Office assistants navigate through many different people in a given day from both inside and outside of work. While most people are generally pleasant, some workplace personalities can be difficult to handle on a regular basis. Learning how to manage workplace interactions represents one key to becoming a vital administrative assistant.
Office Ninjas offers some advice, tips, tricks and tactics for those hard-nosed workplace personalities that you find overbearing. When you master these people, your daily work at the office may seem less stressful and more enjoyable. When you manage workplace interactions in different ways with different people, you become an even more valuable asset to your boss.
Fear mongers try to intimidate people with scare tactics and these types react harshly to most situations. Even worse, many fear mongers have positions of power and use this fear to motivate the teams they supervise. The trick to this personality is to respond with kindness, such as a smile or polite small talk. Do not respond to fear mongers with more fear tactics, because that just eggs them on even more.
Debbie or Donnie downers are never satisfied with anything. They keep losing their tails like Eeyore, and it always rains on their parades. These workplace personalities feel everything is wrong, and they stick to stubborn tendencies despite suggestions for improvement. Ask these types of people "why" every time they respond with "no" and see what happens. When you make someone defend themselves, watch their arguments fall apart quickly.
Double crossers may be the most difficult of the workplace personalities to manage. These people manipulate the circumstances on a whim to gain advantages by any means necessary. Call out these personality types so they know you know what they are up to and, hopefully, the double crossers will treat you better.
Flakes may seem to just not get it. They may not be smart and you probably have to repeat yourself to these workplace personalities several times. Friendly reminders to these people about what you need from them can alleviate some stress caused by flakes. Otherwise, you may have to have a heart-to-heart talk about how these workers must pick it up a notch.
Black holes feel they are the center of the office and need their egos stroked constantly. These types don't take criticism well and they seek to control conversations to gain superiority at the office. Steer clear of black holes as much as possible lest you get sucked into the histrionics.
Despite these dour personalities, having unique and different views at work provides a better overall business. Bosses still use personality assessment tests to find ways to motivate and encourage the different types of people on the team. Knowing your employees helps resolve conflicts, edify the team concept and prevent employee turnover. Perhaps you can run your own personality test on these difficult types to assess how best to approach them.
Difficult workplace personalities don't have to become problems. Knowing what you deal with regularly may be half the battle. The next step deals with implementing practical measures to take the stress out of strong personalities at the office.
Photo courtesy of Ambro at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
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