It usually leaves a bad taste in the mouth when you hit upon
people with attitude problems. In personal life, you have the choice to
completely ignore such people to a large extent (unless they happen to be your
next-door neighbor). However, in the workplace, it may not be possible to ignore
people with attitude problems
Knowing the kind of behaviors and actions you can expect
from people with attitude problems at the workplace is quite helpful in becoming
aware of such people and being careful when interacting with them.
Here is a list of behaviors and actions you can expect from
people with attitude problems at the workplace:
- Their response to any request made to them which they resist would be “I will not do it. You can talk to anyone you want to including my boss” or “I am quite busy and working on something very urgent for the business. Your thing can wait, right?”
- They would write an email highlighting trivial aspects in case someone misses something with a sarcastic and demeaning tone “people are laughing at this” or “these guys spend their life doing a certain thing” or “how do I answer to such an email” or “I have no words to express what I feel” or “to say the least”
- They would neither accept nor decline any meeting request sent to them. You have to call them always and when you call them they would then tell you, as always, they won’t be there “I won’t be attending as I have got something more important to do”
- They would not read and respond to your emails and meeting invitations but expect you to read and respond to their emails. And if you don’t, send an email marking your manager “awaiting response”.
- They would never discuss anything face-to-face and send mails after mails requesting you to perform certain actions. They would then send mails after mails “as discussed, this was supposed to have been done by so and so date, please let me know the current status”. They would chase you over emails never bothering to pick the phone up or walk across to you.
- They would not send an email directly to you even when fully knowing that you are taking care of a certain area. They would come through your supervisor as if otherwise the work would not have happened. They do it deliberately to massage their ego or to show that you are nothing and know that the supervisor would be as good as a post-master and would just forward the mail “please help as requested”. The idea is to demean, devalue and belittle you and show that you are nothing.
- They would send the response to emails sent by you to them to your manager instead – “you can share with the concerned”. The idea is to belittle you or show you your real place in the organizational hierarchy, basically showing that you are nothing.
- They would always copy their response to the emails sent to them to your manager also as if dealing directly with you is below their dignity. The idea is to demean, devalue and belittle you and show that you are nothing.
