Co-worker Co-existence: The Psuedo-Boss

There's one in every office. I've had enough jobs to know this to be fact. There's a rotten egg in every basket, a sore loser in every game, and the above mentioned personality in every office.

It's that person who demands respect, but has little to offer. Who, one day, if you have something they need or want, are your best friend and you actually begin to think they've turned some new leaf. But they quickly revert back to the person they mostly tend to be... negative. Negative Nancy.

This person will have you looking at the clock as early as 8:30 a.m. to see how close you are to 5 o'clock and you can feel the tension in the air when they walk in the room because they are literally seeping negativity from their bones. He or she will always believe they are better at their job but will focus more on what others are doing then what they are doing.

They can find anything in any given situation to complain about. And they will most certainly be ready to point out anything and everything you are doing wrong either to you or to your boss.

Cue, the pseudo boss.

This person somehow believes they are in a position to observe and report on everyone in the office and may even become so convinced it is their duty that they actually call you or another co-worker out personally. This usually doesn't go they way they want it to.

This type of co-worker is my nightmare co-worker. Because these are the people that you know are just unhappy. On the one hand, you feel sorry for them. On the other hand, you'd like to have their neck between both your hands! This is the co-worker I pray for one minute and the next minute I'm praying for me... for forgiveness of what I just thought about them or said to them.

But here's the deal. There are many co-worker personalities out there. And no job is perfect. Why? It's not the job's fault. It's us. We are all imperfect and we ALL have our quirks. But I'll tell you what - you may be dealing with a certain personality, but you probably have your own personality that someone else feels they deal with.
I realized this week that I'm the "Noisy" co-worker. I sing and hum at my desk. I also talk to myself when I'm really concentrating on something. God love my co-workers for putting up with me, it's just who I am. BUT for the record, I believe that I'm blessing my co-workers with my mad singing and humming abilities and they probably secretly really love it and get their job done more proficiently because of me.

Anyway, the bottom line is, co-workers and their personalities can sometimes be funny, entertaining, annoying, irritating, sure. With the annoying and irritating ones you just deal with them and try to focus on the good in them. Even the Multi-Personality/Negative/Psuedo Boss types. Those might take a little more work but it can be done and if you deal with that personality... I wish you the best and urge you to learn some helpful breathing techniques.