Irritating work colleague

System

tell her how it is

sussexchick

berbastrike wrote: »

tell her how it is

I wish I would too, but I wouldn't hold back. It takes an awful lot to push me over the edge, I'm not quite there yet, but verrrrrryyyy close.

As I say, I'm the least confrontational person ever, I have challenged her on a few occasions, she just shrugs her shoulders and flounces off. She has no morals, is rude and arrogant, never says good morning or goodnight, so in general, think she's just a nasty piece of work ?

meritaten

I would prob have sabotaged her - but then I only ever did temp contracts.
you want this to be a permanent job - therefore you have to find a way to deal with this woman on a daily basis.
try not to 'sweat the small stuff'. concentrate on YOUR job. if she impinges on this then you can go above her head to ask for clarification if you feel she is exceeding her authority. otherwise its head down and do as you are told!

is speaking to customers part of her job or yours? if its your job then why is she getting in first? if its part of her job you haven't got a leg to stand on. in fact let her get on with it - if she is as bad as you say at some point people will complain.

I believe strongly that in the workplace 'give people enough rope and they will hang themselves'!
just do your job, stick to company procedure and keep your head down! this person may well be self-destructing'!

sussexchick

meritaten wrote: »

I would prob have sabotaged her - but then I only ever did temp contracts.
you want this to be a permanent job - therefore you have to find a way to deal with this woman on a daily basis.
try not to 'sweat the small stuff'. concentrate on YOUR job. if she impinges on this then you can go above her head to ask for clarification if you feel she is exceeding her authority. otherwise its head down and do as you are told!

is speaking to customers part of her job or yours? if its your job then why is she getting in first? if its part of her job you haven't got a leg to stand on. in fact let her get on with it - if she is as bad as you say at some point people will complain.

I believe strongly that in the workplace 'give people enough rope and they will hang themselves'!
just do your job, stick to company procedure and keep your head down! this person may well be self-destructing'!

I agree with you - we are BOTH responsible for looking after the customers we have been appointed to, we are the same position, she is NOT my manager, the only difference between us is that she may have more knowledge on office procedure, whereas I have more knowledge, experience and qualifications in the industry that we serve. Last week she proceeded to tell one of MY customers because I was new to the company, I didn't know what I was looking for !!!! Of course she waited til I left the office for 5 mins before she made a phone call to the customer.

Evil, pure evil ....

meritaten

be careful - you may be equal in job status but she has been there longer and the previous complaint you made should give you a clue - she is a 'valued' employee and a complaint made by a 'new employee' is NOT going to be taken seriously. I certainly wouldn't make more complaints about her - I have seen this go badly wrong. the longer serving employee will usually win.
she 'mentored' you so in her mind you are below her on the totem pole - and it grieves me to say it , but, you are too in the bosses minds. and making a complaint against her may already have put you on their 'watch list' but in the wrong way.
if you want to stay there then be the perfect employee. which means keeping your mouth shut about your colleague. let her dig her own grave. (that means don't dig it for her unless you are 'sure' you wont be found out).

fluffnutter

Polite bomb her. Be unbelievably nice to her. It brings down the level of confrontation, and it often has the effect of thawing someone's unpleasant behaviour. I'm not excusing her but it would seem that your being given her contract might have been the start of everything and perhaps she's acting out of lack of confidence. If you're a bright young thing and she's been around for a while, she might feel threatened, particularly as her 'protege' has been given some of her own work. I bet she feels usurped. Of course she's behaving badly and being silly and making things worse but it might be from fear and insecurity.

Don't escalate things, bring them down a notch. Befriend her. Even suck up to her a bit. 'Ooh, x, could you help me with this? I know you've done it before and I'm not sure what I should be doing' etc. etc. I bet she'll cheer up and stop being an arse in no time.

McKneff

Do you think that, also in the mix, that you have a bit of an intolerance problem.

Just saying....

You might just also consider that these other people who you are asking to support your claims may think that you also are a pITA.

Beetlemama

I also think that in this day and age, sometimes you have to just bite down and get on with it. We have annoying people, the sort that would never get a job in the modern market, but they've been there for 20 or 30 years and they'll stay until they retire. . No point saying anything, the bosses know they're difficult, they won't touch them. If you want the job, sometimes you just have to put up with the ar5es.

Funky_Bold_Ribena

fluffnutter wrote: »

Don't escalate things, bring them down a notch. Befriend her. Even suck up to her a bit. 'Ooh, x, could you help me with this? I know you've done it before and I'm not sure what I should be doing' etc. etc. I bet she'll cheer up and stop being an arse in no time.

I suspect that will just really p her off even more. And there is no way the OP is going to want to look as if she can't do the work. OP would be better off learning the systems inside out by herself [is there a handbook etc?] than asking this lady questions like that.

Macca83_2

You've been there 4 months. Just get your head down and get on with it.