- I switched up my conference sessions on Saturday and went to a career development workshop on dealing with difficult people in the workplace. I have found that happiness in a job can be highly dependent on coworkers and Dr. Eileen O’ Grady had most of the answers (they exist)!
My top takeaways:
- Identify who you are dealing with. Bullies, emotional vampires, narcissists- they all have different characteristics and different ways to deal with.
- Take care of yourself first and your needs. Identify what is non negotiable (eight hours of sleep, exercise etc.) and go from there.
- Care about yourself enough to assert yourself and advocate for change.
- Learn the difference between “I statements” and “You statements” and use them when needed.
- Silent withdrawal is harmful to everything and does not help a situation.
I’ll end with this quote O’Grady posted by Cy Wakeman “Your happiness or engagement (at work) is not correlated to your circumstances, but to the amount of accountability you take for your circumstances.”