obnoxious colleague..

MollynOlly

I am in a new job(2months) and I am finding it hard to work with a colleague. This person is obnoxious to me and clients, has taken credit for my work here and there and is in competition with me rather than working with me. I have a qualification in what I do whereas my colleague does not. I believe that this person is threatened by new people coming into the company and fears for the security of their own position. Instead of answering my questions to which I know the person knows, they make it difficult, and are patronising. The obstacle is this person is a close relative of my boss, who, although a llittle arrogant, more bearable then my colleague.I have a review coming up with this boss and more senior boss, and I am considering broaching the subject of this difficult colleague. I am at the end of my tether, with this colleague and have considered leaving the job. I have worked and studied hard and its my first major role in what I do.
Does anyone have any experience/advice on this predicament?
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cronos

What type of work do you do? Is it possible to prove that you did the work.

Darragh29

MollynOlly wrote: »

I am in a new job(2months) and I am finding it hard to work with a colleague. This person is obnoxious to me and clients, has taken credit for my work here and there and is in competition with me rather than working with me. I have a qualification in what I do whereas my colleague does not. I believe that this person is threatened by new people coming into the company and fears for the security of their own position. Instead of answering my questions to which I know the person knows, they make it difficult, and are patronising. The obstacle is this person is a close relative of my boss, who, although a llittle arrogant, more bearable then my colleague.I have a review coming up with this boss and more senior boss, and I am considering broaching the subject of this difficult colleague. I am at the end of my tether, with this colleague and have considered leaving the job. I have worked and studied hard and its my first major role in what I do.
Does anyone have any experience/advice on this predicament?
:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(

Hi Molly. Sorry to hear about your situation. I was in a similar situation, unfortunately where you have nepotism in the workplace, your better off looking at your future career prospects outside of the company. I know historically it is not the best time to go job hunting, but my advice to you is that when you are dealing with this type of histility in the workplace, it affects you outside of work, and when the person involved is related to the boss, it's a hopeless case. It's nice to think that there are formal channels through which you can resolve issues like this but unfortunately there aren't. Through learning from several bad experiences similar to what you're dealing with at the moment, I became very sensitive to situations like this in the workplace. if I had to do an interview now, (thankfully I don't as I'm self employed and am so exclusively down to being determined to make sure that I never again ended up in a situation such as your own), I'd be asking to meet the team and all this type of stuff, and any little gut feelings I'd be picking up from others in the workplace, I'd be acting on them immediately and avoiding the place for employment. You'd be amazed how rampant this type of behaviour is in Ireland....

shoegirl

MollynOlly wrote: »

I am in a new job(2months) and I am finding it hard to work with a colleague. This person is obnoxious to me and clients, has taken credit for my work here and there and is in competition with me rather than working with me. I have a qualification in what I do whereas my colleague does not. I believe that this person is threatened by new people coming into the company and fears for the security of their own position. Instead of answering my questions to which I know the person knows, they make it difficult, and are patronising. The obstacle is this person is a close relative of my boss, who, although a llittle arrogant, more bearable then my colleague.I have a review coming up with this boss and more senior boss, and I am considering broaching the subject of this difficult colleague. I am at the end of my tether, with this colleague and have considered leaving the job. I have worked and studied hard and its my first major role in what I do.
Does anyone have any experience/advice on this predicament?
:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(

I've one of these, thankfully no relation of the boss. Like that is ignorant, arrogant, misogynistic without realising it, and very difficult.

I find the best approach is not to give in to his games. Be clear, communicate very clearly and do not accept any firmly point out if he is being inappropriate. Don't let him bait you. I wouldn't tackle him on his behaviour in general - I would take issues on a case by case basis on the actual facts. My colleague is also anti social, often stinks the office out and has a history of accussing colleagues both here and in other locations of "bullying" him. My approach is to tackle issues as they arise and get on with my own job.

Darragh29

shoegirl wrote: »

I've one of these, thankfully no relation of the boss. Like that is ignorant, arrogant, misogynistic without realising it, and very difficult.

I find the best approach is not to give in to his games. Be clear, communicate very clearly and do not accept any firmly point out if he is being inappropriate. Don't let him bait you. I wouldn't tackle him on his behaviour in general - I would take issues on a case by case basis on the actual facts. My colleague is also anti social, often stinks the office out and has a history of accussing colleagues both here and in other locations of "bullying" him. My approach is to tackle issues as they arise and get on with my own job.

That's another thing I forgot to mention, which Shoegirl has touched on. These type of ignoramuses are usually the first to cry wolf in a workplace and allege that they are on the receiving end of unacceptable behaviour, so watch out for that as well.

MollynOlly

thanks for the advice, folks, unfortunately, I cracked under the pressure and let fly at the colleague the other day. personalities are personalities until it affects your job, and it did the other day. we were working on same project the other day and I hit my limit with the person, and just said I've had enough and we haven't spoken since.I stayed late and worked thru lunch to get the work done that my colleague could have done. i'm going to broach it in my review only because I ended up doing more work than I should have and whether they're related or not, I am not prepared to be put up with that behaviour from someone.

ShoeGirl, your advice was good about how to go about dealing them, only when you have to. there are not many of us in the job on a daily basis and i have to deal with this person unfortunately..
Darragh,
i would love to be working independantly like yourself but as I saw i am ath the start of my career where I am trying to build up experience.

Bren1609

I have a similar situation where the colleague I have a problem with is having an affair with the boss. Technically, I am more senior than she but she is impervious to any normal office procedures and takes full advantage so much so that she would shout across the room about how this person was a c**t or that a client was a p***k.

I can honestly say that I have never experienced anyone as grossly incompetent, obnoxious and unprofessional in any walk of life as this person.

Anyway, Im going to start a greivance procedure and was wondering does anyone know of any good webistes or templates i could use to start with?

MollynOlly

Hey.
Jesus, bren your timing is amazing. I had forgotten about this thread, until I got a mail. here's update on my situation. I walked out of my job last week after bein screamed at by my manager, the obnoxious colleagues brother, attacked me while discussing a project, his approach was, what the f**k do u know about 'x'(what i work at), and then told me to get f**k out. i have no rights, as i was less than year in the job.
I have contacted NERA, labour court everyone but I am being passed around. They now want a resignation letter from me. but I didnt resign.. i was told to leave...

were you given a handbook on the companies procedures??? conduct must be in there somewhere. you can lodge a complaint i am sure. I think after I complained about my mangers brothers behaviour, i have been treated differently. And make sure you write everything down. You can also approach the HR Manager independantly. I think its important to remain professional, I was constantly like this, until the argument with my manager.