Chill-Out-Rooms

Difficult coworkers are often times like difficult family members. You didn’t choose them, but you are expected to accept, humor, and maintain good relations with them. Job stress is one of the most common stresses in our lives and it usually doesn’t come from the tasks of the job itself. Stress on the job usually steams from our interactions with others while all working towards a common goal. This is why the seemingly simplest businesses to work for can still be extremely stressful. I’ve personally had fast food jobs in my college years that were as stressful as my stints in the more “corporate” world, simply because of the dependency I had on others that didn’t share my work ethic. So, how do we deal with difficult coworkers? Here, we’ll profile difficult coworkers and discuss the small steps that you can take to maintain a stable working environment.

One of the most irritating coworker personality types is the nosy coworker. They want to know who called, what they wanted and if you’re dating or sleeping with them. The most important thing to realize about nosy people is that drama is the very core of their existence. If you have anything going on in your life, they need to know it and not for your sake. They will act concerned to try to get you to open up, but in all honestly, they simply want to know what’s going on. To make matters worse, they will then draw their own conclusions and assumptions and share those with the entire office as well as everything you’ve said. Suddenly, an upsetting call from your brother-in-law becomes an upsetting call from some man that you’re probably having an affair with. See how that works? The best way to deal with noisy coworkers is to remain calm about everything and shrug things off like they’re no big deal, even when they are. They hate it when you don’t display the dramatics that they crave and will eventually move on to more “interesting” coworkers. If something is going on in your personal life and they do catch wind of it, stay cool and don’t act like it’s that upsetting. Otherwise those vultures will feed off of your misery and will peck you to death for information. You don’t have to appear stoic, but when asked about your latest breakup, just shrug and say that he was a great guy but it didn’t work out and then ask a work related question. Not bashing the other person leaves little room for questions and then moving back to work let’s them know that you’re here to do your job and that you’re really not affected by the breakup. No drama = no nosy coworker.

The next worst coworker is the noisy coworker. Yes, sometimes they overlap with the nosy ones, but this is the person in the cubicle beside you that takes personal calls all day long and speaks like their talking into a tin can instead of a cell phone. Hanging things on the common wall will muffle sounds a little, but sometimes you will have to develop a little intestinal fortitude and simply ask them to speak a little quieter. If you’re concerned about hurting feelings or getting a backlash, try one of these: The next time your neighbor is shouting into her phone, act like you’re on the phone with an important client. Hang up soon after she does and go to her cubicle. Tell her that the client could hear her entire conversation and that you wanted her to know, not in a demeaning way, but rather in a “concerned for her privacy” way. Say that you’re trying to look out for her so you wanted her to know that people are hearing her conversations around her. Laugh about it a little and ask her how the kids are doing and then go back to work. Or you can say that you phone is kind of quiet and that it’s hard to hear clients on it. This will make your phone the problem and not your coworker, but still open the door for you to ask them to speak a little quieter.

There is also software on the market that is designed to drown out the sounds of nosy coworkers, not by being louder, but by jumbling what your coworker is saying. We’ve discovered that what makes people talking around us distracting is the fact that you can understand what they are saying. This makes your mind wonder and listen to their conversation. Software designed to make those conversations indistinguishable, allows you to focus on what you’re doing, rather than the talking around you.

Dealing with people is an important skill that, for many people, takes a conscious effort to become good at. Hopefully these tips will help you deal with at least these two types of difficult coworkers and make for smoother sailing on the job.

It’s become common knowledge that many of our health problems stem from too much stress in our lives. Deadline crunches, hectic schedules and the constant reminder of slipping job security keeps us all on our toes and stressed out. While we are hardly willing to pitch a tent in the woods and leave it all behind, we could all benefit from slowing down a little, if only for a few minutes, to regain our sanity, perspective and even our productivity. This easy meditation technique can be mastered in minutes and applied in the same amount of time. Use it daily to establish a habit of taking time for yourself and putting your mental and physical well being back onto your list of priorities.

