Difficult colleague - how to deal with it

LegacyUser

Hi, I'm just looking for advice on the following work issue. I have worked in the same place for 9 years and this person started last year. A managerial job came up through retirement and I didn't go for it as the pay and renumeration has never been worth it for me, and it just didn't seem worth it. While the vacancy was being advertised, I had to act up to the managers role and she became the person next in line to me. She then decided to apply for the managers job. I feel I was very fair to her, allowing her to go home early for the interview and when she didn't get the job and was upset, I also gave her the chance to go home a half an hour early.

This person then began ringing in sick at short notice, slamming doors and generally disagreeing with everything I said. This made my time as manager difficult as there was such a bad atmosphere in the workplace because of this. She appealed the job interview process and basically felt she should have gotten the job, the questions were unfair and many other gripes with the process. I just advised her to be careful as we are a small workplace and appealing the process may affect her should she go for promotion again, but acknowledged that if she felt it was something she needed to do, then go ahead.

A while passed and the new manager started and I returned to my original role of being deputy. Myself and the new manager get on really well and we work well together. The colleague who also went for the interview has good days and bad days and the new manager has noticed how aggressive and confrontational she can be. She isn't doing her job properly and is loud and speaks over people when another team are working together. She is late for work, takes hours to fill in forms which should be done in a half an hour. The managers view was just to keep an eye and if it continued it would be brought to her attention.

The other day this came to a head and I feel I am at the end of my tether. I had a meeting with someone outside the company and she came in to the office and said "why didn't you do x, it should be done and this is absolutely ridiculous". The deadline for x was in two weeks time and it would take about 1-2 hours to do. I was completely taken aback by this and as I don't like confrontation I mumbled some answer and generally probably sounded like I didn't have a clue.

I have been trying to work up the courage to confront her and explain that her behaviour was unacceptable but as she is so aggressive and confrontational I find her very intimidating. I have now taken to avoiding her and going out at lunch time as I just don't want to be around her anymore which I know isn't solving anything.
Any advice on what I could do or how I could work up the courage to speak to her without coming away feeling worse would be appreciated.

OMM 0000

I think in this situation I would take to the new manager about it. I'd explain it like you've explained here. That you cannot take it anymore, and it will eventually cause you to resign. The new manager won't want you to leave, and won't want to be left with this unhappy person, so she will act.

Good luck to you.

_Brian

Their acting like a spoiled child, like every spoiled child they will continue amd indded get worse until corrected for their behaviour.
It sounds like it’s. Otmin your nature to deal with this stuff at work. Go talk to the new manager and explain what is going on and ask for it to be dealt with.

Diceicle

Talk to your manager but avoid getting into the nitty-gritty personality stuff - keep it about how this is affecting the work and the business, how she is a distraction and not delivering on her deliverables.