CareerMysteries

Today, a nice picture from my backyard, which is still in the early stage of color. Let’s talk about distruptive people in the workplace.

Someday, you hope you will be promoted to a manager or supervisor, but for now, you are one of the workers, trying to stay on top of things. The problem is, Benny Bozo keeps bugging you. He would rather spend all day sending joke emails around the office than do his work.

So how do you handle someone who doesn’t want to work and wants you to play his game with him when you’re not in charge? The best response to someone like Benny is to be very direct and firm. Tell him to get back to work and leave you alone so you can do your job.

He may not be happy with your response and may persist, at which point you need to tell him to stop, or else. While nobody wants to be labeled a tattletale or brown-noser, you need to bring Benny to the attention of your supervisor if he continues his onslaught of sloth. Once you do so, he may talk smack about you a brief while, but he won’t be bothering you with his diversions. And, you will have tipped management off to a potential problem employee, if they are oblivious enough not to be aware of him already.

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