DEALING WITH DIFFICULT PEOPLE
Kristi Hudson
Recently, a close friend and I were discussing how quickly a wonderful job can turn sour when you work with a difficult coworker. Let’s face it. We often spend more hours in a day with our work families than with our actual families. Your ability to work together as a team can make or break your career success, not to mention the toll it can take on a practice. Your ability to deal with difficult people can depend on many things including your selfesteem, your self-confidence, and your professional courage at work. Here are five tips for dealing with difficult coworkers:
Be Calm. Losing your temper is not the best way to make a bad situation better. Maintaining a sense of calm allows others to see you as being in control, centered, and professional. Even in adulthood, there are people who will push your buttons just to get a rise out of you. If you remain calm, they are likely to back down and move on, since you are no longer giving them the response they are looking for.
Speak Up. Most people are not difficult for the sake of being difficult. If you are constantly interrupted by the same coworker, or worse, and he asks for a quick minute and an hour later he is still in your office, it is time to set some boundar-
“Most people are not difficult for the sake of being difficult. ”
ies. Politely cut him off after a minute and let him know that you would love to help but, just now, you’re busy. Ask him to e-mail any questions and you will follow up when you have a few minutes. And be sure you DO follow up or set a standing time to meet with the coworker if you have ongoing projects that involve your collaboration.
Seek Advice. Most people have worked with difficult people before, and it’s great to ask for advice to gain perspective on a challenging co-worker. Seek out someone who will be supportive and can offer advice and insight on your current dilemma. Often, our emotional state interferes with our ability to see a possible solution. Talking to someone unaffected by the situation is a great way to gain a fresh point of view.
Communicate Effectively. Use humor, banter, and small talk to lower the tension with a difficult coworker. Separate the person from the action. Getting to know someone may help you
to understand what this person is trying to gain or, in some cases, trying to avoid.
Be Honest. Are you positive the other person is the problem? Could the problem be you? If you are constantly irritated with someone in the office, you need to determine why. For instance, I had an encounter with someone I had just met and instantly disliked her. It bothered me for days, because I generally like everyone and couldn’t understand why I so strongly disliked her. Several days later, she walked into my office to ask me a question. Upon hearing her voice and pattern of speech, I instantly thought of a very difficult person that I had worked with almost a decade earlier. Similarities in tone and speech pattern had triggered negative feelings, even though she had been nothing but nice to me from the moment we met. It took a little time and effort on my part to get past their similarities, but years later we are still very good friends. That’s something that I would have missed had I not spent the time to examine my true feelings.
The world is full of difficult people, and your
ability to work with them says a lot about you. Constant complaints about coworkers can quickly label YOU as the difficult person in the office. This creates a negative work environment, is unprofessional, and could have devastating consequences. If you have done all that you can do, followed the five recommendations above, and still find that the situation is deteriorating instead of getting better, then it’s time to talk to the boss, whether that be a doctor or clinic administrator. Be prepared with notes, and most important, address the actual issues and not your personal feelings. Show the effects they are having on office productivity, safety, and compliance. Finally, be prepared with a solution. You want your doctor to see you as a problem solver, not part of the problem.
Kristi Hudson is a certified professional compliance ITT officer (CPCO). She serves as the Director ofBusiness Relationships for ChiroHealth USA where she has helped to educate DCs and CAs on establishing simple and compliant financial policies. She also works with state and national organizations to provide educational awareness on changes within the profession. You can contact Kristi at 888-719-9990 or [email protected], or you can visit the ChiroHealthUSA website atwww.chirohealthusa.com.
