How to Deal with a Difficult Officemate

Confrontation never looks good, especially if it’s in the office with an officemate. Nothing is better than preventing any conflict from arising to begin with, but when it does sprout up, you should be ready. Sometimes the usual misunderstandings are work-related, which is relatively more manageable. The worse kind of conflict you can face if it’s personal by nature. Here are 4 easy conflict-resolution steps you can follow so you know how to deal with a difficult officemate:

Firstly, know who you’re dealing with. The approach to problems with a higher-ranking official in the company is totally different with the approach you can take with a peer or subordinate in a department. After this, make sure you objectively assess the problems you have with him or her. If it’s work-related, you might want to consider approaching the appropriate level of management or human resource official to help you with the situation. Otherwise, try to take matters into your hand first.

Now that you have a general overview into the problem, be ready to talk with him or her outside the office. It’s always best to talk about settling conflicts outside the office first, before you let other people in the office know about it if it does become more difficult to deal with. You can talk with your officemate at a cosy café or anywhere else that both of you can feel relaxed. You don’t want sparks to flare early on in your meeting before talking with each other about settling the issues that you confront.

Next, you should be open about your opinions with your difficult officemate. Along the way into easing up the confrontation into an objective assessment of your relationship with him or her, be willing to make or propose compromises that both of you will observe from thereon. This is important so that your officemate may feel that, despite your misunderstanding, you’d still be willing enough to give him or her importance as your colleague.

When everything has been sorted out, never come off too casual with a joke or sensitive topics that may be related with your conversation. Don’t assume that everything’s going to be fine and dandy right away to the point that you want to laugh about what just happened after settling your issues. Don’t even try to haggle up a deal that you’ll be bringing a prostitute over to his apartment to patch things up. At this point, don’t make things awkward and just leave everything time to heal the remaining wounds.