Co-Workers...UGH!
I have spoken prior about how much I love, love, love my job, but what I haven't told all of you is this...
I have a co-worker, named K, who I got into alittle "tit for tat" with about 3 months into my job. It wasn't pretty and I was quite taken aback by it at the time, but I remained calm and ended up going to my boss and getting it settled. Well, since then I have been keeping things low key with K...not getting too close because I know in deep in my gut she isn't one to trust. Anyway, I was out sick yesterday due to my ankle (have a problem with my tendon in my foot -been to the foot doc prior for it) and my boss is out on vacation this week. I wrote an e-mail to my other co-worker in the a.m., who I am friendly with, saying that I was going to stay home. Well, won't you know, K immediately had something to say to my other co-worker when she heard I wasn't coming in. She claims I have always been taking time off at the same time when our boss is out (this seems to be a sore subject due to the fact the prior woman who did this job, apparently took time off always when boss was out). K told my other co-worker that she should have a talk with me about this. I have only been out sick 2 other times since last November and both of those times our boss was in the office. The other times have been all approved vacation time by our boss. I also, think she probably doesn't know that I get 3 weeks vacation a year because usually you don't get that many weeks until you are here 5 years or more, but that was the offer that was made to me when I started. I think they gave me more vacation in exchanged for alittle lower of a salary to start, but now since that time I am almost making what I requested originally due to my raise this past June.
K has a nasty habit talking behind people backs. She always has something not nice to say about the teachers and other staff here...always picking out their faults and then acts all nice in front of them. In fact, she just came into my office five minutes ago and was like "OMG...when these teachers come back for the new school year, I have so much work to do and I hate it because" and then went into detail about this one teacher and how she can't write for beans. K's job is partly Communications for the school. I don't want to agree or disagree with her so I just go "oh and umm" and don't say much. I just want to keep my nose clean and not take sides - don't want to get caught in the middle. There seems to be a somewhat divided line here between our office and the teachers over in the other building. I am not the type of person to talk badly about anyone, especially people I don't know well enough or have any contact with.
I personally think K has an insecurity problem that she needs to point out what she belive are other people's inperfections, so she looks good.
Need some advice, ladies...how would you handle this because I really love this job and don't want this stuff to start affecting me negatively.
Oh, the wonderful world of office politics!
I have a co-worker, named K, who I got into alittle "tit for tat" with about 3 months into my job. It wasn't pretty and I was quite taken aback by it at the time, but I remained calm and ended up going to my boss and getting it settled. Well, since then I have been keeping things low key with K...not getting too close because I know in deep in my gut she isn't one to trust. Anyway, I was out sick yesterday due to my ankle (have a problem with my tendon in my foot -been to the foot doc prior for it) and my boss is out on vacation this week. I wrote an e-mail to my other co-worker in the a.m., who I am friendly with, saying that I was going to stay home. Well, won't you know, K immediately had something to say to my other co-worker when she heard I wasn't coming in. She claims I have always been taking time off at the same time when our boss is out (this seems to be a sore subject due to the fact the prior woman who did this job, apparently took time off always when boss was out). K told my other co-worker that she should have a talk with me about this. I have only been out sick 2 other times since last November and both of those times our boss was in the office. The other times have been all approved vacation time by our boss. I also, think she probably doesn't know that I get 3 weeks vacation a year because usually you don't get that many weeks until you are here 5 years or more, but that was the offer that was made to me when I started. I think they gave me more vacation in exchanged for alittle lower of a salary to start, but now since that time I am almost making what I requested originally due to my raise this past June.
K has a nasty habit talking behind people backs. She always has something not nice to say about the teachers and other staff here...always picking out their faults and then acts all nice in front of them. In fact, she just came into my office five minutes ago and was like "OMG...when these teachers come back for the new school year, I have so much work to do and I hate it because" and then went into detail about this one teacher and how she can't write for beans. K's job is partly Communications for the school. I don't want to agree or disagree with her so I just go "oh and umm" and don't say much. I just want to keep my nose clean and not take sides - don't want to get caught in the middle. There seems to be a somewhat divided line here between our office and the teachers over in the other building. I am not the type of person to talk badly about anyone, especially people I don't know well enough or have any contact with.
I personally think K has an insecurity problem that she needs to point out what she belive are other people's inperfections, so she looks good.
Need some advice, ladies...how would you handle this because I really love this job and don't want this stuff to start affecting me negatively.
Oh, the wonderful world of office politics!
I would continue to try and keep things low key. Just don't engage her and extricate yourself whenever she tries to engage you for non-work stuff or gossip.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the previous poster..and usually would have said to talk to the woman and set her straight...but I have learned it doesn't always work...either way best of luck on the situation...
DeleteWhere I work we deal with that and many other things..:)
I have a very similar coworker and you are right at least for me, I've come to realize that she is very very insecure. I used to let all of her "talking about me behind my back" upset me and I worried about it for months and spent a lot of time on it.
ReplyDeleteWhat's worked for me is to be friendly with her and try to find things about her that I actually like and to understand that it's a problem with her and not me. I'm not her best friend and I don't trust her but I can be nice to her based on my understanding that she has this issue with herself. This has helped in two ways, 1 I am not so wrapped up in it anymore and 2 she actually likes me more and is less inclined to say things behind my back.
The reality is that the people she's talking to will or already do start to realize that she is this way and to take what she says with a grain of salt. That's how mine's played out. She is now known as the gossip and as someone who complains non stop and it's not been good for her career.