Meditation requires a degree of mental allotment, which is always easier when you can retreat to a quiet, peaceful place. Now in today’s world, that quiet, peaceful place may be a stall in a bathroom (hopefully quiet anyway!) and that’s fine. Hollywood has perpetrated the image of mediation only being possible under a waterfall or in a monk’s monastery and that’s simply not true. Anywhere that you can slip away to and have just a few minutes of uninterrupted time to yourself will work.

To get started, get comfortable sitting or laying, close your eyes and simply focus on your breathing. Inhaling and exhaling is such an involuntary action that we seldom think about it or place any degree of focus on the process. For several moments, put all of your attention on the current of air as it enters your nose, flows into your lungs and circulates back out through your mouth. Take 10 slow, deep breathes while maintaining this focus. If you find that your thoughts wonder, pull your attention back onto your breathing.

Now, take a few minutes and expand this focus. Think for a few moments about the thousands and thousands of tiny processes that are occurring in your body at this very moment. Your hair and fingernails are growing right now, in so tiny an increment that you can’t even measure it. Your heart is pumping blood throughout your entire body and ensuring that you remain alive and healthy. There are so many activities going on inside your body at any one moment that it will really amaze you if you take a moment to think about it.

After you ponder on this and become aware of the various processes occurring automatically within yourself, expand this to the outside world. Even in the stillness of the room you are in, go through it mentally and become aware of everything happening around you. Is the wind blowing? Is there a clock ticking on the wall? You don’t have to focus on any one thing that’s happening around you. Simply become aware that there is a plethora of activities happening around you at this very moment. After all, we are hurling through space at a dizzying speed constantly. Just be aware that you are an entity within this somewhat organized chaos. If you could freeze time and fly through the entire universe and see everything, just imagine the snapshots that could be captured. Imagine the things that are taking place in this single moment in time.

Now, slowly open your eyes and focus on one thing: being aware of yourself and your surroundings. Imagine the world in slow motion as you rise from your seated or laying position. Bring your new awareness with you as you re-embark on your day and remember your purpose and the beauty of the fallacy we call structure. Revel in your mortality, and embrace every experience, from drinking a glass of water, to meeting a new person. Do everything with awareness and keep this new perspective with you always.

This easy mediation technique takes only a few minutes and can have the greatest impact on your day and life when used routinely as it will heighten your sense of awareness of yourself and the world around you.

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We could all learn to relax a little. Every year more and more evidence is uncovered that too much stress is causing many of our health problems. Even certain diseases have been linked to unhealthy levels of stress. Here I hope to give you several ways to combat unhealthy stress in your life.

* Guided meditation- There are several CD’s on the market that actually guide you verbally and with sound effects and music through a brief relaxation session. These can be great for the home or lunch break, just be sure to set an alarm in case you fall asleep!
* Deep breathes- An oldie but a goody. For about a solid 30 seconds breath slowly and deeply. Inhale through your nose and exhale out of your mouth. This will restore your nerves when frazzled and help you separate from a situation before you lose it.
* Hot bath- Take the phone off the hook and give yourself 30 minutes of “you” time. Essential oils, soft music, dim lights…and sleeping kids really enhance this experience. I personally enjoy this one with some hot tea.
* Exercise- Exercising releases endorphins which in layman’s terms just make you feel good. While the endorphines bring you emotional calmness and stimulation, you’ll get the added beneift of doing something great for your overall health. Don’t make the common misconception of thinking that you can only exercise in a gym. Take a short walk around the block, do push ups in your living room, or yes dust of that old treadmill and see if it still works! After a great workout take that hot bath as recommended above.
* Reading- Reading is a great escape from the entire world. You can leave all the deadlines, obligations and the stresses can come with them behind when engrossed in a great book. Just don’t burn dinner or forget to clock back in!

Want to relax online? Check out our free Online Meditation Rooms.