind the inordinately high annoyance factor in your office, you may or may not have the awareness level of The Office’s Dwight Schrute. Dwight is a good mockumentary parallel for one of the real-life world world’s most aggravating characters: the butt-kisser. But he’s just one in a long, fabled line of cubicle characters that incite, aggravate, and perturb the average working stiff. These include:

• The Loudmouth. As a child, my dad had an employee named Bob who was pretty convinced that he was still a drill sergeant in the U.S. Army – because his volume levels in normal interoffice conversation were what most would reserve for berating wayward underlings. It wasn’t that he was yelling out of meanness or anger. Bob just talked louder than any normal human being really needed to.
• The Office Gossip Depot. Everyone knows that one coworker that you go to if you want the dirty details on someone else’s business, who is getting fired, hired, who’s sleeping with who, etc. You may find that person fun to chat with sometimes, but you do not want to be that person. And be careful how much you share with that person.
• The Sycophant. Nothing is more aggravating or less respectable than a coworker or boss who immediately crumbles into a steaming pile of submission whenever a higher up wants things done a certain way. Do you really want to be the one who coworkers know not to trust because you sell out the minute the corner office brigade pushes back? That’s not the way to win trust or respect from your coworkers or your bosses.
• Mr. or Ms. Nasty. Yes, you. You who clips your toenails in a pile on your desk top and “forgets” to throw the clippings out. The one who discusses personal health issues in great detail (“Well, first I had nausea, and then the diarrhea started…”) for all to hear over those lovely half-wall cubes. Uh, yeah. Get a grip on those nasty habits, please. It’s freaking the rest of us out.

Certainly there are countless other types of workplace behaviors that offend on a deep level. If you really step back and take a good, unprejudiced look at your own behavior, you may find that you are indeed guilty of some of these behaviors. So how do you do damage control?

For starters: knock it off! This will take some self-control and self-awareness, yes – but you can do it! Once you feel that you’ve gotten a hold on the negative behavior, try these steps to repair your image at work:

• Be nice, be helpful. Don’t feel like you have to walk on eggshells, but do try to be a little extra polite and offer a little extra support to some coworkers, especially the ones you feel you may have offended in particular. This can go a long way.
• Talk it out. Do this in private and at a calm time, but you may truly need to give a heartfelt and personal apology to someone you’ve upset. Be humble and sincere, but not groveling. Prove your desire to change through action, not words.

Get education. In some situations, you could benefit from a little simple training to help you change your behavior patterns. This is especially true if your offense is something relating to organization or habits. Nothing like organizational tips or a dining etiquette course to bring you up a few notches in your professional image.

Lovin’ my work!