10 Ways To Deal With A Competitive Coworker
10 Ways To Deal With A Competitive Coworker. We spend the most time in the workplace. Sometimes though, this is one place we dread going to. There is always competition and subtle drama going on. The following tips will help you deal with those coworkers who are giving you grieve with their competitiveness.
1. Accept Its Presence
Competition is unavoidable. No matter where your career leads you, there will be ample competition to keep you on your toes and it is ever present. Try to become comfortable and make peace with it.
2. Compliment Them
Flattery may be the way to win over your rival and get them to see that you’re not a threat. As I explained earlier, many people are often competitive as they are insecure, and if you help boost their ego, they’ll most likely drop the act and be friendlier towards you.
3. Take It As Motivation
If you’re going to reach your goals, you have to ensure you’re the best at what you do. A little competition at work is a good thing, if you channel it into self-improvement. You need to show your colleagues and your boss that you have the skills and abilities to lead.
4. Be The Bigger Person
Regardless of how competitive colleagues choose to act or how frustrating it can be at times, make the decision to always be fair, accountable, and team-oriented in the work that you do. Choosing not to engage in petty competition, your aggressive counterpart will start to stick out like a sore thumb, and they just might back off.
5. Don’t Lose Focus
It’s easy to let a competitive coworker become the existence of your work life. They can deliberately make you lose focus on your actual work thus creating an easy win for them. Learn to fight the temptation and stay focused on what you were employed to do.
6. Talk To Them
Talking your issues out might help. Tell your coworker that you don’t find their approach to office life helpful and it’s creating unnecessary stress and drama. They probably know this, but you’ve got to give them the benefit of the doubt.
7. Talk To Your Boss
If things hit the point where you see no option except going to your boss, make sure you have an ironclad case for why you can’t deal with this co-worker on your own any more. Going to your boss is a huge move, and you want to show that you’re taking it really seriously.
8. Don’t Bite Back
No matter how much the competitor tries to provoke you, it’s imperative that you bite the bullet and don’t answer back. Their behaviour may be the result of insecurities, and if that’s the case they probably feel threatened by your success and will exhaust all avenues to try and shed you in a bad light. Make sure you’re always civil and respectful to everyone in the workplace.
9. Know Your Rights
If your colleague is using deceptive and unfair methods to compete against you (for example, they are abusing the system and taking your good leads just to be at ‘the top of the game’ and win the end-of-month bonus), file a complaint and report what’s going on to your HR department who will be able to investigate the matter further.
10. Find Another Job
If you have exhausted all your options and you’re still feeling the effects of a toxic work environment, it might be time for you to look elsewhere for another job. You need to think about your own happiness, at the end of the day, and if you really can’t resolve your differences with your annoying colleague, then you’ll need to find an escape route.
