I read this article on LinkedIn which described many kinds of jerks in office. This article had many comments because it struck many cords of many folks. We all come across all kind of jerks at work , in neighborhood , in school , in our relatives etc.
Everybody was praising the article for so accurately describing various kinds of jerks in office space.
How is the author helping humanity by telling us what we all know.
This article stopped at describing those jerks and why they are jerks, what kind of habits or traits jerks have etc. How does this help anybody? We all can spot all kinds of jerks around us. Someone has to educate us on how to deal with each kind of jerk. I asked the author this question but never heard from him.
Now you the good folks on GS tell me how you dealt with a jerk if you came across one?
When it comes to dealing with jerks I have no talent for that I chose flight over fight.
best way is to 'IGNORE!" … pretend he/she is nobody and that his/her attitude doesn’t bother you … after a while, he/she will learn to ignore you! mission accomplished!
How about loud talkers. Who love to hear their voice. And ensure ever one else, including ones in the adjacent building, is in on the conversation. They refuse to take a hint. Studies have shown loud conversations are highly disruptive
So you turn on the muzaack. Blast it really loud, so that it drowns out their voice. They will definitely tell you to turn it down. That’s your cue to tell him/her "I hope you got the message now. It’s disruptive when you talk loudly, which you often do. Please lower your volume too, thanksmuch.
RV. This is totally weird. That is exactly what I do. And yes, my neighbor did exactly that. I told him (more politely than stated above) my music volume is adjusted to drown out voices.
Sometimes people just sit in one persons office for 1 to 3 hrs. And non stop conversation. I use same strategy. If they don’t get the hint, I just keep music at a level that drowns them out.
Studies have shown efficiency drops by 70 pct when one hears people talk. 70 percent!
It is the fishing stories that get me. Man I am pumped up now
^Then what else can you do apart from sending an email (some people are more visual learners than auditory) and to complain to your boss? Try the former first…and then the latter.
OR…just talk to your boss or HR instead of sending an email to the loud fisherman. That way, the boss/HR won’t reveal the identities of the person/s who complained whereas an email would make that more clear.
Oifu says I am overly sensitive to noise. So I have headphone and put it on sometimes when loud conversation takes place. That does bother my ears. So I use a mix of recipes.
We are all friends. The loud talkers do get the message. And they try. As Mr. King said - we all get along. So going upstairs not an option.
I can handle most type of jerks I think, but two situations are really tough, if u report to a jerk and that jerk will gladly throw you under the bus to protect himself, second if you have a bunch of jerks in a senior role and are in turf protection and war and you are forced to pick sides and not picking sides is in itself picking sides.
Those situations you hope that you outlast the jerk until he finds a better place to jump to, or you get out. Staying and being indispensable works in some cases but I have seen jerks toss out critical players and bring in their own fanboys who can’t handle the work but then it’s blamed on the guy they removed due to 'change in direction/needs " etc
