People can be difficult, agreed. Some are even more difficult than others. Difficult people in this context are people who pose more problems than is normal or acceptable for an adult. Difficult people in the workplace are those colleagues who no one likes to be paired with, the one who seems to have a problem with everyone. And as we know, you can not change someone's personality. You could try to mould them, but in the end, people would always be who they are. As individuals, how do we deal with difficult people who happen to be our colleagues or co-workers?

Characteristics of difficult people.

People could prove to be difficult by being;

• Know-it-alls; who constantly undermine your abilities

• Destructive critiques

• Needy/overly dependent

• Rude/gossip

• Complainer / whiney

• Sluggish

• Nonchalant, indifferent, unmotivated.

• The carefree or lackadaisical

• Narcissist. This category of individuals is perhaps the most difficult people to work with. But there are ways to cope with narcissistic people. (https://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Narcissist-Respect-You).

• Demanding (mostly bosses)

• Passive-aggressive attitude

In short, difficult people are people who slow down the work pace, alter the work routine needlessly as a result of their personality flaws, spoil, destroy or make light of work done by others or demoralize others by their words or actions and general lack of proper work ethics.

The problem of working with difficult people.

Working with people who possess and display the characters mentioned above is an uphill task. Their attitude is uncooperative or minimally so and their contributions are necessary to achieve the company's goals. Difficult people are a major reason why others are stressed out daily as you often end up doing their jobs for them or use up more energy trying to get them to do their jobs. There's also the stress of trying to avoid them or minimize contact with them. If care isn't taken, this can dampen your zeal and lessen your motivation which is vital for productivity.

Hardly can anyone thrive around difficult individuals. Overall they make work more difficult than it is.

How to work with difficult people

Take time to compare your job description and theirs. The aim of this is to help you map out clearly where your roles meet or at what point and how frequently you would require correspondence or cooperation from the difficult person in question. Knowing this would help you prepare mentally for the task of having to deal with them. For instance, say a janitor who cleans up an office complex after work hours when everyone else is supposed to be out. 'None difficult' adults use the waste bins provided but Mr Nabal doesn't care to do so. He litters his space and constantly works late because he spends official work hours whining and complaining, now you can't clean up till he's done and this is the case every day of the week. What can you do? You already know that his office would be a mess, prepare your mind for that and you won't be disappointed, the hurt you'd feel would be much less. Secondly, rather than clean up other offices and wait for him to leave, check in on him as soon as you resume duty and let him know he's the one keeping you. As you go about your job, check in on him every few minutes, this would make him leave earlier or at least hurry him up and reduce the time you spend waiting.

You can also do the following in dealing with difficult people:

• Avoid idle talks with them- This way you get to focus on your job and they on Thiers and minimize whatever effect they may have on you.

• Be firm with them. Let them know certain attitudes would not be tolerated

• When the difficult person is a sluggish individual, give deadlines and follow up to make sure they beat those deadlines.

• Be professional in your dealings with them

• When your productivity is affected, talk to your boss about it.

• Seek approval and validation only from your superiors. This keeps you away from their snide remarks, biting sarcasm and destructive comments.

SmartSMSSolutions has also provided great information on how to deal with know-it-alls. There's also information on how to handle lazy co-workers. (How to deal with know-it-alls and how to deal with lazy coworkers ).

The steps mentioned above are sure ways to cope while working with difficult people. Practice them and thank me later. It is time though to introspect. Are you a difficult person? How many of the characters displayed by difficult people do you exhibit? What would your coworkers say? If you fall into this category of difficult people, now you know that working with you has been a challenge for your colleagues. You surely were not being deliberately difficult, all isn't lost. Now you know better, take a few steps backwards and let your colleagues breathe easy with you around. There are also a couple of things you can do to make working with you easier

( https://trulery.com/blog/2017/5/11/what-to-do-if-you-have-a-difficult-personality ).

Overall, there would always be people around with some form of negative attitude that could pull you down or distract you from your goals. There are ways to avoid letting their negativity and toxicity get to you. (purposehttps://psychcentral.com/pro/recovery-expert/2020/03/how-to-protect-yourself-from-others-negative-energy#1).

Whatever business you run, SmartSMSSolutions provides you with the smart option when it comes to communicating with your clients/customers.

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