Dealing with Annoying Co-workers

Everyone has their own pet peeves and some co-workers may get on your nerves unintentionally. Perhaps they even know their behaviour annoys you and continue with it anyway. It's important to avoid personal attacks and maintain a professional approach. For example, if your co-worker is always playing loud music, you can explain that while the music is nice, it's difficult for you to concentrate on an important project.

If you're really fed up with your co-worker's noise, personal questions, smelly food or other bad habits, take some time before responding. Go out for a short walk, take some deep breaths and calmly assess the situation. Once you're calm, carefully bring up the subject.

While no one gets along all the time, personal boundaries are important. Setting these boundaries early helps avoid disagreements and misunderstandings. If someone is invading your personal space or asking questions you're not comfortable answering, let them know. If they have different boundaries, they may not have realised their behaviour is making you uncomfortable.

If the annoying person's habits could be considered generally unacceptable or unprofessional, you could request a meeting on appropriate work habits. Discuss how the office environment could be improved so that everyone is more comfortable and productive. That way, you can avoid pointing fingers. If the specific behaviour is mentioned, the person may come to a realisation and make changes without being confronted.

You also need to be willing to make compromises and be understanding. Consider your own working habits and how they might affect others. While stealing food is clearly an offense, “smelly” food is a matter of personal opinion. Music or noise level tolerance also varies widely. Unless there are specific policies on an issue, try to follow the golden rule and set an example for your co-workers to do the same.