These days many of us are holding on tight to our jobs – even those who want to leave aren’t looking for jobs to move on to because of the economic climate the impact it’s having on the job market.
So, what you may experience is some angst in the workplace sometimes – people who really don’t want to be there making life a misery for other people because they hate their job.
Whether you like it or not, interpersonal skills play a big role in the office. However, not all of us are aware or have the ability to get along with people at work, and these days it’s essential that you try harder to make things work, or face being miserable for a sizeable portion of your day, and week. Here are some suggestions on how to get along with others:
Manage your pride
There is a possibility that you might be wrong. Unless you’ve lived in a cocoon all your life, we have all experienced criticism at some point in our lives. Many of us initially respond by can take it on the chin if it’s delivered constructively, but if the criticism comes from more than one or two people it can be tough to take.
So you must learn to accept that the comments about you might be justified if they are coming from more than one person (especially if they are coming from different people who don’t know each other).
Maybe your actions or how you conduct yourself in the office needs to be adjusted or modified so that you can get along with others.
Realise that we all have ‘bad days’
Your friends and co-workers have lives of their own. If one of them is in a bad mood, it’s not your fault, and its not your job to cheer that person up. But while you have no control for situations like that, how you respond can have an impact on how that person reacts towards you, and how your day ends, too.
If you don’t need to speak to that person constantly throughout the day, then don’t. If you think you can help make their day nicer – offering to make them a hot drink when you get your own, for example, then do. But if they make it clear that they really just want to be left alone, then give them that respect and space.
Be understanding
If you strive to make friends with your colleagues, or at least be amicable, you’ll learn a lot more about them and work out their little foibles so you can get on better with them. As the saying goes if you want to have friend, be a friend. It might sound old-fashioned, but it still works. If you want your colleagues to like you, be a friend to them – be supportive, offer to help them once in a while and show them that you care.
Try to look for the good in others
It’s no big secret that if you want to avoid conflicts you shouldn’t gossip. Even if you have brains and talent but poor in interpersonal skills, it won’t be fun working in the office when you are making enemies and one of the best and easiest ways to make adversaries ISPs to gossip about them.
As much as you think they won’t find out, they will and hearing it from someone else may mean the version they hear is more malicious than you told it.
