Every organisation has different types of people you work with. Although they are known as your colleagues and you see them every day, it’s not guaranteed that they need to make it on your list of “favorite people”.
Here’s a list to help identify the ‘not so happy to see you at work today’ people .
The PA
Although you never see him getting any work done through the day, the PA never forgets to mention the amount of work he has in a day or how insane his work schedule is. If you by any chance hear him talk about how many days of the week he was working late, just know that throughout every 5-minute interval he was probably distracted by his social network or his phone.
Coffee breaks are right up his alley, and satisfying the boss and his personal needs are his mantra to secure his job.
The Back-Biter
Now this kind of colleague is by far the most dangerous one of the lot.
They first come up to you with a friendly gesture, but the moment you start discussing an idea on how you can prove yourself to be an asset to the firm, know that you have just let out the secret to KFC chicken and now a new company is started.
Back-biters are strangely the kind of people who lack originality and try their best to latch onto your ideas and proclaim it as their own. Hence, that raise you were supposed to get, has now been given to the person who stole your idea.
The Slob
Ever imagined a fat kid at an all you can eat dessert table? Well, that’s your slob. This kind finds their comfort zone around the mess that they live in and create for everyone else.
Besides his workstation being messy, he’s bound to ruin your workspace too.
If you, by any chance have a kitchen or pantry in the office, don’t be shocked if you find a colony of bugs growing in the corner. My tip would be separate your coffee mug and keep it on your table because the slob will make a mess of it which will become impossible to clean.
The Broken Tape Recorder
This is the kind of colleague that people choose to stay away from. Avoid them like you would avoid the plagues. Besides being a chatterbox, they will find the need to repeat the same piece of information a million times and to others as well and each story will go on for hours, regardless of whether you are listening or not. And NO! You will not be given a chance to speak either.
The Pretend CEO
Now this kind of colleague will go around and keep handing out work to people without actually completing any of his own. He pretends to play CEO and is most likely to be your team leader. But you know what, that’s still no excuse to treat people like dirt.
The pretend CEO will always find an excuse to never show up to work on time and push you to deliver while he masters the art of procrastination.
The Workaholic
Always the first one to show up at the office and last one to leave. The anti-social colleague who people dislike because all he does is eats, sleeps, works, repeats… And yes he also happens to be the boss’s favourite because chances are that since he has no life, he will go out of his way to impress the boss with his dedication towards the firm.
The Unwanted Alarm
The Unwanted Alarm pretty much describes itself. This kind of colleague gets on people’s nerves by just being present. With their phone on loud during a meeting, or their never ending phone calls that each person in your firm can hear, to their knuckle cracking and not to forget the loud chewing!
In short, their existence just seems to bother you. Besides these qualities, the unwanted alarm always comes with bad news at the wrong timings. They do nothing but complain about their job and stress on how it is that they can get better, but just never seem to quit.
The Memo
This kind of colleague, not only reminds you of the things you seem to be doing wrong but also chooses to schedule a meeting at every hour. They not only drop off meeting memos but also manage to spam your inbox with all sorts of emails, including the “You Will Die In 7 Days forwards”.
If given a chance, the memo colleague will organise a meeting to discuss god only knows what, 365 days a year and spam you with 7 out of 10 unimportant messages/emails, which has probably been CC-ed to every department in your firm.
The Gossip Girl
Steer clear of sharing any kind of personal information with this colleague.
What starts off as a fun Friday night, ends up with stories and all sorts of information you never wanted the people in your office to know about. They live for the office scandal regardless of whether it is true or not. Most importantly, while gossiping is fun, it should strictly be kept out of the workplace.
[This post by Priya Rangan first appeared on Jobspire and has been reproduced with permission. Priya is a writer and blogger at Piwipie.tumblr.com]
