DEALING with people who you can’t stand is a fact of life, although hopefully work with one or two people who don’t make your teeth itch.
Krista Powell Edwards, a managing consultant at Humanistics Solutions has come up with a few top tips for dealing with the situation. These include reframing your description of the person so it is more positive, separating them from their behaviour, trying to view them at a distance and examining their stance and behaviour. It all sounds pretty tough to us. We prefer the Indiana Jones approach. Remember that bloke attacking him with fancy swordplay in the first ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ film? That’s right. He shot him.
Dealing with difficult people in the workplace is not easy and bullying can destroy a good working environment very quickly so taking advice at an early stage makes sense. Sadly, we hear of bullying management styles far too often in shipping, particularly from shore-based management to ships and from senior to junior officers. It’s a problem the industry needs to grasp.
