Dealing With a Frenemy at Work

When you think of your happy place, it probably isn’t your office. While it can’t be possible that every person on earth hates their job, it does seem like so many of them spend a great deal of time complaining about their work place; the hours, the boss, and the coworkers. While you probably can’t do anything about your hours or your boss’ weird rules, you can do something about those awful coworkers of yours. When you don’t get along with one, it can make the workplace a difficult place to be, which means you need to find a way to deal with your frenemy at work.

Get To the Bottom of Your Problem

Here’s the deal; when you have a problem with someone you are probably 50 percent of the issue. Before you go confronting your coworker about why she doesn’t like you, figure out if you are partly to blame for the issue. Do you simply not like her because she’s gorgeous and perfect and you feel frumpy and out of sorts all the time? The truth is, if she senses you hate her, she’s going to hate you back. Figure out what you’ve done – if anything – before you try to make amends.

Consider Your Options

Now that you know what the problem is, consider how you want to handle it to make sure the conflict goes away. Letting it go and ignoring it is a terrible idea, because most people are incapable of letting things go without resolution. Perhaps you should apologize to her if you’ve done something to offend her. You can also go straight to her and say, “I feel that there is tension between us, and I’m sorry if I’ve done XXXXX to you, and I want to make things right.”

Make Your Anger Disappear

You may work through your issues with someone else, but if you really don’t like them, it’s hard to work through that in the long run. You might consider focusing on something else when that person is around, such as making calls when she’s nearby so you can avoid speaking to her or hearing what she has to say, since you know everything out of her mouth is obnoxious anyway.