5 toxic attitudes of coworkers

In the work environment, spending many hours a week with people with interests and roles different from ours can lead to some toxic attitudes.

Is about ways of acting and predispositions of behavior that harm us and the rest of the team, worsening the work environment and causing the performance of the organization to be weighed down, at least in part.

• Related article: "Toxic bosses: 11 characteristics that define them"

Toxic Companions - Have you ever had to deal with someone like that?

As it is very easy for these toxic attitudes to become chronic, causing all team members to become adapt (and resign themselves) to living with them, it is convenient to detect them as soon as possible and nip them in the bud, for the sake of everyone.

Let's see what these toxic attitudes of peers are and how to fight them.

1. The least bad option

Certain co-workers they can create a basically involuntary manipulation system, based on his bad mood. These people take advantage of their short-tempered moments to create

little blackmails that puts the overall functioning of the work team at risk. Basically, what they do is try to make the rest of their colleagues make sacrifices to appease them, carrying part of their work as in a strategy in which the lesser evil is chosen.

What happens is that, in the first place, the reason these people are in a bad mood has nothing to do with what happens at work, and therefore on many occasions it is not the responsibility of the rest of their colleagues. However, the consequences of their anger do affect the work environment, creating the illusion that it is a company problem.

In this way, the others will be willing to "bear" the consequences of the bad mood and they will give preferential treatment to this person. In turn, there comes a point where the partner who is benefiting from this "learns" that his bad mood is rewarded.

In the event that we detect this toxic attitude, the ideal is encourage the Human Resources department to contact this person to explore the origins of their emotional state and see how it can be resolved without negatively affecting the entire organization. Confronting this person with the same emotional intensity that she uses in complaining is not recommended, because can generate a rebound effect and make her look even more angry, this time by making us part of her anger.

• Know more: "Toxic friendships: 7 signs to spot a bad friend"

2. Making the conflict spread

Within an organization it is relatively frequent that certain frictions and conflicts arise between some people. The way in which these conflicts are resolved will be decisive in preventing the conflict from affecting operation. global company, but on some occasions people may appear willing to swell the size of these small struggles.

The reason is that, in order to break out of their cornered position in the conflict, some colleagues may want to break their isolation by doing participants in the dispute to people who, due to their role in the company, do not have to position themselves for or against someone.

That is why it is worth knowing how to recognize when these cases occur in order to act accordingly according to the nature of the conflict: certain fights are resolved in private.

3. Acting as a false manager

In the intrigues and pseudo-conspiracies that can appear within an organization **, one of the The most widely used methods is trying to win over certain people by giving them gifts that have not order**. Thus, for example, some people may act with paternalism towards us.

The condescending comments before us, or even the attempts to make us hear how these false managers speak well of us in front of other colleagues when "they are not supposed to know that we are listening" are classics in bad taste that we do not have to tolerate if we suspect that it is not part of the spontaneous behavior of these people and they are part of a strategy to earn our favor. In these cases, the ideal is to maintain a courteous treatment but not to show appreciation for these gifts not requested. In these cases, assertiveness is everything.

4. Information traffic

In the globalized world, information is power, and some people can spend a significant part of their workday trying to gossip about everything that happens in the work and personal life of his colleagues.

This may be due to the usefulness that certain information may have when it comes to moving up in the company, or it may be due to the simple pleasure of browsing. In any case, Faced with this type of behavior, it is good to communicate that there is no valid justification to believe they have the right to know everything about what their co-workers do. Within organizations, the need for privacy remains of utmost importance, despite the existence of teamwork.

5. The Critical Machine Gun

Other peers can become very insistent with certain critics which are basically unfounded. In this case, it is very possible that the fact of trying to make ourselves complicit in these criticisms is not part of no strategy planned to turn against someone: there are people who just like criticize.

In these cases, the ideal way to ensure that teamwork dynamics do not suffer is, in the first place, be clear that the person in question criticizes without reasons, and secondly, make her see in a polite way that we do not think like her. It can also be useful to encourage her to formalize her complaints, since, on the one hand, she will clearly make the reasons for her complaints known, and secondly, You will be forced to adopt a position in which it will take some effort to defend her position, possibly making you wonder to what extent you have reason.